![]() ![]() Make sure your policy is in line with your school’s policy.Ĭommunication Protocols: Specify how often and through what channels students should be accessing course information, looking for updates and announcements, and contacting you. Required Texts and Resources: List all required textbooks, other books, online resources and subscriptions, or other materials students must have to take the course.Īttendance Policy: Be very specific about what constitutes an excused absence, what constitutes a “tardy” (be sure to consider early departures as well…I had some students who regularly had to leave class early), and how these will impact student grades, if applicable. Objectives: Describe what the student should understand or be able to do as a result of taking your course. Corequisites are courses that must be taken at the same time as your course. Prerequisites/Corequisites: Any courses or other requirements that must be completed before taking this course. Your Details: Name, email, phone number, office hours*Ĭourse Details: Course name, course number*, days and times the course meets, credit hours*Ĭourse Description: A brief overview of what the course will cover for the term or year ![]() Items specific to college, but not necessarily applicable at the K-12 levels, are marked with an asterisk. This list is for college, high school, or middle school syllabi. Although this all may sound like a bit much, and at the beginning of a school term, it may be hard to imagine any kind of trouble, there may come a time when a student issues a complaint about you if your actions are in line with your syllabus, and you have it on record that your administrator has approved that syllabus, you can save yourself a lot of problems. If you don’t hear back before it’s time to give it to students, send a follow-up email to get the approval. ![]() Do this electronically so you have a record of the transaction. Doing this will ensure that your syllabus includes everything your institution requires, that it is in line with school policy, and that your administrator is aware of how you plan to handle certain situations.Īt least a week before you share it with students, send your administrator a copy for his or her approval. It is essential that you get your syllabus approved by your administration prior to giving it to students, especially if this is your first time teaching in your current school. So if you’re looking for a syllabus writing model, this one will get the job done.īy the way, if you’re not too handy with page layout and would like a ready-made syllabus template, scroll to the bottom of this post. And even those few times, I was able to point those students to the syllabus, which they just didn’t happen to read very carefully. No misunderstandings about when assignments were due. It’s certainly not the only way to write a syllabus, but what I can say with certainty is that I had very few issues every semester in terms of students not understanding what was expected of them. I refined my own model over time, pulling from various sources and modifying things through trial and error every semester. In this post, I will share what I include in my own syllabi. With that in mind, it’s worth it to put some time and effort into your syllabus well before you ever meet your students, and to make it as thorough and detailed as possible. Whatever I wrote there needed to be something I could still stand behind months later. In other words, if a student ever wanted to contest their grade in my course, everyone involved in making the decision would refer to my syllabus to see whether I had kept up my end of the bargain. When I followed those years up with four years of college teaching, I had to take things to a new level: “The syllabus is seen as a legal agreement between you and your students,” my department head told me. When done right, a syllabus can prevent a lot of misunderstandings as the semester progresses.Īs a middle school teacher, I put together a simple syllabus to communicate my plans and expectations to students and their parents. It gives students a clear understanding of your expectations and a road map for how the course will be conducted. A well-designed syllabus is an essential tool for effectively managing a course.
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