8 How Do I Prepare a Syllabus?

When Clarice had first begun teaching, she had treated her course syllabi as afterthoughts. Indeed, the school had supplied her with templates, which Clarice adopted with little or no alteration. Yet before long, Clarice began to see the key role that her course syllabus played, both for her own organization and to help students understand what they were trying to accomplish and how they should go about it. Clarice thus began tweaking and improving her syllabi, at times adding new sections and at other times improving her course plan and resources. Clarice even researched the better uses and designs of course syllabi, until she felt like her syllabi were her best friends and biggest supporters in her instruction.

Syllabi

Effective teaching requires that you organize instruction into a coherent whole, in a way that students can see and appreciate. Your course syllabus serves that function. A syllabus is the roadmap to your course, laying out your course’s goal, objectives, structure, resources, and requirements. Students shouldn’t experience your instruction as a series of unrelated activities. To meet your course’s goal, you need students to pursue course objectives in the order that your syllabus specifies, using the resources your syllabus identifies. Your syllabus shows students the framework within which they should pursue and be able to reach your course goals. Your syllabus shows students what you are accountable to them to provide and do, while stating for them what they are accountable to you to learn and do. Your syllabus thus serves like a covenant, contract, or promise between you and your students. Don’t give your syllabus short shrift. Whether students rely on it or not, you need its clarity and organization, too.

Forms

Teachers may use either a short-form syllabus or long-form syllabus. Some syllabi are just a single page, something that a student can easily fold in half and tuck in a course text to know what pages to read for each class or can save online for ready reference for the same purpose. A short-form syllabus may be enough to help your students keep track not just of required readings but also of key dates for quizzes, tests, paper or project submissions, and a final exam. Yet many teachers prefer a long-form syllabus with abundant additional detail identifying unit objectives, guiding students to specific resources, describing assignments, and even providing information on the format and scoring of assessments. You decide how you prefer students to use your course syllabus and what information it should therefore contain. You might even use both short-form and long-form syllabi, one as a reminder and the other as a resource and reference.

A course syllabus should generally include certain critical components. Include, for instance, the course name and any section number, so that students attend the correct section of the correct course. Also include your name as you prefer students to refer to you. Also include the classroom number, course day and time, and any final exam day and time not on the regular course schedule. Both you and students in your course may need these basic reminders, among several other courses you may teach and other courses students may attend. If holidays or your absence require cancellation and rescheduling of a class, then publish the makeup class and makeup classroom in the syllabus before the term, if you are able. Your syllabus may also state prerequisite courses students should have completed and basic or special skills necessary or helpful for the course. You may also wish to include related courses usually taken simultaneously with or after your course, such as a lab or seminar. If your course requires students to obtain a text, coursepack, or other materials, your syllabus should also include that information, including the edition number if the publisher frequently updates your assigned text. Ensure students come to class prepared.

Policies

Your syllabus should also include any course policies that supplement or modify school policies. Your syllabus may, of course, reinforce school policies having to do with common subjects like class attendance and absences, and classroom recordings and laptop computer or other device use. Especially include those school policies that you intend to strictly enforce, when other teachers may be lax in their enforcement. But beyond reinforcing school policies, you may wish to add your own course policies, beyond school requirements, as long as the school approves. You may, for example, have your own rules or preferences regarding students arriving more than five minutes late for class or leaving class early. Or you may, for another example, have your own rules or preferences for whether students may share outlines, develop a shared class outline, or draw practice exams from banks purporting to contain your past exams. Turning the obstacles that you encounter in your teaching into policies that you express clearly in your syllabus may save you from having to deal with the same obstacles from term to term.

Instruction

Beyond the above critical components, you may decide to include helpful instructional information in your syllabus. Including instructional information can help students understand and follow your approach to instruction, and reassure them of the clarity, structure, and integrity of your designs. You may, for instance, include the broad course goal followed by unit objectives spread in progressive order across the term, so that students can anticipate what they should expect to accomplish. You may also describe your instructional methods and how students should make the best use of them. If, for instance, you lecture frequently with slide shows, then you might recommend note taking and outlining, while disclosing whether you allow recording and will post the slide shows. If, for another example, you assign group work or discussion boards, then you may wish to disclose participation requirements. Consider including in your syllabus any information that may help students make the best use of your instructional methods. Explaining why you use certain methods and how they help students learn may reduce student resistance and complaints, while increasing student engagement.

Resources

You may also wish to include in your syllabus the course resources you offer to support student learning, beyond any assigned text, coursepack, or other required materials. You may, for instance, offer extra readings, graphic organizers, practice problems, or other specially designed materials for each unit you teach across the course and term. If so, your syllabus should disclose the units to which those resources apply and how to locate them, whether, for instance, from the school’s online learning-management system supporting the course, at the library, or from you. You may also have a teaching aide or assistant supporting students enrolled in the course, whose name, hours, contact information, and location your syllabus should disclose. You may also have specific days and hours for students to make appointments to meet individually with you and may have terms and conditions for those meetings. If so, include that information along with any other resource information in your syllabus.

Technology

Your students may appreciate your including in your syllabus any special rules, recommendations, or preferences you have regarding student use of technology, inside or outside of the classroom. If, for instance, you do not permit students to use laptops, tablets, cellphones, or other electronic devices in class during class time, or prohibit audio or video recording of class, then your syllabus should state so. If, for another example, you prohibit students from using artificial intelligence on certain assignments or any assignment, then your syllabus should state so. If, for yet another example, you prohibit students from using spell checkers and grammar checkers or other proofreading and editing applications on certain assignments or any assignment, then your syllabus should state so. If, for one more example, you prohibit students from using an electronic study-assistance service, then your syllabus should state so. Technology misuse can be a big student academic and behavioral issue. Make your technology rules and expectations clear in your syllabus.

Assessment

Your syllabus should also generally include information on how you will assess students in their learning. That information may, for instance, include the dates or schedule of quizzes, tests, and exams, along with their format and unit contents. Test format, for instance, might include multiple-choice, true/false, matching, short-answer, or essay questions, or problem sets. Your disclosure of the test format can help students practice the format and accustom themselves to test conditions. You may repeat that information in class nearer the tests, but having it in the syllabus ensures that absent students, students not paying attention, or students not hearing your disclosures have the same information in writing in the syllabus. Your syllabus may also include required assignments such as a class project or paper, including their specific requirements. Your syllabus may also include information on how you will score assignments and assessments, and how you will allocate scored assignments and assessments toward the final grade. That information can help students use their study time and efforts wisely.

Approval

Your school or department may require that you submit your course syllabus for the school’s records, for use in accreditation reviews. Your syllabus assures accreditors and the school that you are teaching the knowledge and skills that the curriculum and the benchmarks the curriculum targets require. Your school or department may also require that you gain administrative approval before publishing your syllabus to students. Don’t begrudge administrative review and approval. Administrative review can catch errors and inconsistencies in your syllabus. Administrative review can also ensure that the policies in your syllabus do not contradict or transgress school policies. Comply with school and department syllabus requirements, and things will generally go much better for you.

Distribution

Ensure that you distribute your syllabus appropriately. Instructors often make syllabi available online before the first class, through the school’s learning-management system. Early distribution of your syllabus, even well before your course begins, can aid your more eager learners. Instructors also typically have printed copies of the course syllabus available during the first class, even if the syllabus is available online. Some students may need or favor a printed copy. Instructors may also tell students about course requirements and resources in that first class, referencing and summarizing the syllabus. Highlighting unusual or unusually helpful aspects of your syllabus can ensure that students appreciate the usefulness of the syllabus and the sensitivity of your course design. Instructors should thereafter keep the syllabus available to students online throughout the course’s duration. Doing so enables you to refer students to the syllabus when they ask you to share information that it already contains, even if you go ahead and answer their queries orally.

Alteration

Once you adopt, gain approval of, and publish your syllabus, do not depart from it without announcing that you are doing so in advance to allow time for students to adjust to and prepare for your changes. Modify the syllabus that you maintain available to students online, to reflect your departures, so that students who were absent or inattentive when you announced the modifications can learn of the modifications from the updated syllabus. Print the modified syllabus and offer it again to students in class, if your modifications were significant. Do not let a contradiction arise between your stated course requirements and what you originally published in the syllabus. Justify syllabus departures. Do not depart from the syllabus if it will disadvantage students and if you cannot adequately explain your reason for doing so. Don’t punish students who have already adhered to your published syllabus, such as by completing listed readings and assignments. Consult your department chair or other academic supervisor if you are uncertain about a syllabus departure. The school may require you to submit the modified syllabus for review and approval. Beware syllabus alterations. Save fresh ideas for the next term when you can incorporate them into a fresh syllabus.

Reflection

How satisfied are you with your syllabi? Have you compared your syllabi to other syllabi that your colleagues use, particularly those syllabi used by colleagues teaching your same subject or student level? Do you prefer a short-form or long-form syllabus? Does your syllabus include all critical information such as the course name and number, your name, the classroom number, and the days and hours for meeting? Does your syllabus include your examination or other assessment dates and formats? Does your syllabus include helpful information justifying your instructional methods? Does your syllabus include special resources that may help your students with especially difficult topics? Does your syllabus include information on your scoring of assignments and exams, and how you allocate or weight those scores in your determination of a final course grade? Do you include in your syllabus any course policies the violation of which could affect a student’s attendance, enrollment, or good school standing? Does your syllabus include your technology rules? Do you frequently depart from your syllabus without advance warning and without updating your published syllabus?

Key Points

A course syllabus informs students of your course’s requirements.
You may use either a short-form or long-form syllabus, as preferred.
Include critical course information and requirements in your syllabus.
Consider explaining your instructional methods in your syllabus.
Include in your syllabus any course policies beyond school policies.
Include in your syllabus any resources you offer for student support.
Include your technology rules and preferences in your syllabus.
Obtain school or department review and approval of your syllabus.
Distribute your syllabus online and during the first class.
Avoid altering your syllabus in ways that disadvantage students.

Read Chapter 9.