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Planning Your Class

Planning Your Class

Planning Your Class

Planning Your Class

Planning Your Class

Planning Your Class

Teaching Your Class

Strategy 1: Setting Expectations

Why do this?

This exercise can be helpful for you in articulating your own goals for the course. It will also give students a sense of the workload and extent of preparation required for the class. This procedure will let them know if your expectations meet their own goals for taking the course as well. In regard to expectations being consistent and fair, it is important to have structure in a class--and can help students be more organized in their workload for the course--but it is equally important to be flexible and acknowledge when a pre-established schedule, deadline, assignment, etc. may need to change. This can be important for students for whom unforeseen circumstances lead to the need for extensions or missing class.

How do I do this?

In the syllabus, you can explicitly state your expectations of students for attendance, participation, collaboration/use of resources, prerequisites, and more. During the first class session, you can take the opportunity to explain this all in more detail. You may also consider asking students what expectations they have for the course, and you can use this information to demonstrate how the course will meet these interests.

Resources

This article explains how a syllabus can help teachers better prepare their courses. It also goes into how it can help students better understand the content, expectations and importance of their course:

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/how-to-improve-your-teaching-with-the-course-syllabus

This is a useful guide to planning a course syllabus:

https://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/resources/course-design/preparing-a-syllabus/

This article (in two parts) explains the purposes/functions of the syllabus:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-3-Essential-Functions-of/190243/

https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-3-Essential-Functions-of/228909

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