Hailey's Reading Notes #1

In preparation for creating a syllabus and designing a course, I felt like the chapters that we read provided a great background of things to keep in mind during syllabus construction. While it wasn’t as beneficial to discuss matters of office hours and how to write plagiarism requirements, it was helpful and interesting to view the syllabus as a tool that illustrates how you will achieve the learning objectives of the semester.

The first section in Davis that discusses the general strategies for designing a course states, “Let your decisions be guided by what you want your students to accomplish.” (Davis, pg. 3)

I think this is a great theme to stand by when creating a course. What is the goal for your course? What do you want your students to take away from your class? I took many undergraduate courses, especially general education courses, where I felt that the main goal was simply to pass. I was focused on achieving a high grade as opposed to achieving a greater breadth of knowledge. I think it is the role of the instructor to not only highlight the goals of the course, but to focus on how these goals apply to all students. Lang discusses a similar idea. When planning a syllabus, he mentions that you must first think about “… what knowledge or skills students should learn in your course, and then think[ing] about the best ways for them to learn that knowledge or those skills.” (Lang, pg. 2)

To me, an instructor is not effective if they simply teach or lecture, treating all students the same. It is important to keep in mind that everyone learns in a different way. For most, simply lecturing is not an effective means of instruction if you don’t find some way for your students to connect more deeply to the material. “… teach[ing] through the lens of learning, rather than focusing on teaching and letting students learn as they can.”(Lang pg. 2)

However, I’m sure this is a difficult process to achieve. It would not be possible in one semester to cater to every student’s method of learning. I would enjoy discussing in class how you make the biggest impact on the greatest number of students.

Davis describes a syllabus as a set of promises. (Davis, pg. 21) This is something I had never thought of before. As a student, I had always viewed the syllabus as a basic plan for the course with policies and procedures that was often rather overwhelming to look at during the first day of class. By calling it, “a promise”, I think it shows not only what the student will hopefully learn, but also the instructor’s dedication towards achieving the goals set out for the course. In other words, the instructor is not teaching to simply teach, but instead teaching so students can grow.