Reading notes #1

Reading notes #1
Trista Manikowske

I found the opening chapter very informative. It lays out some excellent preliminary strategies for designing and structuring the course. The section on preliminary information gathering discusses resources and things to think about before designing the course. One important question that stuck out to me was to ask what you want your students to be able to do after taking your course (p.3). Focusing not on what you want to teach them, but what they will need to be able to accomplish is a great point. I found the information by both Davis and Lange on taxonomies how to identify learning objectives helpful. This is something I would like to explore and the text provided what looks like some great resources. When discussing course content, Davis mentions to focus on the “big idea” (p.9). I thought this was a great concept to help create a theme or relay to your students what you are trying to accomplish as well as the major concepts you will be discussing.

The readings by both Davis and Lange on the Syllabus were also excellent. These and previous readings have put an exceptional weight on the importance of the syllabus. My past interpretation as a student was that it was just something for the first day. However, I have now learned all of the work that goes into syllabus development and its importance. Davis touched on this (p. 34) with a section on motivating students to not only read the syllabus but also to use it throughout the semester. I found the resources in Davis (p. 21) useful on syllabus construction workshops and templates. While I have designed a syllabus for a class I was to teach last year, I would like to review it with this new information and what I have taken from the texts. The checklist, Exhibit 2.1 (p. 28-31) is a great resource for me to use going forward.
I also found chapters 55-56 in Davis important and informative.

The information on office hours and email was quite helpful as it is information you might not be told. My experience in my department is to be thrown into teaching or assisting in teaching a class with the assumption that I know what was in these chapters. I feel it provided excellent information on professionalism as well as email etiquette. I particularly liked the section discussing establishing rules for email communication in a course. I often hear from my mom, who is a teacher, about her frustrations with students’ emails. I have often told her what the book discussed about establishing rules at the beginning of the semester; however, I feel it may be important information I forget to include when I begin to teach my first class.