As Toni presented in the April department meeting, our syllabus is the first thing our students see from our class. This bring up two important things to consider as you write your syllabi:
- Does the order of your syllabus reflect the importance of the topics presented in it?
- Does it make you look like an ally or an adversary?
We tackled these questions with small group discussions in the meeting, but if you weren’t able to be there, these are important ideas. Which wording below makes you seem more approachable?
“You will be dropped after 3 unexcused absences.”
“Because attendance of this class is very important, you may be dropped after 3 unexcused absences.”
Three options for syllabus redesign were shown in the meeting and you can find quick overviews of them below. I’ve also compiled the PDF and editable versions in a Google Drive folder here. Remember, you can always check out syllabi for everyone in the department here. Quick views of some examples are below.
Toni: She redid her syllabus as a powerpoint, with slides ordered by importance of topic and has a syllabus quiz. She does not hand out the syllabus but posts it for students.
Gina: She redid her syllabus in a newsletter format. All the boring details are in the last pages and she tries to highlight how the math in the course she’s teaching is related to the real world. I’ve posted syllabi of hers for three different classes in the Google Drive, so you can see how the opening bit changes per class!
Kelly: She still wanted a hard copy syllabus to hand out, so she created a quick syllabus with all the legally required details and made a separate welcome document in a newsletter format that highlighted the important details of the class. The welcome document was sent out before class started and there was a kahoot quiz on the details the first day.
Have you redesigned your syllabus? Email it to Kelly to add to the Google Drive!
Mesa Math Department 