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PREPARING TO TEACH

" Developing a good teaching plan with appropriate corresponding materials is a process . . .  try to build in flexibility; keep what works; discard what doesn't!"

Topic 3:   Planning a syllabus /Selecting texts and materials / Developing learning activities  

1. Planning a syllabus

a. basic syllabus guidelines
b. beyond the traditional syllabus
c. the “Course Information Document”

2. Selecting texts and materials

a. how to locate, review and select texts for a class
b. do you actually need a textbook?

3.  Developing learning activities:  getting started

a. Linking activities and assignments to learning objectives
 

FOLLOW-UP READING:  Planning a syllabus /Selecting texts and materials / Developing learning activities

On Syllabus Preparation:

- Read the UA course syllabus policy:  http://w3.arizona.edu/~policy/syllabus.shtml

- Read “The Modern Syllabus as a Course Information Document” from Thinking About College Teaching (UA’s University Teaching Center): ttp://utc.arizona.edu/resources/thinkingseries/vol1_6.html  

- Read Tools for Teaching on creating a syllabus: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/syllabus.html

- Review relevant sections of Iowa State's the Learning-Centered Syllabi Workshop:  http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/syllabi.html

- Here's Washington University's syllabus site: http://artsci.wustl.edu/~teachcen/Faculty/preparingthecoursesyllabus.php
 

On Textbook Selection:

- Read Tools for Teaching on preparing or revising a course:  http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/prepare.html

 - Read:  Science Teaching Reconsidered:  http://books.nap.edu/readingroom/books/str/
     (Chapter 7 Choosing and Using Instructional Resources) - other sections in here quite useful!

- Browse “Textbook Selection for the ESL Classroom” http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0210garinger.html  or locate and read a similarly-themed site you find on your own

- Read this slightly dated but interesting essay: R. Lewis (1992) Textbook Adoption: How Do Professors Select The Right One? The Scientist 6 [7] and comment: W. Farnsworth (2004) “In Teaching Science, Let The Textbook Support The Classwork, Not Vice Versa,”  The Scientist 6[11].  (NOTE: The links are now working)

On Developing Learning Activities (getting started):

See various online chapters in Tools for Teaching:  http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/teaching.html

Here's  an example of my TABLE OF SPECIFICATION for my NATS 101 course (MS Word doc)

HOMEWORK DELIVERABLES & PREPARATION FOR LTC VISIT: 

- Construct a SYLLABUS/COURSE INFORMATION SHEET for the course you are working on (or a course in which you might teach the learning activity you are working on) -- Use the UA course syllabus policy as your basis (see above), but you may add additional items.

- READ these short articles from the EDUCAUSE site about learning technologies and the nature of the new generation of learners that we face.

5 Points of Connectivity by S. Smith and A. Potocznia,  EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 5 (September-October 2005): 30-41.

Father Google & Mother IM: Confessions of a Net Gen Learner by C. Windham,  EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 5 (September-October 2005): 42–59.

"Engage Me or Enrage Me" What Today's Learners Demand by M. Prensky, EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 5 (September-October 2005): 60–65.

Think Small!  A Beginner's Guide to Using Technology to Promote Learning by B. R.KIng, EDUCAUSE Quarterly, n 1, 2007 p 58-61.

The New Acadamy by C. Barone, in Educating the Net Generation, Chapter 14, 2007  p 1-16 http://www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen  PDF

- VISIT THE LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES CENTER website, to familiarize yourself with the LTC.