Graduate teaching assistants and new college instructors may have questions about lesson planning, grading, and classroom management. Some may be teaching in culturally and experientially diverse settings unfamiliar to them. This mentoring handbook describes but not prescribes methods, materials, and management strategies that can help maintain morale during those critical first years as a college instructor.

Graduate teaching assistants and new college instructors often are advised, coached, and mentored by department professors with little time to meet regularly with their novice educators. This book meets many of the principles outlined in the position statements of the Conference on College Composition and Communications and the Council of Writing Program Administrators. The pedagogical stances on which Planning with Purpose lessons are based will support the work of college supervisors. Using Planning with Purpose: A Handbook for New College Teachers can make pedagogical meetings with new colleagues more efficient and effective.