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MARCIA CHATELAIN: When I put together
a syllabus for my history classes,
the first goal is to make sure that I'm
assigning the right level of reading,
so that students are actually going to do the reading.
And so I like to mix up a couple of chapters in a monograph.
Or one week, I'll just do a really challenging article.
So I know that they can really do the reading that week.
The second goal is to help them understand
that the study of history, particularly,
is grounded in a discipline.
So I'll try to do one theoretical article
about the nature of a topic in history.
And then I think the last school goal
is to make sure that they could translate the skills that we're
doing in class to the real world.
So some of my assignments will be
think about this historical period
and use historical thinking to solve a practical problem.
So it might be reparations to a group that has been victimized
by the US government.
It might be creating an exhibit for a museum
or memorializing an event.
One of the best ones was a media campaign
to deal with a problem in the past.
And so I like to make sure that students are understanding that
what we're learning is going to really help them make really
good decisions, whether it's being
an employee in a company or a citizen,
who has to make a decision about what's right.
So the first tip I would say for putting together a syllabus
is to not think about graduate education, unless you're
teaching a graduate seminar.
I think that for newly minted PhDs, who
are teaching for the first time, our reference points are often
graduate school and not our undergraduate experience.
And then part of that advice is remember that you were probably
the most talented undergraduate in your undergraduate courses.
That part of the goal of what we're
doing when we design a syllabus is to make sure
that their entry point for many students,
regardless of their previous knowledge
or regardless of their aptitude for a particular subject,
we really want to diversify the offerings.
So that people find a place to connect.
Ideally, everyone connects, but if we can't have that happen,
we want to change it up.
The other thing, for those of you out there
who are teaching difficult topics,
I like to modulate the tone of class, week by week.
I was just talking to someone about this very issue.
So if I talk about a particularly difficult moment
in history.
For instance, if I'm teaching about the Selma
to Montgomery March and violence against peaceful protesters,
then next week I might dial it back
and talk about the music in the Civil Rights movement.
I try to make sure that I'm sensitive to the fact
that students will be challenged and pushed
to talk about difficult things and that we can modulate
the tone, so that students can appreciate
the full spectrum of learning.
The other thing about putting together a syllabus
is to keep in mind your own timetable
throughout the semester.
I think that the way that students sometimes
can get too ambitious, in terms of taking on too many things
at different points in the semester.
So do we.
So when you're planning when assignments are due
and when do you want to get them back,
think about that major conference
that you're presenting at.
Think about the schedule that your family has
around certain times in the school year
and adjust for that, too.
It gives you a break.
And I think it also takes students
out of the pattern of all the work
happens only during one time in the semester.
I think that one of the things you want to put on a syllabus,
always, are your expectations for the assignments.
I think that students may gloss over that.
But I think they really help when
you communicate why student got a grade
or why they had points deducted.
I think that, after you draft your syllabus,
you should give it to a student who took one of your classes
in the past or a student who won't take the class.
And ask them to find the holes in it.
Because students are really litigious
when it comes to finding evidence about what
wasn't in the syllabus.
So sometimes, I like to get a student to look at it
and say, well what do you think is not here?
Because I think after you teach a class over and over again,
you think that there are a series
of things that are implied.
I think that every syllabus should
have why we are doing this.
Why the study of, x?
Why the study of, y?
And why the approach.
I think that when students come to college,
one of the first things that they kind of learn
is that we are all taking an approach to a topic.
And I think that when we tell them that upfront,
they start to tune in to how one body of research
can be thought of in different ways.
So I think that can kind of help them out, intellectually.
Also, remember you to use the right academic calendar, when
you're planning, something that I have done in the past.
And it creates havoc.
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