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What Mal said.
For new people I like to talk about expectations & duties. Make sure we're on the same page. Find their strengths, weaknesses, preferences. Make sure the first week or two haven't left big questions. If performance issues arise, revisit the early talks and discover what might have changed. Duties can shift, but it must be by agreement. I paraphrase official sit-down meetings in casual but specific language and copy the employee and their file.
Sounds like you've crept beyond that stage. Things can become messy if you aren't careful. I'm completely unfamiliar with school/TA employment law. Speak with your supervisor and/or whatever administration holds the TA contract about corrective action plans (or whatever they call them). What do they expect of you in the case of problems?
For myself, if disciplinary meetings are required those get a summary with a corrective action plan. Expectations are listed including next steps, timeline, and the employee signs it. Verbally I stick to a positive upside until the end. They were hired for their strengths, they just need to show them. It's meant to be an obvious crossroads. Some decide they're done at this point. Others, maybe new to professional expectations, get into the game and become great contributors. If they go the wrong direction you're protecting yourself and the "company."
A consistent chain of documentation and expectations makes it easy for everyone to move forward without dispute. Hopefully this is just an inexperienced person's wake-up call. Good luck! Like I said, not my favorite way to burn daylight.
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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195
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