New Faculty Syllabus Workshop
Session 1
Activity #1: Why Syllabi?

Take five minutes to complete a brief journal
entry in response to the following prompt: Why
do you create and distribute a syllabus for your
classes?

I will ask you to share your ideas with the group.
Invitation
To invite my students to share in the excitement of my
discipline: to offer guiding questions that will frame our
work in the course.

How do cultural forces shape the lives of young Latinos in
America today? (Puente English 803)

How do competing versions of the California dream shape our
state’s politics and culture? (English 100)

How did a promised land--a new world--founded on dreams of
freedom, equality, and economic opportunity descend into the
horror of civil war? How has the culture and literature of that
emergent and divided nation shaped who we are today?
(American Literature)
Promise
To make promises to the students about what they
will be able to do when they have completed this
course and how their progress toward those
outcomes / objectives will be assessed.

Outcomes / Objectives

Assessment

A Guide to Success in the Course (The Learner
Centered Syllabus)
Objectives / Outcomes


Two Sources

Your expertise

The official course outline

Copy? Rephrase? Omit?

Supplement
Why are students taking this course: what will
they leave the class able to do?
Evaluate the following assessment
policy? How would you modify it?
Grading Policy
Students will be graded on a percentage scale as follows:
A = 90-100%
B = 80-89%
C = 70-79%
D = 60-69%
F = 59 and below%
Assessment: Key Elements



Types of assignments and
VP’s and Deans
weight of those

Room for students to
assignment
recover from mistakes--
Rubrics / Criteria /
retention?
Methodologies

Clear, detailed
Make up, revision, or

Live by your policies

Imagine an administrator
dropping low grade policy

Submission requirements
dealing with a complaint

Late work policy
about your grading--does
your syllabus make that
Dean’s job easy?
The Learner Centered
Syllabus Might…

Provide estimated student work loads for
the class

Provide study skills and success strategies
guidance

Link student to academic support
resources

Use color or be in an alternative format
The Learner Centered
Syllabus Might…

Connect students to other campus resources
 require students to see a counselor to update their ed
plans)

Consider an “hours by arrangement” model that requires
students to invest a certain number of hours using
campus resources

Include information about an optional class field
trip or service learning activity
Structure
To keep myself, the students, and the class
organized and focused during the
semester.

Calendar

Classroom Guidelines

Attendance Policies
Calendar

Last Day to Add
Classes: 8/25

Veteran’s Day
Holiday: 11/12

Last Day to Add
Classes with Instructor
Approval: 9/1

Last Day to Drop with
a “W” grade: 11/15

Thanksgiving
Holiday: 11/22-25

Final Exam Date and
Time: 12/8-14


Last day to drop
classes with refund and
no grade on record: 9/1
Labor Day Holiday: 9/3
Communication

Course Title and #
 Classroom #’s
 Your Name
 Phone
 Email
 Web
 Tips and Expectations
Classroom Guidelines: Key Elements

Be clear about your

Keep posted in
classroom (or in
student binders, etc.)

Discuss / Explain

Use positive
assertions when
possible
concerns and “pet
peeves”

Involve students if
you can
Evaluate the following attendance
policy? How would you modify it?
Attendance Policy

Committing the necessary amount of time to succeed in this
course begins with attending class. If you are not attending
class, you cannot learn from our classroom community, and I
cannot effectively evaluate your progress. For this reason, I
reserve the right to drop a student who misses six hours of
class or more.

I give a quiz at the beginning of each class meeting. Students
who arrive after the quiz begins may not participate in or
make up the quiz.

If you are absent from class, send me an email summarizing
what we covered in class and including a one paragraph
reflection on the reading.
Attendance Policy: Key Elements

The “drop paradox”
Positive

Make up options?
Grades

Documentation
Clarity
vs punitive
and attendance
and consistency
Hot Spots to Check For

Does your syllabus generate excitement about or interrest in your
class?

Does your syllabus communicate who you are and what you
believe as an educator to you, your students, your colleagues, and
campus administrators?

Are all your assessment policies actually in the syllabus (ex. Do
students need to complete all major projects and final to pass the
course?)

Is your assessment clear and detailed? Can a student easily
calculate or find her grade at any point in the course? Could a
campus administrator easily understand and defend your policy
and practice? Does your grading policy leave students some room
to grow and develop? In other words, does it encourage retention
without lowering expectations?

Have you communicated your expectations of and pet peeves about
classroom behavior to students in some written form?

Do you have the most recent and official disability language in your
syllabus?