Learning Forward: Support for Your Teaching as a Lecturer (Student Assistant)

Hello L&S Summer LSAs!

Graduate student Lecturers, or LSAs, play an essential role in delivering a wide variety of courses to L&S undergraduates. For many of you, this may be your first time as instructor of record for your own course. Congratulations! Embarking on teaching independently for the first time can be both exciting and daunting. Even for seasoned instructors, we know that being both a graduate student and a Lecturer can come with unique challenges and opportunities, as can teaching during the Summer term.

This newsletter comes to you regularly from the L&S TA Training & Support Team in the L&S Teaching & Learning Administration. Our goals are to provide you with timely teaching tips and support throughout your time as an LSA. Please feel free to contact us if you need help or have any suggestions for this newsletter.

Best wishes for a great semester!

Lynne Prost

Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Academic Affairs

College of Letters & Science

Meet the TMs

What Do You Do with Student Feedback ?

End-of-semester feedback will be here before we know it. Once you have collected feedback from students, what do you do next? How do you know what is important? How does feedback from a class that is finished shape your future teaching?

If you are reviewing end-of-semester feedback, it can also be difficult to balance this with other responsibilities and taking time off.

The L&S Instructional Design Collaborative shares research-backed approaches for Interpreting Student Feedback.

Learning and Making a Difference

In this podcast episode, Patti Coffey, Faculty Associate in the Department of Psychology, discusses community-based learning. Patti shares how reflection, storytelling, and active engagement contribute to mutually beneficial partnerships between students and the community, with a focus on the area of prisoner reentry. Listen to "Community Based Learning and the Wisconsin Idea."

Every episode of the L&S Exchange Podcast from the Instructional Design Collaborative includes discussion guides and resources for further learning.

"Joyful and Sustainable Teaching" at the Teaching & Learning Symposium

The annual Teaching & Learning Symposium provides an opportunity for the UW–Madison teaching and learning community to share best practices, celebrate accomplishments, and discuss new learning and teaching practices and theories in a forum dedicated to enriching the student learning experience.

Read a Q&A with Christina Katopodis, Keynote Speaker and author of The New College Classroom.

Register for the Symposium

Returning TA Training August 28

L&S hosts the next Returning TA Training for L&S graduate students on August 28, 2025. Participants will:

Identify personal strengths and growth areas related to teaching.
Communicate and begin implementing a consistent, practical, and values-aligned teaching philosophy.
Select strategies for prioritizing work and managing time.
Practice incorporating new strategies to resolve common teaching challenges.
Determine which Canvas tools to use to solve and prevent teaching challenges.

Plan Your Next Course with These Tools

What are you teaching next? Creating a structured plan before your class begins can save you time and provide clarity in the long term. In addition to past syllabi, several planning tools can be useful in preparing for, planning, and designing your course. See the Course Planning & Design Tools from the Instructional Design Collaborative.

Important Dates

May 2: Last Class Day

May 3: Study Day

May 4-9: Exams

May 12: Grading Deadline

Learning Forward is brought to you by the L&S TA Training & Support Team.

L&S Teaching & Learning Administration
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON
307 South Hall | Madison, WI 53706
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