Assessing understanding is probably one of the harder things we have to go through as a TA. Are the students receiving our message? How do we do know?

In my case, I am aware there might be a communication barrier because of my strong accent. However, that is one of the first things I let them know at front. They can ask me to repeat, slow down or talk louder. Because of this, I use more body language, worksheets, and my slides are always a great aid too.

As a TA, I always try to get my message across in all manners, although nothing is perfect and some students won’t follow the group. One example in class is when students are asked to write a lab report. The most common mistake made by TAs is just assign the report without any guidance. So how can we improve that?

• First, I have slides dedicated to this report full of good and bad examples. For example, how to choose a tittle, how to cite APA, hot write the different sections, etc. I have found that by showing a bad example, my students are more aware of not performing the same mistake.
• Second, my slides go hand in hand with the lab report rubric and I also make sure I go over this with them to avoid any misunderstandings on their grading. For this, the rubric needs to be very clear as well when TAs are building it.

I believe that is all that takes and of course making yourself approachable to your students can always be a good advantage for them to check in their work with you.