Thứ Hai, 29 tháng 11, 2010

pictures of heaven

Thiên bồng nguyên soái?
Cho con miếng đi mẹ!


Adverbial clause of concession

ADVERBIAL CLAUSE OF CONCESSION AND REASON

Exercise 1: Fill in the gaps using although, in spite of/despite
1. ___________ the weather was bad, we enjoyed our trip.
2. The children slept well ____________ the noise.
3. ________________ earning a low salary, Linda gave money to her parents.
4. John rarely sees Paul ___________ they live in the same town.
5. Julie failed the exam ____________ of working very hard.
6. ____________ it was cold, she didn't put on her coat.
7. Tom went to work ___________ not feeling very well.
8. Anna never learned the language ___________ she lived there for two years.
9. ____________ of the difficulty, they managed to climb to the top of the mountain.
10. I couldn't eat _____________ I was very hungry.

Exercise 2: Rewrite the following sentences:

1)Although Tom was a poor student, he studied very well.
=> In spite of ……………………………………………………………………………..
2) Mary could not go to school because she was sick.
=> Because of …………………………………………………………………………….

3) Although the weather was bad, she went to school on time.
=> Despite ………………………………………………………………………………..
4) My mother told me to go to school although I was sick.
=> In spite of …………………………………………………………………………….
5) Because there was a big storm, I stayed at home.
=> Because of ……………………………………………………………………………
6) Tom was admitted to the university although his grades were bad.
=>Despite ………………………………………………………………………………..
7) Although she has a physical handicap, she has become a successful woman.
=> Despite ………………………………………………………………………………..
8) In spite of his good salary, Tom gave up his job.
=> Although………………………………………………………………………………
9) Though he had not finished the paper, he went to sleep.
=> In spite of …………………………………………………………………………….
10) In spite of the high prices, my daughter insists on going to the movies.
=> Even though ………………………………………………………………………….

Exercise3: Rewrite the following sentences

1.She went to bed early because she felt tired.
-->Because of…………………………………………………………………………
2. He retired last month because he was ill.
->………………………………………………………………………………………
3. My father decided to stop smoking because of its harm for health.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
4. We couldn't read the sign on the building because the distance was so great.

->……………………………………………………………………………………..
5. I lost my way because the fog was thick.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
6. We didn't go to school because it rained.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
7. I admired Mr. Smith because his conduct is good.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
8. I have to copy the lesson for John because he is absent.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
9. I like him because his father is kind to me.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
10. He left school because his wife was hard.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
11. I was late because there was much traffic.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
12. Jane looked happy because she had got good marks.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
13. Peter was worried because of his wife's being late.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
14. He stopped working here because he was too old to continue. 
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
15. These men lived unhappily because they are poor.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
16. The pupils came to class late because they had an accident. 
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
17. I was sad because they behaved badly.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
18. I respected Mr. Carol because of her honesty.
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
19. The building hasn't been finished because of the lack of money. 
->……………………………………………………………………………………..
20. All the students love the principal because of his kindness. 
->……………………………………………………………………………………..

Mua Giac mo trua

Chủ Nhật, 28 tháng 11, 2010

Vang vong nui rung

Response paper 1 EFL 523

NAME: LÝ HOÀNG LINH THẢO             RESPONSE PAPER #1

EFL523- COHORT 1- HCMC


 

PHAM HOA HIEP'S VIEW ON TEACHER DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM


 

Pham Hoa Hiep's article offers an extensive look at teacher development- a real need for English departments in Vietnam. It focuses not only on teacher training and teacher development but on some suggestions to improve professional development amongst EFL teachers.


 

Great teachers help create great students. In fact, research shows that an inspiring and informed teacher is the most important school-related factor influencing student achievement, so it is critical to pay close attention to how we train and support both new and experienced educators.


 

I have been teaching English for 14 years and it is true that there are some problems in teacher education as Pham Hoa Hiep includes in his article. Because of the severe shortage of teachers of English many years ago, Vietnam gave birth to a mass of teachers of English. Most of them received inadequate teacher training. As a result, they cannot meet the great demand for English teaching. In the other hand, teacher development has not been emphasized inadequately. Seminars or workshops seem to be rare in Vietnam. "The staff of our English department meets a couple of times a semester. We just meet for administrative work but rarely for professional development purposes" (Pham 2000). In fact, after they attend workshops to learn new teaching methods, they attempt to apply them in their teaching. Hence, when they get a result not so good as they expect, they soon fall in the disappointment and again, follow their prefered method.


 

Moreover, self- study is not fully noticed by some teachers. Obviously, some teachers in Vietnam are busy working all day. They have no time to relax, no time to well- prepare for all the lessons they will teach and of course no time to think of how to make the learners understanding the lessons easily and joyfully. Different classes with only one way of teaching really spoil the interest of the learners and even of the teachers.


 

I am very interested in the solutions he points out. Actually, I have applied some of them such as organizing a shared teaching folders, getting students to work in group, motivating students by warm-up activities, observing classto get more experices in teaching from colleagues. They all can work well if I spend more time and energy working on them. "Nothing valuable comes to you without paying". You can attend many teacher training courses getting new methods of teaching but if you do not dare to put them into practice, they are useless indeed. Initially, the process to success may be painful. Try not to be discouraged.


In conclusion, c
hange does not mean doing a different thing but doing the same thing differently. I now begin to see that comprehensive career-long teacher development and institutional reforms is the real agenda. I find this article very informative and it gives me more strength to keep on applying these useful solutions in my real teaching in the hope that my students and even myself will have more motivation and improvements.


 

 

Lesson plan writing

NAME: LÝ HOÀNG LINH THẢO             LESSON PLAN

EFL525- COHORT 1- HCMC         ™&˜

DATE: 22 APRIL, 2010    

        

Skill level:             Intermediate

Number of students:        38

Material:             handout, pictures

Teaching aids:            computer, projector

Time:                 15 minutes

Objective: By the end of the lesson, students should be able to

  • Collect ideas to make a paragraph
  • Avoid tense error when writing

PROCEDURES

Preparation (2minutes)

    Warm-up:    Quiz: What is it?

    Lead-in:     Do you like camping? Why? Can you tell me some activities when you go camping?

            Do you want to narrate your memorable camping to your friends?

            àIt's a good topic for you to practice writing

First of all, let me tell you about lesson objectives:

    By the end of the lesson, students should be able to

  • Collect ideas to make a paragraph
  • Avoid tense error

Presentation(3 minutes)

  • T presents 2 activities: Matching and answering questions
  • T helps students understand what to do in the 2 activities

Practice (6 minutes)

    Activity 1: Matching (3 minutes)

  • T shows 9 pictures and 9 activities
  • Have students match the activities with the correct pictures
  • Students work in groups of 3
  • Walk around to help students if needed
  • Give comments

    Activity 2: Answering the questions (3 minutes)

  • T prepare 6 questions about the activities in pictures
  • S work individually. Walk around to help students if needed
  • S share their answers. à peer-correction

Evaluation (1 minute)

  • Give comment.
  • From the results, T can measure how much the objectives met.

Extension: (1 minute)

  • Have students know what they will do next : write the description of a camping holiday
  • Remind the students of using connector like first of all, then, after that, next.....

Closure: (1 minute)

  • Summarize the lesson

    WRITING A NARRATION OF A CAMPING HOLIDAY


 

Activity 1:
Last weekend, Class 11A4 went to Ba Vi for a camping holiday. Below are some of their activities during their two-day holiday. Match them with the correct pictures.

1. singing and dancing around the camp fire

2. the bus leaving the school at 5 a.m.

3. putting up the umbrella tent

4. watching wildlife in the forest

5. cooking food over an open fire

6. swimming in the lake

7. playing games

8. leaving campsite at 4 p.m. the next day

9. fishing


 


 


 


 


 

Activity 2: Work in pairs. Answer the following questions.

  1. When did the students in class 11A4 go camping?

    ............................................................................................................................................

  2. Where did they go to?

    .............................................................................................................................................

  3. What time did the bus leave school?

    ............................................................................................................................................

  4. What did they do after putting up the umbrella tent?

    .............................................................................................................................................

  5. What did they do around the camp fire?

    ...............................................................................................................................................

  6. What time did they leave the campsite?

    ...............................................................................................................................................


     

ASSIGNMENT FOR SYLLABUS DESIGN

I. INTRODUCTION

1. What is syllabus ?

There are several conflicting views on what it is that distinguishes syllabus design from curriculum development. There is also some disagreement about the nature of “the syllabus”. However, it is possible to distinguish a broad and a narrow approach to syllabus design.

The narrow view draws a clear distinction between syllabus design and methodology. Syllabus design is seen as being concerned essentially with the selection and grading of content, while methodology is concerned with the selection and grading of learning tasks and activities. Those who adopt a broader view question this strict separation, arguing that with the advent of communicative language teaching the distinction between content and tasks is difficult to sustain.

Syllabus design is based essentially on a decision about the “units” of classroom activity, and the “sequence” in which they are to be performed. The syllabus thus formalizes the content to be learned in a domain of knowledge or behavior, and “arranges this content in a succession of interim objectives” (Widdowson, 1990, p. 127). As in other areas of instruction (see Reigeluth, 1999) there are options in, and differing theoretical rationales for, the units to be adopted in specifying and sequencing pedagogic content for second language (L2) learners.

Etymologically syllabus means a "label" or "table of contents." The American Heritage Dictionary defines syllabus as outline of a course of study. We agree that a syllabus should contain an outline, and a schedule of topics, and many more items of information. However, we suggest that the primary purpose of a syllabus is to communicate to one's students what the course is about, why the course is taught, where it is going, and what will be required of the students for them to complete the course with a passing grade.

2. Why should we have syllabus ?

A syllabus is an important document in teaching / learning process because of some acknowledged and hidden reasons:

- English is a complicated entity. We can divide it into smaller parts to make it easier for learners to master.

- A syllabus can be seen as a statement of projected routes, so that teacher and learner can know where they are going and how they might get there.

- A syllabus tells the teacher and the student not only what is to be learnt, but, implicitly, why it is to be learnt.

- A syllabus provides a visible basis for testing.

3. What are the steps of designing a syllabus ?

Step1: Identifying students’ communicative need

Step 2: Establishing goals and objectives

Step3: Selecting / creating materials

Step 4: Designing tasks and activities

Step 5: Grading the content, tasks , activities


II. DEVELOPMENT

Course title: EXAM PREPARATION COURSES FOR GRADE 12 STUDENTS IN VIETNAM

PART 1 : GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE COURSE

1. The learners:

- General goal of learning: ·

+ use English in daily life, self- study, do research in university

+ improve reading comprehension skills

+ understand lectures given in English

+ work on examination effectively

- Specific objectives:

+ know how to greet, make phone call, send e-mail, make apology...

+ know how to write formal letters and informal letter.

+ understand picture-books and documents in English; watch films on TV and sing English songs.

+ know how to take brief notes when attending lectures

+ get the GCSE with flying colors

- Level of English: intermediate level

- Background knowledge: Most of the learners have good background knowledge of sciences, nature and cultures

- Age: from 18 years old to 20 years old.

2. The learners’ communicative needs:

- The transactions they engage in: chat with friends for fun; ask teachers for information and answer teachers’ questions; do the assignments and give directions to foreigners when asked.

- They are involved in communicative skill:

+ Writing: create a topic sentence, distinguishing between main ideas and supporting sentences, self- editing.

+ Listening: recognizing key information, using discourse markers to identify the flow of discourse, following rapid speech.

+ Speaking: recognizing turn-taking signals, introducing a topic, using communication strategies.

+ Reading: reading for gist, guessing words from context, reading and making inferences.

- Both oral and written texts are needed: exchanges, forms, procedures, information texts, story texts, persuasive texts. Both formal and casual styles

3. The learning/ teaching situation:

- Average class size: 14 students

- Maximum class size: 20 students

- Extra facilities: free wireless; lab free and available to students from 9a.m to 10 a.m. and from 1.30 p. m to 6 p. m

- Teachers:

+ have many years of experience in teaching English;

+ well-trained and have high qualifications

+ enthusiastic, pleasant and humorous

+ apply current methods which can motivate all kinds of learners.

4. Course duration: 30 class hours in 5 weeks

5. Course rationale: This course is designed for school students who wish to improve their communication skills in English in order to study in university. It teaches the basic communication skills needed to communicate in a variety of different learning settings. The course seeks to enable participants to recognize their strengths and needs in language learning and to give them the confidence to use English more effectively to achieve their own goals. It also seeks to develop the participants’ skills in independent learning outside the classroom. The most important thing is that the course seeks to train students overcome the final national examination for GCSE.

6. Course goals and objectives:

A/ Goal 1. Students will learn how to communicate effectively, in both speech and writing, in everyday situations to meet the demands of society.

Objectives: At the end of the course, students will be able to:

- Get the gist of short conversations in simple English on topics related to daily life and leisure.

- Have the confidence to initiate conversations in English, be unafraid of making mistakes and attempt utterances outside his or her competence.

- Read for information such as identifying the topic, main ideas, stated and implied, reading for detail, skimming to obtain the gist or a general impression of the semantic content and scanning to locate specifically required information.

B/ Goal 2: Students will learn how to get high marks in the final examination for GCSE

Objectives: At the end of the course, students will be able to:

- Do all kinds of exercises given in examination

- Know how to present the keys implicitly

- Know how to balance the time for each part of the examination

C/ Goal 3: Students will learn how to understand lectures given in English.

Objectives: At the end of the course, students should be able to:

- Follow an argument, theme, or thesis of the lecture

- Recognize the following aspects of a lecture such as cause- and- effect relationships, comparisons and contrasts, premises used in persuasive argument and supporting details used in persuasive argument

D/ Goal 4: Students will learn how to develop strategies for effective organization and management of time.

Objectives: At the end of the course, students should be able to:

- Identify realistic times and time spans for home study and individual study

- Create a daily/ weekly timetable of study and entertainment like: reading and playing sports

- Prioritize study time allocation in relation to other everyday activities and family commitments.

7. Required text: Tiếng Anh 12- Hoàng Văn Vân, Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Đào Ngọc Lộc, Vũ Thị Lợi, Đỗ Tuấn Minh, Nguyễn Quốc Tuấn - Nhà Xuất Bản Giáo Dục 2008

Hướng dẫn ôn tập thi tốt nghiệp THPT năm học 2008-2009- Vũ Thị Lợi, Nguyễn Phương Hạnh, Trần Nga, Nguyễn Thị Bích Ngân-Nhà Xuất Bản Giáo Dục 2009

8. Grading plan: Coursework will be weighted as follows:

· Quizzes: 20% ( in each lesson)

· Mid- term: 30% ( after week 3)

· Final exam : 40% (after the course)

· Attendance: 10%


PART 2: SYLLABUS CONTENT

TIME

TOPIC

FUNCTION

STRUCTURE

TASK/ ACTIVITIES

Week 1

(6 lessons)

You and me:

Home life

Cultural diversity

Ways of socializing

Making a phone call

Making an apology

Giving and responding to compliments

Tenses

Reported Speech

Guessing meaning from the context

Deciding True/ False statements

Filling in missing information

Summarizing main idea

Building sentences

Re-ordering sentences to make paragraph

Writing about family rules

Completing letter with the correct verb form

Week 2

(6 lessons)

Education:

School education system

Higher education

Future jobs

Making questions about application process to tertiary study in VN

Giving opinions about jobs

Writing letter of request/ job application

Passive Voice

Conditional sentences

Relative clauses

Guessing meaning from the context

Scanning for specific information

True/ False statements

Comprehension questions

Vocabulary comprehension matching

Arranging the sequence of an event

Multiple choice questions

Filling in missing words

Sentence transformation

Filling in blank with passive forms of the verbs

Combining sentences

Week 3

(6 lessons)

Community, nature and environment:

Economic reforms

Future life

Deserts

Endangered species

Making a description

Making predictions

Writing a report

Preposition of time and places

Articles

Adverbial clauses of concession

Modal verbs

Guessing meaning from the context

True/ False statements

Scanning / listening for specific information

Note taking

Gap-filling

Finding supporting evidence

Multiple choice questions

Sentence combination

Sentence complete

Week 4

(6 lessons)

Recreation:

Books

Water sports

SEA Games

Make a description

Make a discussion

Giving opinions and preferences

Make a report on sports results

Giving instructions

Modal verbs in passive

Transitive and intransitive verbs

Double comparative

Guessing meaning from the context

Giving Vietnamese equivalent to words and phrases

Multiple choice questions

Gap-filling

Reading for specific information

Sentence complete

Sentence transformation

Week 5

(6 lessons)

People and places:

International Organizations

Women in society

The Association of South East Asian Nations

Expressing opinions

Expressing degrees of agreement

Make a description of a chart/ an international organization

Writing letter of recommendation

Phrasal verbs

Adverbial clause of time

Vocabulary comprehension matching

Summarizing ideas

Gap-filling

True/ false statements

Multiple choice questions

Sentence complete


PART 3 A SAMPLE LESSON

Integrating Target Grammar Structures

This week's feature focuses on an integrating a lesson plan to focus on one targeted area in using different language skills. The example lesson plan focuses on the use of recycling language, namely the passive voice, to help students learn inductively while at the same time improve their oral production skills. By often repeating the passive voice in various guises the students become comfortable with the use of the passive and can then go on to actually employ the passive voice in speaking. It is important to remember that the subject area that they should speak about needs to be limited as to not make the task too difficult by giving students too much choice. In the past, we have often allowed students to choose their subject, however we have noticed that when the oral production task is clearly defined, students are more able to produce the targeted structure because they are not worried about inventing some subject or saying something clever.

LESSON AIMS

1. Students will improve recognition of the differences between the passive voice and active voice with particular attention paid to the present simple, past simple, and present perfect passive forms.

2. Students will inductively review passive form structures.

3. Students will quickly review language used to express opinions.

4. Students will contextualize the use of the passive by first making guesses about Seattle, and then finding out about certain facts about that city

5. Students will focus on passive oral production skills in the context of speaking about Tuscany.


POSSIBLE PROBLEMS

1. Students will almost certainly have problems with using the passive form in production activities. As the class is an intermediate level, students have principally concentrated on acquiring oral skills using the active voice. For this reason, I have chosen the narrow focus area of speaking about Tuscany so that students can focus on a specific subject in the context of speaking about their part of the world.

2. Students might tend to place the subject of the passive sentence after the participle as they are used to an object being the object of a verb and not the subject of the sentence.

3. Students might have difficulties in recognizing the difference between the passive voice and the present perfect active.

4. Students might substitute /d/ for /t/ in certain participle endings with verbs such as 'send'.

SKILLS

Reading short prepared text with passive and active in the present simple, past simple, and present perfect forms. Develop skimming skills by scanning text to locate facts about Seattle.

Speaking: Making guesses and expressing opinions about Seattle.
Speaking about Tuscany using the passive voice.

GRAMMAR
Inductive grammar review of the differences between the passive and active focusing mainly on the present simple, past simple and present perfect passives.

MATERIALS Teacher produced

Seattle Fact Sheet

  • The basketball team "The Lakers" are from Seattle
  • It often rains in Seattle
  • Silicon valley is near Seattle
  • Bill Gates and Microsoft are located in Seattle
  • Chrysler cars are manufactured in Seattle
  • Bruce Springsteen was born in Seattle
  • "Grunge" music comes from Seattle
  • Seattle is in the Southwest of the United States

My Hometown

Many years ago, I was born in Seattle, Washington USA. Seattle is located in the Northwest corner of the USA. Recently, Seattle has become the focus of much international attention. Many films have been made there, probably the most famous of which is "Sleepless in Seattle" starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Seattle is also known as the birthplace of Grunge music, both Pearl Jam and Nirvana are from Seattle. For older people like myself, it should be noted that Jimmi Hendrix was born in Seattle! NBA fans know Seattle for the "Seattle Supersonics" which has played basketball in Seattle for more than 30 years. Unfortunately, Seattle is also famous for its bad weather. I can remember weeks and weeks of grey, wet weather when I was growing up.

Seattle has also become one of the fastest growing business areas in the United States. Two of the most important names in the booming business scene in Seattle are Microsoft and Boeing. Microsoft was founded and is owned by the world-famous Bill Gates (how much of his software is on your computer?). Boeing has always been essential to the economic situation in Seattle. It is located to the north of Seattle and famous jets such as the "Jumbo" have been manufactured there for more than 50 years!
Seattle is positioned between the Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains. The combination of its scenic location, thriving business conditions and exciting cultural scene makes Seattle one of America's most interesting cities.

Lesson Plan

Lesson Phase

Exercises

Purpose

Warm-up

5 minutes

Relate story about Cavalleria Rusticana which was written by Mascagni in Leghorn, ask students if there are any other famous things that are produced etc. in Leghorn.

To call to mind and refresh student awareness of the passive voice in a relaxed introductory segment. By taking about Leghorn, students are prepared for the following activities concerning Seattle.

Guess Work 10 minutes

A. As a class, illicit language used to express opinions.
B. Look at Seattle fact sheet
C. In pairs, quickly discuss which facts they think are true or false.

Quick review of language used to expresses opinions and make guesses. By working through the fact sheet students will hopefully begin to intuitively use the passive voice while contextualizing the use of the passive when used to describe a native city or region. This section also creates student interest in the following reading selection by asking them to guess if the facts are true or false.

Reading

15 minutes

A. Have students read short text about Seattle
B. Have students underline passive voice structures.
C. Students discuss what the differences are between the active and passive voice.
D. Class review of passive structure.

To inductively improve the recognition of the differences between the active and passive voice. In section A students become aware of the differences by seeing repeated use of both the active and passive voice. In section B students inductively increase their recognition skills by underlining the passive form. At the same time, students improve their skimming skills by checking if their previous guesses about Seattle were correct. Section C allows students to learn from each other in a relaxed manner. Finally, section D helps students review the passive voice as a class with confirmation by the teacher.

Oral Production

15 minutes

A. As a class, discuss which passive utterances could be used to describe a region. (i.e. Wine is produced in Chianti)
B. Have students divide into groups of three.
C. Each group should focus on using the passive voice to describe Tuscany to his/her partners.
D. Class correction of common errors.

Use of passive voice to describe favorite subjects. By having students speak about Tuscany, students con focus on correct passive voice production in the contextualized situation of speaking about your native region or city. After having listened to group work around the class, the teacher can then help students with common mistakes.


III. CONCLUSION

“What is good for everything is good for nothing". This is one of the maxims each of us ought to bear in mind, and it is applicable to all spheres of life, not excluding language pedagogy. Any foreign language program follows certain guidelines. They are the general curriculum of a state school, the language philosophy of a language teaching institution, or even the outline of private tuition for a single student. The guidelines should not; however, be formulated in an ad hocus-pocus and haphazard manner, resulting from the school’s vague preferences, the instructor’s favorite teaching techniques and activities, his/her methodological ignorance, or the uncritical following of the current vogue. Conversely, every language course (any course, in fact), be it general or restricted, ought to be consciously designed taking three points into consideration: who we teach, how to teach and, most importantly what to teach.


References:

Group of authors: Hoàng Văn Vân, Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Đào Ngọc Lộc, Vũ Thị Lợi, Đỗ Tuấn Minh, Nguyễn Quốc Tuấn- Tiếng Anh 12- Nhà xuất bản Giáo Dục 2008

Group of authors: Vũ Thị Lợi, Nguyễn Phương Hạnh, Trần Nga, Nguyễn Thị Bích Ngân- Hướng dẫn ôn tập thi tốt nghiệp THPT năm 2008-2009- Nhà xuất bản Giáo Dục 2009

The Faculty of HCLAS General Education Goals and Learning Objectives
for the BE and BS Degrees- May 9, 2007

Dr.Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa - Planning goals and learning outcomes

Androsenko, V.P. 1992. A refresher course in communicative teaching. English Teaching Forum 30, 2: 2–5, 27. [20]

Borg, S. 2006. Teacher Cognition and Language Education: Research and Practice. London: Continuum. [12]

Coleman, H. 1989. Learning and Teaching in Large Classes: A Bibliography. Project report no. 1, Lancaster-Leeds language learning in large classes research project. [2]

Hess, N. 2001. Teaching Large Multi-Level Classes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [2]


APPENDIX

10 Reflection questions to ask at the beginning, middle and end of the syllabus design process

1. What do you want your students to learn?

2. Do your learning objectives capture your answer to #1?

3. Do your assignments and tests teach and measure the things that matter most?

4. How can you best use the class time you have?

5. Have you established high expectations?

6. Have you used all the resources at your disposal?

7. Have you given students a road map for the course?

8. Is your syllabus well organized and readable?

9. Have you built in ways of getting feedback from students on how the course is going?

10.Is your syllabus written in the tone you wish to convey?