According to the General Education Oversight Committee of the Faculty Senate, “qualified graduate students may be used to assist faculty in a 200-level W course or, with faculty supervision, to teach a 100-level W course. All new instructors of W courses will be provided with an orientation. This orientation will be required of all teaching assistants assigned to assist in a 200-level or to instruct a 100-level W course.”
 
The University Writing Center offers this W orientation each August and January, right before the semester begins. Registration forms for these orientations will be posted online well in advance of each orientation.
 
The orientations outline best practices for teaching writing in the disciplines. They feature interactive workshops on building robust revision processes into W courses, designing effective assignments, responding to student writing, and handling the paperload. Our aim is not only to enhance the quality of student learning in W courses but also to explore strategies that can make each instructor’s writing-intensive teaching more effective and rewarding.

You need attend the W orientation only once during your time at UConn. However, we encourage you to attend the stand-alone workshops offered each semester on various teaching topics. Please note that as of 2006, attending the stand-alone workshops during the regular year cannot substitute for the January or August W orientations unless arrangements are made well in advance with the Director of the University Writing Center.

Those scheduled to attend an alternate GEOC-approved W orientation in their home departments need not attend the January or August orientations. For now, this applies only to Psychology 202WQ teaching assistants.

The University Writing Center is happy to work with graduate students as they plan and teach their W courses.  Beyond offering the W orientation and regular-year workshops, we invite you to meet with us individually to discuss your teaching of writing in the disciplines.