During one of my weekly chats with Mr. Max Cole, I
just urgently got the thought to ask him if he had a syllabus for his Freshman
Seminar course. His reply was “No!” So I asked him to meet later that day to
design a syllabus for his course. The school culture has a motto: Be
consistently responsible, respectful, and reflective. Once I arrived at his
school to go over the design of the syllabus I immediately told Max some
reasons I believe a syllabus is important especially for a Freshman Seminar
course. I wanted the students to sign it, the parents to sign it, as well as
Mr. Cole. That way this syllabus is a contract. It is student’s responsibility and
parent’s responsibility to read and understand the material on it. This syllabus would be the blueprint
for the course expectations, requirements, ground rules, readings, assignments,
exams, and final projects. It would contain all the information you need to
navigate the course over the term. The syllabus would be a key reference tool
for students, and it's imperative that they use it to plan their course work.
So after
three hours…this is what we came up with.
