Writing A Syllabus

Head teacher says extra classes can be counter-productive

Ho, June 16, GNA – An educationist has said extra classes organized outside the normal school system could be counter to the expectations of their patrons.

This is because the driving force behind some such classes could be financial gain rather than helping students to be better prepared for their examinations.

Mr Joseph Afake, the Head teacher of Kabore Junior High School, Ho, said this at a meeting with parents of students who would be writing the 2012 Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE).

He said the danger was that lessons thought in such classes could be irrelevant to the syllabus on which examination questions were based.

Mr Afake said too many extra classes tended to tax the energy and time of students, overload them with too many pieces of information to the extent that they got confused.

He said where necessary such classes must be organized by schools and supervised by their heads with the consent of parents with whom the modalities must be discussed and accepted. 

Mr Afake therefore advised parents to be wary of such classes in order not to jeopardize their children’s chances in examinations.

He assured parents and guardians that Kabore School had a well tested and proved approach to preparing its students for the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE).

The Blood-Red Pencil: Writing a Syllabus and Course Outline ...

This spring, after a hiatus of fifteen years, I found myself agreeing to teach a couple writing courses. Though I taught for several years, in the course of moving three times and bearing a child I had, of course, discarded all of my notes, my past syllabuses and outlines, and my old marked-up textbooks. In short, I found myself facing a whole term with no real teaching plan. Luckily, I knew how to go about writing my syllabus. Here’s what I did: Though there are state and national standards for course requirements, each school sets about meeting those standards in its own way. Beginning your relationship with a new school by basing your materials on theirs is not only good manners—it’s a good way be sure that you are in compliance with the school’s internal systems. As you become an established, known quantity you can suggest possible textbooks, or explore innovative teaching methods, but in the beginning it’s both good and necessary to work with the systems already in place. Knowing how many class periods you have will determine how to best schedule presentations, assignments, presentation periods, and due dates. Because this time I’m teaching a marathon session once a week I planned my assignments to begin on the day when we discuss them, to include one full class for revision and commenting, and to be due at the beginning of the following class period. My students begin writing during class immediately after they have reviewed samples. At the end of class I check to be sure each has a subject and a beginning for his or her paper. Because my classes are small, I have time to sit down with each student, read what has been written, and discuss possible ways of proceeding. Using the second class period for in-class revision gives students the opportunity to exchange papers with each other, and it gives me the opportunity to review each student’s paper again. This serves two functions. First, it gives new writers immediate, personal feedback. Second, it makes buying or borrowing a paper difficult to impossible. Scheduling the paper’s due date for the beginning of the following class period gives students time to incorporate revisions and suggestions and hand in a clean draft—accompanied by all of the prewriting exercises and preliminary drafts. Again, this serves two functions. First, it gives me a way to determine how or if a writer has incorporated others’ input.

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