Overview of WRD 551 & TAP
WRD 551 functions as the companion course to WRD’s Teaching Apprentice Program (TAP), a program that gives MA in WRD students the unique opportunity to teach a section of WRD 103, one of the two courses in DePaul’s First-Year Writing Program. As they teach, TAP instructors meet weekly in WRD 551: Teaching Apprenticeship Practicum to discuss composition pedagogy and share classroom experiences.
WRD’s Director of First-Year Writing, Prof. Erin Workman, teaches WRD 551 and summarizes the class as so:
“WRD 551 provides the space for practical application of composition knowledge to a first-year writing classroom. TAP students teach one section of WRD 103 while completing WRD 551, a course that supports them in navigating the daily concerns of teaching a writing course and that encourages them to become reflective practitioners. TAP students carefully document their daily teaching experiences, reflecting on what worked and why, what didn’t work and why not, and what they might do differently in other teaching situations. By engaging in thoughtful, reflective practice, TAP students develop the knowledge and experience crucial for securing future teaching positions.”
WRD 551, like the opportunity to teach in TAP, is only offered in the fall quarter.
What Students Do in WRD 551
WRD 551 seeks to support TAP instructors as they teach and provide them with relevant academic literature that can be applied to their teaching philosophy and in their classroom. Most of class is spent in roundtable discussion, as graduate students share their successes and challenges from the past week of teaching. Students are encouraged to offer advice, share best practices, and collaborate on curriculum design.
This collaborative and helpful class atmosphere begins before fall quarter, when all new TAP instructors meet during a three-day immersive orientation, typically in late August, which culminates in a finalized syllabus.
Throughout the quarter in which they teach, students in WRD 551 keep a reflective journal and develop a written teaching persona, which describes their teaching philosophy and approach. Here’s what one of this year’s TAP students, Kira Schorr, says about WRD 551:
The community that the class provides is a major resource. I have a network of people who are all teaching for the first time, together.”
Interested in TAP?
The TAP experience is one of the best that aspiring teachers of writing can have: by participating in it, MA in WRD students gain not only valuable university-level teaching experience to add to their resume, they also have the support of a cohort and a professional mentor as they teach. As MA in WRD alumni Molly Rentscher and Bridget Wagner have noted, the TAP experience can set students on a range of career paths in higher ed.
The annual TAP announcement is typically posted in late February, and applications to participate in the program are due in early April. Refer to the TAP Resource Page for more information.