Like many teaching assistants, you may have concerns or anxieties about your first tutorial or lab of the term. Read this chapter for tips on how to prepare for and run a terrific first tutorial or lab.

At the beginning of the course

It is important that you meet with the course instructor and any other TAs for the course before labs/tutorials begin to review the course syllabus and policies. This is an opportunity to discuss procedures for other common situations, such as extension requests or suspected cases of academic dishonesty, so you are prepared to deal with any issues as they arise. There may also be a portion of the students’ grade assigned to lab/tutorials, and you need to know how student attendance and participation in your tutorials should be evaluated. See the chapter on Roles and Responsibilities for more information about this initial meeting with the course instructor.

Knowing this information ahead of time allows you to communicate it to your students and prepares you to deal with these issues as they arise.

Preparing for Your First Tutorial or Lab

Learn about the teaching space

If you’re teaching in person, it can be a good idea to visit it in advance so you know the layout and what resources are available. Having a sense of the space in which you will be working can help you prepare materials and plan activities and can bring to your attention any considerations that will need to be made to make your lessons more accessible to students.

For example, some but not all rooms will have projectors, and some have whiteboards rather than chalkboards. Campus Classroom Technologies provides a useful directory with much of this information and can be contacted at cct@mcmaster.ca if you have any questions (e.g., Echo360 training and support, classroom orientation). If you need to access the computer or podium in your classroom, ask the course instructor for the appropriate room code.

If you’re teaching online, make sure you’re aware of which teaching technologies you’re expected to use (e.g., Zoom, Microsoft Teams) and that you receive the appropriate training on these tools (if needed).

Review/Prepare materials

All time spent preparing is considered work, so be sure to keep track of those hours.

Students are often expected to read assigned material or complete activities in advance of their lab or tutorial. for the week. As the TA, it is very important that you are familiar with the materials the students have been assigned for the tutorials. The table below outlines specific considerations for labs and tutorials.

Preparing a lesson plan will help build your confidence before a class. Lesson planning can help you prepare for teaching, keep your delivery organized and engaging, and ensure that your students meet their learning goals. While lesson plans vary across contexts, they should all include information about what the objectives are for the session, what teaching strategies you will use, the order in which you will cover the topics, and how you will assess whether the students have learned what you wanted them to learn.

Listen to experienced TAs describe their experience with lesson planning.

Conducting Your First Tutorial or Lab

Some TAs decide to have a “short” first tutorial or lab, but it is best practice that you use all of your class time during the first session. It is important to show your students that you are excited about the material and that they will be expected to work for the full class period when they come to the tutorial or lab. There are a few things you may want to do during your first tutorial or lab. You can decide for yourself which activities to include.

Listen to experienced TAs describe their first day in the classroom.

Introduce Yourself

How do you want students to address you? (Generally, TAs use their first names.) What is your background in relation to the course material? What part of the course are you most excited about? How can students get in contact with you?

It is a great idea to arrive early to your first tutorial to give yourself time to write any important information on the board or put up a slide. It can also be helpful to arrive early so that you can spend some time speaking with your students informally; ask their names, inquire about their weekend or summer, or find out what movies they like to watch. This informal time before class lets students know that you are approachable and interested in them as people. It can also be very helpful in learning their names.

Introduce the Course and Lab/Tutorial

Why is the course topic relevant to the whole discipline? How will this course help the students? What will students be expected to do in the tutorial or lab? What will you as a TA be doing in the tutorial or lab?

This is also a good opportunity to review course policies related to tutorials, particularly those related to attendance, participation,  and tutorial grades. Making sure all students are familiar with these policies and that all students know on what and how they will be assessed helps them to be successful in the course. The first class is also a good opportunity to share your office hours and your email policy with students; you can find more information on this in the Office Hours and Communicating with Students chapter.

Introduce the Students

How many students are in their first year? How many students have taken a course in this subject before? What are the students’ goals for the course?

If you do not want to have each student respond individually, you could ask students to fill out a brief questionnaire that answers these questions so that you know what kind of experiences your students have had with the material and what their expectations are for the course.

It is very important to learn students’ names. You may want to include a short activity that helps you learn the names of your students. For example, have your students introduce themselves and tell you something interesting and memorable about themselves, or have students pair up with another student that they don’t know, get them to introduce themselves to that student individually, and then each student gets to introduce the student that they met to the rest of the class. Teaching assistants often ask students to put up name cards on their desks to assist with learning and recalling names; this also helps students to learn one another’s names. Be aware that some students may use names different than those on your attendance sheet or class list; for this reason, it is good practice to ask students to introduce themselves rather than doing a roll call.

Introduce Classroom Etiquette

Discuss as a group the guidelines for class behaviour and review any important tutorial or lab policies (safety, attendance, etc.). You may also ask students to develop a mutually agreed upon set of guidelines about classroom expectations.

Complete an Activity or Introduce a Topic

Use this opportunity to model to students how the tutorial or lab is likely to run. To do this, you could bring in a short reading for students to complete in class and discuss as a group, demonstrate one of the skills the students will learn during the course, review important concepts that students will need to know for the next lecture, or facilitate an activity that helps them begin developing important course skills.

Strategies for leading a successful lab

Before students begin work on the lab, you will likely give a pre-lab talk, which should be short and concise. This talk might remind students of the steps of the lab and/or procedures they need to follow (e.g. where to dispose of waste). You may want to talk about what kinds of results you want recorded in their lab reports, and how to record them, so that marking expectations are clear. This is also a good opportunity to remind students of safety expectations and procedures and to answer any questions. Be prepared to point out any dangers involved in using the lab equipment or actions that may damage expensive technology. Students may then watch a video demonstration or watch you demonstrate any important laboratory skills with which they may be unfamiliar (e.g., titration or palpating). It is also important to point out specific expectations pertaining to error analysis. Some labs require thorough error analysis, while others require none at all. This can be a source of confusion for many students and can result in challenges with marking later on if it is not clarified.

Students will then begin to complete the lab. During this time, you will supervise their activities and answer any questions that may arise. If you can, try to circulate through the whole lab and speak to each student or small group. This will help build a collegial environment and may invite questions that a student is hesitant to raise with the whole class.

Try to be conscious of the class’s progress. It is sometimes difficult for students to complete labs within the designated time period. It can be helpful to indicate how much time should be spent on different steps or parts of the lab to keep everyone on track. Walking around the room while the lab is taking place is also a good way to gauge students’ progress.

If you notice that students are having difficulties, be encouraging, offer assistance, and gently remind them of any hard deadlines that may exist for submitting reports at the end of the session.

Strategies for leading a successful tutorial

There are many different types of tutorials across the McMaster campus. What happens in your tutorial will depend on your discipline and the kind of activities the course instructor would like you to carry out or supervise.

The most common tutorial types are:

• Discussion-based tutorials: these tutorials focus on a deeper exploration of course content through discussions and debates.
• Problem-solving tutorials: these tutorials are common in math, science and engineering and focus on problem solving processes and quantitative reasoning.
• Review and Q&A tutorials: in these tutorials, students ask questions about the course content and assignments, review key course content in preparation for tests or exams, and consolidate their learning in the guiding presence of their TA.

There is a certain amount of content to be covered in each tutorial but the manner in which this content is delivered is often at your discretion (unless you receive specific instructions from the course instructor). It’s important to consider how to engage your audience, make the subject matter interesting and engage your students in thinking critically about the content.

Active learning involves doing and reflecting rather than passively absorbing information from the instructor or TA, and often leads to more effective learning than traditional lecturing. Active learning techniques also increase levels of interest and participation among students.

When using active learning strategies, it’s a good idea to explain the activity and its rationale. Students sometimes expect to receive information passively, and will not always be aware of why you are using active learning techniques. Activities should be connected to the course content and skill development, and focused on a few specific key ideas or skills.

TIPS FOR LEADING DISCUSSIONS

The following list gives you some things to keep in mind when leading discussions:

• After asking a question, wait at least 30 seconds for students to respond. Do not fear silence: it can be productive! Students will need time to think about your question and to generate an answer.
• Let students know what question or topic you will be discussing the next week, if possible. This will give them the chance to think about the topic ahead of time. You can also ask students to write their own questions about the topic and use these student-generated questions to get the discussion going.
• Set up ground-rules for the discussion before you begin: What does a respectful discussion involve? What will happen if someone makes an inappropriate comment? How do students indicate they have a comment? Will you call on your students individually?
• Make sure everyone has a chance to be heard by taking multiple answers to a question and frequently inviting those who haven’t contributed yet to do so by saying something like “Can we hear from someone new?” or “What are some ideas that we haven’t heard yet?”
• Encourage students to respond directly to one another and engage in a dialogue, rather than speaking to and through you. Help students learn one another’s names and show them how to engage with one another by modelling it (e.g., making note of when they are building off one another’s comments).
• If a question is raised during discussion, asking the other students in the class to answer can be a good way to keep the conversation flowing, rather than switching into a lecture style, and also helps encourage students to engage with one another. You can offer your answer after students have had a chance to contribute.

common concerns about discussions

Common concerns about using discussions include: silence; the discussion drifting from the topic; one student dominating; inappropriate or incorrect responses; and not having enough time to cover the material.

To prevent these concerns, and deal with them if they do arise, keep in mind these three words: question, direction, rephrase.  If students do not respond to a good question, ask if they need clarification, and be sure to give them enough time to think about their answer. Provide direction in the discussion by telling students why you are having the discussion, and feel free to stop them at any point if you need to redirect their focus or if there’s a topic you need to cover before class ends. If students give an incorrect or partial response, you can rephrase what they have said more clearly or accurately. If a student dominates the conversation, you can also rephrase what they have said and ask for another student to comment on the idea to encourage and provide opportunity for others to participate.

For more information about how to address common issues in tutorials or labs, see the chapter on Common Questions and Challenges.

After the Lab/tutorial

After a lab students will usually complete a report or an assignment in order to demonstrate the knowledge they have gained by completing the lab, while students in tutorials may have written assignments or readings to complete before the next tutorial. You may be responsible for collecting and marking these labs/assignments, or this marking may be assigned to another TA. Students may contact you by email or come to your office hours to discuss questions or concerns they have with the material or with an assignment.