Summer Syllabus Development Workshop / Bryn Mawr College * Teaching and Learning Institute * 2012

Submitted by alesnick on Mon, 05/14/2012 - 2:48pm

Welcome to the community page for entering Bryn Mawr College faculty exploring syllabus development in context.

Here you will find an outline of workshop sessions, associated readings, and a public discussion forum where you are invited to pose questions and share ideas. You are also/alternatively invited to address these to workshop leader Alice Lesnick (alesnick@brynmawr.edu).

For agendas and our notes on the sessions, visit the Google Doc (no sign-in required).

To begin, a poem (of course):

Absent-Minded Professor

This lonely figure of not much fun
Strayed out of folklore fifteen years ago
Forever. Now on an autumn afternoon
While the leaves drift past the office window
His bright replacement, present-minded, stays
At the desk correcting papers, nor ever grieves
For the silly scholar of the bad old days,
Who'd burn the papers and correct the leaves.

-- Howard Nemerov, Collected Poems, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1977

Image from Over and Over Again

Session 1: Introductions; Inquiry into principles and practices; Contexts of practice

* Entry Questions

What do you think are the most important purposes/functions of a syllabus?

Are any of these in conflict with one another? If so, how do or how might you address these conflicts?
What/who are the various audiences for your syllabi, and how do you mediate them in the text?

How do you imagine students using/interacting with/challenging/informing your syllabus?

* Introducing the Honor Code, assessment practices (norms/range/variation), formulating questions for panelists (Session 2)

Session 2: College Contexts

Faculty, Staff, Student panel on courses in situ

Moodle ways and means

Discussion of sample syllabi

Session 3

Informal Workshop/Feedback session on syllabi-in-progress

Discussion of challenges and opportunities of the semester's opening days

Related Readings