Nate Holdren

My first comp exercise is literally to list a few instructions from the syllabus and write why I might have included them. The prompt notes that we skip instructions all the time but sometimes it can hurt us!

I try to put everything in the syllabus - all the writing assignments, etc. It's wordy and it's all stuff I forget a lot of. How long's the paper? I dunno either. I remember the forest, not the trees. So I try hard not to have an attitude that no one memorized the users manual.

Whenever someone asks a question like this outside of class I try to say 'please bring this up in class' unless it's time-sensitive, so everyone learns the answer, and when it's in class I just say 'I don't remember all the details either, let's look it up, get out your syllabus'

I often tell the students that I put everything on both the syllabus and the LMS calendar because otherwise I don't remember it.

Sure, but when you ran into trouble what did you do first: call the person who wrote the instructions or go back to the manual and read it?

I was by myself so I slogged thru the manual. If a knowledgeable expert had been on hand or available by phone I'd have asked first. I call my brother for help with my car. If he has an answer I don't open the manual. I'd be mad if he copped an attitude like 'did you even read?!'

Suppose that what you were calling your brother about was what type of gas to use in your car. It's in the user's manual. Would you be mad if he asked you why you didn't read it?

I would, yes. I'd want him to assume I have a good reason for needing to ask him rather than looking it up.

Also this doesn't quite follow your analogy since he didn't write manual. This is like a student asking a classmate.

Cool, does your syllabus come in tiny fonts and eight languages?

No it's super gripping because I'm charming, funny, and smart, which is why I don't get why they don't hang on my every single word.

Perhaps you should consider ending the syllabus on a cliffhanger then?

.@karen_brennan tells students she has "lovingly curated" the creative and academic content and asks that we respond in kind. It's simply the best syllabus ever.

Personally, when a student says 'when is the paper due again?' or 'how many primary sources is it again for paper two?' and so on, I take that as engagement with the material - they're trying to make sure they respond with care and diligence to the activities I've planned.

I tell my students I will answer endless clarification questions, but I have less patience for those easily answered by looking at the assignment sheet I gave them. I don’t expect them to go back to the syllabus, but they should be reading the assignment.

My syllabus has a calendar of meetings with readings and assignments. When someone seems to have not even looked at that ('oh, there's a paper due next week?' when it says so twice) I do feel annoyed. But I try not to act on those feelings.

What's obvious from the perspective of an instructor is not necessarily obvious to students.

I've found that giving understandable instructions is one of the hardest parts of teaching, and it's one I make a *lot* of mistakes about.

Also: students can't always assume that what's on a syllabus reflects the reality of what's happening in classes. It's not uncommon for instructors to change their minds or be overly ambitious about how much they expect to cover in a semester.

It's pretty common for instructors to change the assignment on short notice and only announce this in class.