Supplemental Instructor
I began working with the Supplemental Instructor program at West Liberty when I was a sophomore. I was assigned to a particular section of Developmental Math that I attended at least twice a week so that I knew what and how students were learning, and I also helped to teach certain concepts alongside the professor. Once a week I held an open lab for students in my section to come to ask questions or just work on homework. I was part of the pilot semester of this program, and it was not highly attended because it was not required of the students.
The following year I had the opportunity to work with a similar program, but this time in the English department. This time, the supplemental classes would be mandatory for those students in Developmental English. The program was modeled after the Accelerated Learning Program, founded by Peter Adams in Maryland. In May of 2013, I attended a two day professional development session with English department faculty and other student supplemental instructors to learn about the program.
In this program, students who ordinarily would have spent a semester (or more) in Developmental English before moving on to English 101 and 102, effectively putting them a semester behind their peers, would instead be placed directly into English 101 and also into a ALP Cohort class that would be run by college students such as myself. In this way, incoming freshmen would remain on the same level as their peers but still receive the writing and grammar instruction they needed to succeed.
As an ALP instructor, I attended my students' English 101 class three times a week so that I knew what they were learning and discussing in their classes, and then I created my own classes around these skills and others in which they were deficient. I had twelve students in my section that I taught on my own twice a week. In my class, students were responsible for turning in discussion posts and journal entries via Edmodo; each of these writing assignments were designed to help them prepare for the larger ones they had to produce in English 101. During class, we discussed the assignments for each English class and worked on activities to strengthen grammar, word choice, organization, and coherence. All assignments in my class were graded on a pass/fail scale.
Being a supplemental instructor, especially in English, was important to my development as a teacher because I had the chance to design my own short lessons and small units with a body of students to determine which methods best helped them truly learn.
The following year I had the opportunity to work with a similar program, but this time in the English department. This time, the supplemental classes would be mandatory for those students in Developmental English. The program was modeled after the Accelerated Learning Program, founded by Peter Adams in Maryland. In May of 2013, I attended a two day professional development session with English department faculty and other student supplemental instructors to learn about the program.
In this program, students who ordinarily would have spent a semester (or more) in Developmental English before moving on to English 101 and 102, effectively putting them a semester behind their peers, would instead be placed directly into English 101 and also into a ALP Cohort class that would be run by college students such as myself. In this way, incoming freshmen would remain on the same level as their peers but still receive the writing and grammar instruction they needed to succeed.
As an ALP instructor, I attended my students' English 101 class three times a week so that I knew what they were learning and discussing in their classes, and then I created my own classes around these skills and others in which they were deficient. I had twelve students in my section that I taught on my own twice a week. In my class, students were responsible for turning in discussion posts and journal entries via Edmodo; each of these writing assignments were designed to help them prepare for the larger ones they had to produce in English 101. During class, we discussed the assignments for each English class and worked on activities to strengthen grammar, word choice, organization, and coherence. All assignments in my class were graded on a pass/fail scale.
Being a supplemental instructor, especially in English, was important to my development as a teacher because I had the chance to design my own short lessons and small units with a body of students to determine which methods best helped them truly learn.