Skip to main content

Creating the Syllabus

On Monday I went shopping with my mom, and it was so fun to spend some much needed time with her!

I went in to the Coach store just to look covet my new obsession, the Madison Madeline, and look what I walked out with...

It's a sickness...moving on!

Monday evening was spent creating my classroom syllabus. Every year, I angst over this, because I know it is the first thing my students will receive from me. Even though I inevitably know that ten of them will be left on desks the first day of school, I want them to come away with a better understanding of this class. 

I want students in my class to walk away with a love of inquiry. I don't want them to just learn the meaning of a phrase, or how to diagram a sentence, but how to ask questions and inquire about the world around them. This week, I'll be posting my first days of school activities for my middle school students.

Here's how my syllabi turned out, I still have to work on my regular LA class, and I managed to combine my 7th grade LA1 and 2 into one syllabus for students!


7th Grade:

I found the rules for Interactive Student Notebooks online somewhere a few years ago (can't remember where, oops!), and adapted them for my classroom!





I really like my syllabus to be colorful and eye catching, like a magazine! What do you think? What does your syllabus look like?


P.S. Have you entered the giveaway yet? Make sure you do, and pass it on to your teacher friends!



Comments

  1. Love your syllabus! I've really shortened mine this year because it was just so long and so many policies to remember. This year I kept it simple and I'm hoping that it will make things a little easier :)

    Stephanie
    Tales of Teaching in Heels

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I feel the same way! I would rather have a syllabus that is more like a college course, but it's just too much to fit in for a whole year. I always enjoyed seeing what was happening on a week to week basis, but that is a whole heck of a lot of planning! :)

      Delete
  2. I love it! You should just go ahead and load the document up for the those of us with a little less flavor in their syllabus.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gladly! My only worry is that since I created it in Pages for Mac, it won't transfer well to word. If you want it though, I'd be happy to send it to you! :)

      Delete
    2. These are amazing! I LOVE them! Thank you so much for sharing!

      Delete
  3. i love it.... can you upload this?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Could you send this to me? I love it! tpbrown@tcboe.org

    ReplyDelete
  5. Can you send me a copy of your syllabus! I love it and it's my first time writing one. feo.christina@gmail.com Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Can you send me a copy of your syllabus! I love it and it's my first time writing one. feo.christina@gmail.com Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow! Can you please send this to me at teacher4him@icloud.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. I know you posted this a few years ago, but anyway you can send this to me @ lillylill76@gmail.com? Greatly appreciate it!
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Do you still have this syllabus template? If so, can you send it to tdavis3@wcpss.net? Thanks

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by! JW

Popular posts from this blog

Before the School Year Begins...

I decided that before I can start posting about what I'm doing this year, I needed to share some of my favorite strategies from last year that went really well with the students. I was completely inspired by Kelly Gallagher after reading devouring all of his books at the beginning of the school year! I had the opportunity to go to a Kelly Gallagher workshop at Judson this spring, and it was absolutely amazing! He was so nice when I went up to him (I was terrified and starstruck), and even wrote "You're Welcome" on this piece of paper, because my students actually asked me to THANK HIM for changing the way we read novels in class.  Students + asked me + to say thank you to an author + about school stuff = UTOPIA! Here are some of my abbreviated notes from the day: His TOP Points: Kids should write 4X more than you can physically grade  Students suffer from word poverty. Must get students reading more in order to be exposed to vocabulary. We ne

RAK Classroom Kit + Enjoy the Magic of The Holidays at Oakbrook Center!

Last week The Middle School Mob hosted a FB Live Holiday Hop, and I shared how I do a RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) activity with my students during the holiday season . This was my first time doing a FB live and I had so much fun! You can check out the RAK Classroom Kit here If you live in the Chicagoland area and want to have a fun family outing this Christmas season, be sure to check out my post over at Modest House, Extraordinary Home ! Save Save Save Save

Writing Notebook: Finishing up "Write Ideas" and first Invitation: AAAWWUBBIS!

Happy Monday!! Today I am continuing on with the Writer's Notebook! Last time I left off, students had just finished their "100 Things I Love". After that, students completed their writing territories, which I got from Nancie Atwell's book   Lessons That Change Writers.  We spent the first day discussing writing territories out loud, going through the list in detail, so that students had ideas of what to write about. I told them to think of it like the caption for a picture. One to two sentences that could become something more. Students had to complete this for homework. We also completely numbered our table of contents so that we could add in sections and start working in other parts of the notebook.  Students wrote their writing territories on these pages. Then we moved on to the Writer's Eye (I). Students had to place terms that described them within their "I" or around their "Eye". I created my o