You're an expert in your role as a student; now you've got to step into the spotlight as a teaching fellow (TF): How can you ensure a successful performance?

This question faces hundreds of Yale graduate students every year as the semester begins and they stand in front of undergraduates as section and lab leaders.

"On one hand, you want to be yourself," advises Bill Rando, head of the Office of Teacher Fellow Preparation and Development at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. "On the other hand, successful teaching is also a role and a performance -- a demanding improvisational performance -- which makes it even harder."

Graduate students at Yale develop their teaching expertise through a variety of "master classes" organized by the Working at Teaching (WAT) program. WAT provides courses for graduates students who have no experience as TFs, as well as more experienced instructors, and those seeking teaching posts in the job market.

The art of leading discussions is the favorite topic in the "Teaching Humanities" workshop convened by Holly Heinzer, a fifth-year student in the Department of History. "The best kinds of discussion are when the class becomes a group engaged in a single question -- everyone is learning from everyone else," says Heinzer, who admits that inspiring lively discussion is much harder than it looks. In her workshop, graduate students can exchange tips, experiences, feedback and advice, and work through different teaching scenarios.

Experienced TFs gave their fellow graduate students a chance to critique their "performance" when they acted out various types of TF disasters at the annual "Teaching at Yale Day" in September.

At that event, Bruce Durazzi, an advanced student in the Department of Music and a WAT staff member, played an overly self-deprecating section leader who undermined his own authority at every turn. He admits it was all too easy to become what he acted. "The thing that surprised me most was how nervous it made me to pretend to be nervous," Durazzi says.

His performance as a self-sabotaging TF made his graduate student audience nervous as well. "We're all hoping that we don't do those things," noted one observer from the audience.

A bad teaching performance is acutely uncomfortable "because it is so easy to do," says Anne Ackerman, a third-year student in the Department of Immunobiology, who played the role of an authoritarian teacher at the same event.

By helping graduate students become more aware of the roles they are playing, the WAT courses help them become better teachers, notes Ackerman, who convenes the WAT "Teaching Science" workshop. "It gives future teachers a chance to see all the little things which are easy to do but can have a huge impact on students."

"In a 'master class' it's assumed that you learn from watching and listening to a master," says Rando. "But in the WAT courses, we are actually watching teachers performing both masterfully and unmasterfully, and reflect on what went right and what went wrong. We become master teachers through practice and reflection."

WAT teaching courses are open to all Yale graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. "Teaching Humanities" meets Mondays at 5 p.m.; for more information contact robert.lagueux@yale.edu. "Teaching Social Sciences" meets Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m.; contact rebecca.bohrman@yale.edu. "Teaching Science" meets Tuesdays at 6 p.m.; contact lynn.borden@yale.edu. For information on workshops about student writing, teaching with technology, discussion leading and syllabus design, contact watteach@pantheon.yale.edu, www.yale.edu/teach or visit the Office of Teaching Fellow Preparation and Development in Rm. 125 of the Hall of Graduate Studies, 320 York St.

-- By Cherie Woodworth
Teaching Fellow, Department of History

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