Syllabi info

Today I received information from one of my colleges about new requirements that the Texas Legislature (which only meets every two years) has decided in their wisdom to require. I certainly hope they don’t plan on having my real CV up, with my contact information. I’m not giving them that.

It will be interesting, though, to be able to puruse other teacher’s CVs and syllabi at will. So that might be a reasonable experience. Glad I don’t have to keep the website updated.

The legislature has mandated that each faculty member’s CV list the faculty members education, including degrees, institutions attended, and dates of attendance. Faculty must also include their relevant teaching and non-teaching experience as well which must contain a brief description of responsibilities, the institution, and beginning and end dates of employment. Finally, we must list all discipline related publications and presentations on the CV.

We are also required by law to provide a publiclly accessible copy of our syllabi. The syllabus must contain the following: a description of each major course requirement (exams, writing assignments, etc), the learning objectives for the course, a description of the subject matter of each lecture/discussion, and required/recommended textbooks. Each syllabus must remain on our website for a minimum of two years and must be uploaded within seven days of the start of the semester.

After reviewing the course description for the humanities, I decided to apply for the position. It is actually very similar to a course that I am presently putting together with Dr. Kagle and Dr. Stiles. So…

A music humanities syllabus divides the history of music into five eras (including 20th century) and gives major composers/works from each.

For example:

Medieval and Renaissance Music
Composers and works include:

Gregorian chant
Hildegard of Bingen
Josquin des Prez
The madrigal

The Global Humanities syllabus is focused on international humanities, particularly from non-European backgrounds. It has excellent ideas for projects, including

For a subject, you should take a contemporary work of art or architecture, short story, poem, piece of music, film, or other work created within the last century (roughly 1920 to the present) that comes from one of the cultures that we have been studying—or take one of these cultural products from the colonial or pre-colonial past. (You may build on a topic that you have used for your Cultural Resource report.) Your purpose in this project will be one of these two:

o Explain how a contemporary artist (whether painter, architect, writer, musician or other) creates works that draw on or comment on the culture and traditions of his/her society’s past.
o Explain how a work (narrative, poem, song, sculpture, building, etc.) from a society’s past can give a new understanding of what it is like to live in a particular culture or society to an outsider.

In addition, your purpose is to demonstrate how this particular cultural work explores the “human condition” within the context of its society. What questions about human life does this work attempt to deal with? What answers, if any, does it provide? How does it try to engage the senses and experience of its audience (viewer, reader, listener)?

Stanford’s Humanities Lab Lecture Series

This syllabus is primarily reading. I can totally see doing literature (obviously), but I would want some music and art. This is also very Euro-centric. While it is excellent as a literary introduction to European thought, I don’t think that is what the focus of the course would be about…. Although it might.

I think this syllabus is more along the lines of what I was thinking about originally.

Course Description and Objectives: In this basic interdisciplinary humanities course the student learns how to examine, compare, analyze, evaluate, interpret and discuss creative works within their cultural contexts. Examples for study will be selected from the world’s great works of literature, drama, painting, sculpture, architecture, music . . .
Students take from the course the ability to identify major categories of artistic forms; compare and contrast stylistic characteristics of selected works; assess the artistic merit of representative creative works; employ the language, concepts and methods of interpretive criticism as it applies to the arts; and find ways to continue participating in artistic experiences.

Course Plan: Lectures, class discussions, cultural experiences and directed observation form the basis of course activities. Examples of human creativity will be presented in videos, recordings, photographs, art objects, performances, PowerPoint, etc. Reading, personal observation and listening assignments aid in class participation and increase understanding of topics covered in lecture and discussion. Exams and reports are used to evaluate the understanding of materials from class activities, reading, and observation assignments completed outside the classroom.

I do like the idea that others have suggested of having events to attend, like the plays in the park, art museums, etc. If there were a list of twenty or so, with varying price ranges, the students could choose two or three to attend.

That same syllabus gave this as the requirements for after the events:

Fine Arts Reports: Choose events wisely! Formal reports must be 600 to 1000 words and follow a logical and organized course; thoroughly cover the topic while avoiding exceeding the 1000 typed, double-spaced word limit. Introductions include when and where; titles and names of the event/activity/works of art; creator of that art; performers; historical significance; and points of interest. The main body discusses individual works including technical aspects; comparisons and contrasts within the framework of the event; and observations. Conclusions bring all to a close with logical arguments and personal impressions; it is an excellent time to state likes and dislikes. Criteria considered in evaluating papers includes relevance of the event to the course, use of background material and course terminology, presentation, expression of opinion and personal involvement, and creativity. It is traditional to validate the report by attaching programs, museum brochures and/or tickets or receipts.

Columbia’s History of Western Art: Humanities offers some interesting suggestions too. Primarily, obviously, with art. That one source that I used with the students, though, would be great. Could I fit that in my cover letter?

I went to the internet and I looked up “why study art.”

Most of the time, the sites were all about studying art for a degree. But then I found an incredible website. It offers reasons for studying Western Art History.

It is amazingly well done. I wish I could buy a copy of it and keep it on my computer so that if it ever goes away I could still have it.

Why Study Art? Enjoy the website. The pictures are incredible and it will make you think about why you like art.

There are also quiz questions and help thinking about writing about art. They are at the original website that showed me the site above.

I followed that page home and found What is Art? Amazing pictures. Simple discussion. As in our book’s essay “Ways of Seeing,” this examines beauty and truth…

Tools of the Artist begins here and discusses the art in terms of composition, line, color, space, shape, detail…

from Davis English

While searching for humanities syllabi to beef up my understanding of what a humanities instructor teaches, I also found several interesting syllabi for medical humanities. These struck me as particularly relevant for the health sciences course, so I am posting them here.

First, I found an interesting syllabus for Narrative Medicine and Medical Humanities. I think that this would probably not be relevant for a course I would teach at the community college level in humanities, but it would be relevant for my health science professionals freshman English class.

Areas for which a project can be shaped include:
Empathy
Empathy and consciousness
Physician-patient relationship
Cross cultural medical issues and needs
History of medicine
Literature and medicine
Art/photography and medicine
Medical training and medical school curriculum
Reflection and reflective practice

Literature and Humanities is an excellent syllabus with literary works related to medicine.

Session 1: January 22 (snow date January 29): Betrayed by the Body
Robert Murphy, The Body Silent (memoir)
Chris Adrian, “A Child’s Book of Sickness and Death” (story)
Lucia Perillo, “Poem without Breasts,” “Second Poem without Breasts”

Session 2: February 26 (snow date March 5): The Wounded Healer
Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner (memoir)
William Carlos Williams, “Old Doc Rivers” (story)
Veneta Masson, “Guilt” (poem)

Session 3: March 26 (snow date April 2): Endings
Simone de Beauvoir, A Very Easy Death (memoir)
David Rieff, Swimming in a Sea of Death (memoir)
Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” (poem)

Session 4: April 30: Battling Despair
William Styron, Darkness Visible (memoir)
Jane Kenyon, “Having It Out with Melancholy” (poem)
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Sonnet 65

Session 5: May 28: Agents of Death/Angels of Mercy: Social Stigma and the
Individual Conscience
Atul Gawande, “The Doctors of the Death Chamber” (article)
Jim Shepard, “Sans Farine” (story)

Session 6: June 25: Compassion and Connections in the Hospital
Thomas Moran, The World I Made for Her (novel)
Chris Adrian, “The Sum of Our Parts” (story)

This is a discussion of another medical humanities class. Again, I think this would be very useful for the health sciences English class.

Week 1 topics:
How does the transition from student to professional (professionalization) occur: objectification of the body, responsibility vs. inexperience, instruction in “professionalism” vs. the hidden curriculum
…
Session 1. Introductory session uses poetry and art to introduce topics of cultural ambiguity (”Day of the Refugios” by Alberto Rios, “Original Sin” by Sandra Cisneros), borders between physician and patient (”Talking to the Family” by John Stone, “Open You Up” by Richard Berlin) distancing of the sick from their own health (”Across the Border” by Karen Fiser), isolation (Edvard Munch’s paintings Death in the Sickroom, The Dead Mother).

Arbitrariness of borders, the Other: one-page excerpt from Edward Said’s Orientalism.

Session 2. Objectification of the body as students become acculturated while learning gross anatomy through dissection. Anatomy of Anatomy in Images and Words by photojournalist Meryl Levin traces this process with photographs and student journal entries. Secret knowledge not previously available to the lay public. But now this knowledge is public: Gunther von Hagens’s Body Worlds exhibit.

Student response to gross anatomy course: poem, “Apparition” by Gregg Chesney. Intern trains herself to be detached: poem, “Internship in Seattle” by Emily R. Transue.

Historical perspectives on objectifying and learning from the body:

the dead body — Rembrandt’s painting, The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp)

the living body-Eakins’s paintings, The Gross Clinic and The Agnew Clinic

development of technology (”Technology and Disease: The Stethoscope and Physical Diagnosis” by Jacalyn Duffin)

Compare representations (paintings) of physician-patient interaction: The Doctor by Sir Luke Fildes and Picasso’s Science and Charity.

Patient’s perspective of objectification and loss of personhood: poem, “The Coliseum” by Jim Ferris

“Professionalism”: Jack Coulehan critiques current curricula in medical professionalism and discusses the hidden curriculum. “You Say Self Interest, I Say Altruism.”

Difficult transition and ambiguous boundaries when medical student officially becomes an MD. Playing the role, assuming the role. Short story by Mikhail Bulgakov, “The Steel Windpipe”and Perri Klass’s introduction to Baby Doctor and essay from Baby Doctor, “Flip-flops.” Klass’s essays include reflections on the interaction of personal and professional life and lead into Session 3.

Session 3. Physician perspectives on the overlap and conflict of personal and professional life; subjectivity, objectivity

Poem, “Falling Through” by Michael Jacobs.
Essay, “Language Barrier”. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie.
Essay, “Heart Rhythms”. Sandeep Jauhar.
Story, “Laundry”. Susan Onthank Mates.
Poem, “Monday”. Marc J. Straus.
Poem sequence, “The Distant Moon, I, II,III, IV”. Rafael Campo.
Essay, “Fat Lady”. Irvin D.Yalom

And I have finished all six of my syllabi, though I have to admit I just finished putting the final touches to the new prep today. Why do I do that when I tell my students not to? Regardless, they are finished.

Now to go and present them.

For grade challenges, I have included a statement in my syllabus explaining that a grade represents achievement, not effort, and does not signify anything about the student’s potential or skills in any other area; my typical grade distribution for the course; and a statement about the difference in meaning and procedure for requesting an explanation of a grade (asking how to improve) and requesting consideration for a grade change (must be done in writing with evidence). Those things combined with a rubric for the main assignments have dramatically decreased the complaints I deal with. I don’t like to get into an unpleasant interaction with a student, so I’m big on prevention. That might not work with your students, of course.

from Kedves

This syllabus from Penn State has as a scheduled beginning exercise watching Fight Club. They also read parts of Fast Food Nation. This is definitely a writing class first, with social sciences second. There is quite a bit of rhetorical theory, including Toulmin and claims (Aristotle).

A unit on writing and inquiry in the social sciences

Unit II - Writing and Inquiry in the Social Sciences
Objectives of Unit II: To familiarize students with the issues debated in the social sciences, and writing skills used in the social sciences. To increase student confidence in reading and writing in the social sciences. The successful completion of an experiment in the social sciences.

Class …
“Issues in Social Science - Social Science in Perspective”
Introduction to the Social Sciences Unit
Reflection and in-class writing on science unit. Introduction to the social sciences.
Relating social science to lived experience. Topics in Social Science.
Homework:
Read: “Behavioral Studies in Obedience” “On ‘Obedience to Authority’” “Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison” Optional: “Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience …” Write: Personal Reaction Essays. 1-2 page on each experiments.

Class…
Experimentation in the Social Sciences
Class discussion of the articles on the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milligram experiment. Discussion of the way knowledge is achieved through experimentation in the social sciences. Discussion of the purpose of such knowledge. Opinion vs. Evidence. Discussion of potential experimental topics for the Social Science Paper.
Homework:
Read: “On the Ethics of Intervention …” Survey Building Complete: Ethics Survey/ Certification: http://hstraining.orda.ucsb.edu
Write: Proposal for experimental topic.

Class …
Refining and Conducting a Social Science Experiment / Experimental ethics.
Share experimental ideas. Discussion of ethics in the social sciences. Group the students into optional experimental teams. Workshop on writing effective survey questions.
Homework:
Conduct: Experimental Survey

Class …
Interpreting and Presenting Data
Discussion of collected data from surveys. How to interpret information. How to craft raw data into a polished report. Group work on organizing and presenting results effectively. Discussion of experimental form.
Homework:
Read: “Field Study and Reports” Write: Individual Rough draft of Social Science Experiment.

Class …
Social Science Report Workshop
Peer review and workshop of Social Science Experiment. Class discussion of common difficulties or problems. Volunteers to share portions of Social Science Experiment.
Homework:
Write: Final Draft of the Social Science Experiment.

This course requires as a text
Behrens, Laurence and Rosen, Leonard J. Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. 8th ed.
New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 2002

The social sciences unit:

Unit 1: Social Sciences
Monday 9/30: Introduction and diagnostic

Wednesday 10/2: The basics of writing a college paper
Distribution of the assignment for paper 1
Reading: “Group Minds” (WRAC pp.306-8) and “The Organization Kid”
(WRAC pp.365-74)

Monday 10/7: Summary
Reading: “Opinions and Social Pressure” (WRAC pp.309-15)

Wednesday 10/9: Paraphrase and quotation
Reading: “The Perils of Obedience” (WRAC pp.317-28)

Monday 10/14: Critique
Reading: “Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience” and
“Obedience” (WRAC pp.329-45)

Wednesday 10/16: Peer review of rough drafts

Good resources for teachers are available on the net

on preparing or revising a course

If the course is new to you and has never been offered before, review textbooks on the topic of the course. Reviewing textbooks will give you a sense of the main themes and issues that your course might address, which is especially useful if you are preparing a course outside your areas of specialization. (Source: Brown, 1978)
…
Identify the constraints in teaching the course. As you begin to design the course, ask yourself, How many hours are available for instruction? How many students will be enrolled? Are the students primarily majors or nonmajors? At what level? What material can I safely assume that students will know? What courses have they already completed? What courses might they be taking while enrolled in mine? Will readers or graduate student instructors be available? What sorts of technological resources will be in the classroom? (Sources: Brown, 1978; Ory, 1990)

on Principles of Adult Learning

Adults have accumulated a foundation of life experiences and knowledge that may include work-related activities, family responsibilities, and previous education. They need to connect learning to this knowledge/experience base. To help them do so, they should draw out participants’ experience and knowledge which is relevant to the topic. They must relate theories and concepts to the participants and recognize the value of experience in learning.
…
Adults are relevancy-oriented. They must see a reason for learning something. Learning has to be applicable to their work or other responsibilities to be of value to them. Therefore, instructors must identify objectives for adult participants before the course begins. This means, also, that theories and concepts must be related to a setting familiar to participants. This need can be fulfilled by letting participants choose projects that reflect their own interests.

is the topic of an article in The Chronicle of Higher Ed.

She had a syllabus almost entirely plagiarized and found out about it when a student came to ask to borrow a book.

The American Association of University Professors has an informational outline on intellectual-property issues that says the “prevailing academic practice” is for faculty members to own the copyrights of scholarly works and teaching materials that are “created independently and at the faculty member’s own initiative.” However, some faculty work is considered “work for hire” — documents made by faculty members for the university to fulfill their contractual obligations, and owned by the university.
….
But maybe not. As Gary Rhoades writes in “Whose Property Is It? Negotiating with the University,” “increasingly, faculty members’ intellectual products, including those generated from their basic research and teaching activities, are being considered as commodities.” Much of that push comes from courses delivered online, where the syllabus and other course materials are purchased and both faculty members and universities have the potential to make money.

I have used statements from other teachers which I got online and attributed them.

I have used entire templates given to me by my colleges and have not attributed those.

SLAC specifies that the syllabus I am handing out, no matter how much my own, is created and annually reviewed by the “English department.”

I have asked before to borrow someone’s work or to attribute it to them. Some say yes; some don’t answer. Does that mean I can’t borrow their work?

What if I used someone’s syllabus to get started? The finished syllabus is totally mine, my words, my choices of work, my direction, but I used theirs to get started. Do I have to attribute that?

A paragraph on the history of plagiarism was interesting from another perspective:

In Stolen Words, Thomas Mallon writes that plagiarism as a concept emerged in the 17th century when, for the first time, people could make a living as writers. Before then, words could not be owned; no one would have claimed to own a sentence any more than they might claim to own the sky. For most of our literary history, Mallon writes, imitation was the preferred mode of composing. Originality emerged along with the notion of writing as an occupation and with, not surprisingly, the invention of the printing press. The history of plagiarism reinforces the fact that writing has to be seen as valuable to begin with before it will be deemed worth protecting.

My family has asked me where the impetus behind plagiarism came from. This is what she and Thomas Mallon had to say.

I found some useful ideas in Dr. Lauren Scharff’s Spring 2008 Psychology Teaching Seminar.

She recommends that right away you come up with your teaching philosophy.

A teaching philosophy is a personal statement of what you perceive teaching to be. It details the philosophical/research basis for all teaching-related activities. The first thing you will do this semester, is write a teaching philosophy. Please do NOT discuss this among yourselves. This is something that should be very personal and individualized.

What does this mean?

My personal philosophy of teaching presently begins with this:

Learning is one of the greatest joys in my life and I want to pass that love of learning on to my students. As their teacher, it is my responsibility to not only understand and explain the work they are required to do, but also to present it in such a way that they clearly see its relation to the rest of the class, their college coursework, and their lives outside of college.

That is the fundamental guide for my teaching. I love to learn and I want to infect others with my illness.

One of my favorite online education bloggers, Robert Talbert (a math guy, but I don’t hold it against him), has written/grown his philosophy of education online.

Real learning of a subject does not begin until the student has taken enough interest in the subject to form an honest, significant question which renders the subject worthy of attention. Sometimes these questions are practical, sometimes purely aesthetic or asked out of mere curiosity. But learning does not begin unless, and until, those questions are formed in the minds of the student.

How does this translate into teaching? My classes ground themselves in reasonable, interesting questions for which we need the mathematics under study to answer. For example, on the first day of a calculus class, I give an example of two related quantities, such as the price of oil and the price of a gallon of gas. Then I ask: How can we make this relationship precise? How fast is the price of gas changing? By how much can I expect the price of gas to change over a given period? These are questions of interest to the everyday consumer, but they are also questions which motivate the main ideas of calculus (the function, derivative, and integral), and students see why we need these topics.

I think it is true that you need to know what you think teaching is before you can teach. Hopefully, even if it is only a beginning, you have thoughts that can be written down as your Teaching Philosophy.

Dr. Scharff also said:

A syllabus is a reflection of you, both as a person and as a teacher; your personality and style will be clearly demonstrated in this document.

If it is, then recently my personality has become cover-your-butt ugly and very legalistic. We have, in the past ten years or so, come to look at the syllabus as a learning contract. Because of that descriptor, syllabi have come to be stuffed with things that OUGHT to be able to go unsaid and we leave out the fascinating/charming because it doesn’t fit the legal document.

I found a Business Writing syllabus I wrote two decades ago. It has clip art that is relevant to what the class was doing. It was a lively piece of work that set the class up as an entrepeneur-growth house.

I am going back to a syllabus that more accurately reflects my “personality and style.” Do you think the school has antique parchment in hot pink for photocopies?