Syllabus—More than just a piece of paper with course rules

I have never liked “syllabus day”—the first day of the semester when I'm supposed to go over the syllabus that students never read. Several years ago, I began writing course syllabi as newsletters, complete with color and images, and instead of discussing the syllabus in class I assign a quiz that requires students to read and engage with the syllabus content. When I saw the book “Syllabus: the Remarkable, Unremarkable Document That Changes Everything” by Germano and Nicholls (2020), I picked it up and read it, thinking it would give me a few ideas for making my syllabus documents even better. However, to my surprise, this book was much more than tips for getting students to read a boring course contract. Instead it challenged me to re-think how I design an entire semester-long course in light of what I want my students to have learned by the end of the semester and what I need to do in order to get them there. In this lightning-round talk I’ll summarize a few of the main takeaways that I have adopted since reading “Syllabus.”