I went through a lot of debate this summer about my syllabus. What should it look like? How extensive should it be? What should it cover? I did research and looked at examples from other people. I’m just not yet sure about what I want my Syllabus to look like, as well as what some of my class rules should be.

Last year I was so frustrated by the students in my first semester classes simply not knowing anything that was on in my Syllabus at all. I also hated taking time going through with it and getting those blank looks from everyone.

My “solution” (ha) second semester was to give a quiz on my Syllabus the day after the first day of class. That went really well…. It didn’t help at all; I’m not sure what I was thinking.

I changed my syllabus a lot for this school year, which starts the 25th of August. I’m relatively satisfied with the final result, at least right now.

Changes I’ve made:

-I’ve toned down my considerable rambling and taken out a section about “My Goals for this class.”
-I’ve taken out the overview of the semester, with specifics on each unit, that I had last year.
-I’ve really reduced my Class Rules. The only personal one I have now is “Respect,” which I plan to go into more detail about in class.
-I’m only making freshman parents sign it, rather than the parents of all my students.

Problems I think my Syllabus still has:

-I don’t spend a lot of time going into details of my expectations for random situations – like getting up to throw away something, sharpening pencils, eating a four-couse meal, etc. Should I be going into detail on all those possible situations as an avoid the problem before it occurs tactic? My syllabus would be five years long then I fear.

-I don’t give a class calendar or go into major specifics on assignments. Should I?

-I’m planning on trying to go over this briefly on the first day of class. My fear, of course, is that anything I don’t go over will be unknown to my students. That’s probably why I did the quiz thing last semester. I just don’t want to spend a lot of time on it. I hate those glazed looks; I want to get them active.

Here is my syllabus for the sophomores. I’d love suggestions or comments.

syllabus210

Of course, I am always curious about policies for late/missing work and things of that nature. I spent time researching that as well. Really, all class procedures are still a work-in-progress for me, since I have only had two semesters to try different things. Comments on those ideas are appreciated too.