Teaching appointments may include some or all of the following responsibilities for graduate students:
- Lead recitation/discussion sections. Review main points and/or difficult parts of lectures; discuss key course concepts based on assigned readings; assign writing or in-class exercises; discuss examples of concepts in detail; respond to questions about homework; create and give quizzes; attend meetings to coordinate activities across sections.
- Lead or assist in laboratory sections. Monitor ongoing student work in technical courses; respond to questions about experiments, methods, equipment, and/or software; ensure student safety; give brief pre-lab lectures or presentations; demonstrate technical procedures; create and give quizzes.
- Grade. Grade quizzes, exams, papers, computer programs, lab reports or projects, based on criteria provided by, and/or created in collaboration with, the professor; create grading keys and detailed solution sets for homework; provide constructive comments on students’ work.
- Hold office hours. Be available regularly and by appointment to answer students’ questions about course material; contact students who are having significant difficulties to offer assistance; provide extra guidance and support for students whose backgrounds are weak in key areas.
- Conduct review sessions. Summarize major concepts; answer students’ questions prior to exams; prepare written review sheets for exams or present summaries of the most important points; provide students with supervised practice answering exam-like questions.
- Give occasional lectures. Prepare and give part or all of a lecture.
- Develop and administer exams. Write entire exams or individual exam questions; proctor both in-class and make-up exams.
- Teach a lecture course. Create syllabus and course policies; determine grading breakdown; write lesson plans; give lectures; write quizzes and exams; supervise a grader; determine homework assignments and papers.