How to Customize a Generic Course Syllabus

Teaching a class is fulfilling and can be fun. Most college teachers will provide their students with a syllabus to keep them aware of what is happening in the course. Enterprising primary and secondary teachers may do the same to show their students what college will be like. A syllabus can include lots of different kinds of information. After reading the syllabus, the student should know what she will learn in the class, what will happen during each class period and, in general, the work she needs to do. Here’s how to customize a general syllabus.

Things You'll Need

• Pen
• Paper

Instructions

1. A general course syllabus is like a template. Work your way through the document and add all of the information that has been left blank. When you include your name, consider listing it the way you want your students to address you. Key in the course number and other such basic information.

2. Decide how specific you want your day-to-day class information to be. Some teachers have a very specific idea of what they will do in class each day and include a brief synopsis to focus their students. Others prefer to work more loosely. Consider providing general week-by-week listings. Also be specific about your attendance policy and how extensively you expect your students to participate in class discussions. There should be no surprises when it comes to these kinds of things.

3. Add information about all of the class assignments, including due dates. Even if you’re going to provide the students with a more detailed prompt at a later time, give a brief idea of what you expect. List how heavily each of the assignments will weigh in their final grades.

4. Provide a synopsis of what your class is meant to be. When the student heads home and reads the syllabus again, he should know what your big idea is. This is also an opportunity to customize your syllabus with a little bit of your philosophy on class discussion and operation. If you want your students to be free to say anything they like (within reason), tell them so. If your students are expected to confine their in-class expression to a certain standard, make this apparent.

5. Go through and double-check everything. Make sure you’ve listed the location of your office. Be sure you didn’t forget to add your name at the top.

Resources

• Here is an interesting instructional page about syllabus development.
• Here is a document from a college to provide you with ideas for your own syllabus.