This semester I thought I’d try something new. Something I’d heard about, but always been a bit nervous to do myself. You see, I’m one of those people who likes to have EVERYTHING in place before the semester starts. I like to know not only what my students will be reading or learning about each and every week, I like to have a lesson plan prepped and ready to go for those topics. All before the first day of class. Or at least close to it. I like to create the formal assignments, I like to know what discussion questions we will cover, I like all my ducks in a row.
So, with all of that in mind, the idea of working with my students to create the syllabus for our class has me a little bit freaked out! How is this going to work? What elements am I willing to let go? What aspects of my syllabus are non-negotiable?
Ironically, I have found creating the bones of this syllabus to be more challenging than laying everything out myself. I am still working my way through things, but I think I have established which elements we will decide on as a class and which elements I was not willing to let go of. I am setting up the skeleton of the syllabus and then creating a document with suggestions for the elements we will establish as a class.
The plan is to take the first two weeks and really work through these elements together so that the class truly belongs to the students. There will still be weekly accountability, both synchronous and asynchronous as this semester is still online, but beyond weekly discussion posts and Teams meetings, we will figure the rest out together.
Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
- Required Readings: I have chosen one book because the author will be speaking at the college this semester and I want my students to have a connection to her work when they attend her talk. I will provide students with a list of 8-10 more potential titles that are in line with the goals of the course and ask them to vote on those or suggest other titles they think might work. The goal will be to choose 4 of those texts. I will then base my lectures and our class discussions on the themes found in those works.
- Synchronous Meetings: I will require students to meet at least once per week during our allotted course time. However, as a class we will decide whether we will meet twice a week or perhaps create an optional session on the other day.
- Late Policy: This will be an interesting conversation I believe. In the spring semester, when we moved online, and in the summer, I was VERY flexible with due dates. That ended up being A LOT of work for me. In the fall, I created “units” of 3-4 weeks and made hard deadlines at the end of each unit. This helped, but oftentimes was still a heavy workload at the end of each unit. So I want to know what they think. How do they feel about late work? How flexible do they think we should be? Oftentimes students are harsher than the professor would be on these types of things, but an open conversation about how it affects them and how it affects me will hopefully help us establish guidelines that works for everyone.
- Grade Breakdown: I am determining two components of their grade: Synchronous Teams meetings and Weekly Discussion Posts. Together we will decide the percentage value that will be assigned to them. I am then asking students to choose from a number of additional options for the remainder of their grade. They will be allowed to choose any number of items, but I will suggest 2-3. I have come up with six options for them to choose from, but will be encouraging them to think of other options to add to the list. We will then vote on them as a class. They could choose just one thing to add to the syllabus or they could add all six. The suggestions I am making include: Weekly Reflections, Periodic Checkpoints, Individual or Group Presentations to the Class, a Midterm Paper, and a Final Project. As a group we will decide on the “rules” for each component of the final grade breakdown.
As the flushing out of this syllabus will take time, I will be assigning readings for the first few weeks of the semester. I will also be providing supplemental and theoretical readings that will aid in our discussions. I do not expect students to teach themselves and I do not expect them to get through this without guidance. What I do expect is that they will feel a level of pride and ownership over their own learning that will make this one of the classes that sticks with them long after they leave Baruch.
As this is obviously a work in progress, and my first time trying this, I’ll post updates on our journey of creating a student-led syllabus periodically. I hope to have great things to share going forward.
If you are interested in creating your own student-led syllabus, here are some great resources to check out:
A Lesson Plan for Democratic Co-Creation: Forging a Syllabus for Students, by Students
Why My Students Design the Syllabus
Collaborative Syllabus Design: Students at the Center
