The teaching artifact that I’m planning on revising is a course syllabus for ENG 2150T, the second part of a first-year writing course for English language learners at Baruch.
Writing II builds on the learning goals of Writing I, encouraging students to read, reflect on, write about, and synthesize ideas from a range of texts across a variety of genres. Students examine and learn how to employ different styles, various appropriate uses of evidence and counter-evidence, multiple methods of interpretations, and close readings of texts. Students further develop competency in the use and evaluation of multiple external sources as they research ideas related to the course theme, shape and express their ideas, and cast them into well organized, thoughtful, and persuasive argumentative essays. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of composing in multiple discursive modes and media beyond the academic essay.
This course is required for all undergraduate degrees granted by Baruch College. It is required within the Baruch Common Core Curriculum (for students who entered Baruch prior to Fall 2013). For students who entered Baruch Fall 2013 or later under the PATHWAYS General Education requirements (or who “opt-in” to CUNY Pathways), ENG 2150 or ENG 2150T satisfies half of the “English Composition” requirement of the Required Core.
Spring 2022 will be my first time to teach this course, so I’m not exactly revising the course syllabus that I’ve already used, but revising it based on ways to make my syllabus more engaging for students in the course. This includes the following: 1. Include an introduction of myself in the syllabus. If you were to look at any of my course syllabuses now, you would see that the purpose of them is to communication information and policies about the courses to the students. There is nothing personal about myself for my students to engage or connect with. Since I will be teaching a hybrid course, I believe that it is extremely important to provide opportunities like this to be more connected and engaged in the online learning environment. 2. Include learning tools throughout the syllabus. These will include learning tips, study practices, and writing tips. Because this is a writing course, the incorporation of these learning tools in the syllabus works perfectly to increase student engagement. 3. Include statements throughout that explicitly offer help to students. These will be centered on writing, of course, but also other areas that students often need help with, for example, mental health. 4. Make the heading and sub-heading throughout the syllabus phrased as questions. The purpose of this is to stimulate interest and thinking about the information contained in the different sections.
I am thinking about using a Google Form as a way of students engaging with certain aspects of the content of the syllabus. The structure of this will be with a needs analysis in mind. I’m still working on what questions to include.
Because I am creating these from scratch, I don’t have an artifact developed yet. However, I have a model of the course syllabus and Google Form that I’m using to help with my designing of the artifact.
One reply on “Course Syllabus”
I really like the idea of personalizing the syllabus and including various ways to make it more engaging, warm, and helpful. I’m beginning to think a lot more about how to de-cement received wisdom. Like, why should a syllabus be written the way it was when I was in school? If parts of that don’t serve us, why shouldn’t we just change them? And clearly they don’t get read and internalized as much as we instructors would like!