FACULTY PARTNERS

Steps in the Pedagogical Partnership Process

As a faculty member, you bring deep content knowledge, passion, and the capacity to model what it means to be a specialist in your field. That subject matter knowledge may or may not have been developed alongside preparation to teach. In your partnership with a SaLT student consultant, you will have the opportunity to create personal connections, clarify your pedagogical commitments, affirm your capacity and skill as a teacher, and refine and further develop pedagogical approaches appropriate to you, your subject matter, and this context.

You committed to participating in a semester-long partnership with a SaLT student consultant...what happens next?

Guidelines for Semester-long Student and Faculty Partnerships 2025-2026.docx

STEP 1: READ THE FULL GUIDELINES

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These guidelines are very detailed. You will want to consult them at different times and in different ways throughout your time as a participant in the SaLT program. They might seem abstract and overwhelming at first, but they are designed to help you make the most of pedagogical partnership work.

SaLT Email Template

STEP 2: RECEIVE MESSAGE FROM STUDENT PARTNER

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In the SaLT program, it is typically the student consultant who makes the initial contact with their faculty partner. This is the first step in your ongoing communication, which is an essential aspect of building a successful partnership.

SaLT First Meeting Outline

STEP 3: FIRST MEETING

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Through your initial email exchange, you will have set up a time to meet either in person or virtually. Your SaLT student consultant will come prepared to ask you a set of questions about your pedagogical hopes and goals. It might be helpful for you also to consider a few areas on which you want to focus your partnership work.

SaLT Notetaking Examples

STEP 4: WEEKLY OBSERVATION AND NOTE-TAKING

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Your SaLT student consultant will observe one class session of your course per week. There are many different ways for student consultants to take notes (see detailed examples in the Guidelines). Decide together what works best for you and your student consultant.

SaLT Meeting Approach

STEP 5: WEEKLY MEETINGS

Click the document for potential approaches towards sharing an observation

The weekly meeting with your student consultant is an important part of the SaLT process. It gives the two of you a chance to share observations, questions, ideas, and potential areas of growth. Student consultants will strive to use language that recognizes, affirms, and is oriented towards reflection and curiosity. They are not there to identify "problems" and tell you how to fix those, but you are welcome to invite them to take note of areas for growth that you identify for yourself and your course.

SaLT Mid-Semester Feedback

STEP 6: MID-SEMESTER FEEDBACK

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During a SaLT partnership, it can often be helpful to gather feedback from students enrolled in your course. Have a conversation with your student consultant about your expectations and preferences surrounding feedback as well as potential areas of focus for feedback, and be sure to be clear with enrolled students about when and how you will be gathering feedback.

Example: Annotated List

STEP 7: THE END OF SEMESTER ANNOTATED LIST AND LETTER

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Over the course of the semester, you and your SaLT student partner have discussed teaching and learning and grown together and respectively. To close out your work, your student partner will create two final documents to share with you: (1) an annotated list that represents all of the significant themes, practices, and pedagogical revisions of the past semester and (2) a letter in which they thank you for the work of the semester and outline the ways it has helped them grow as a teacher, learner, and person. You are also welcome to write them a thank-you note.