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TMM 1: Syllabus Engagement

March 21, 2021

In this video, learn tips for student engagement with the syllabus. Then practice annotating a syllabus: https://bit.ly/TMMsyllabus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3ieUZmKhb4

Video: https://youtu.be/B3ieUZmKhb4 

 

Please add your own ideas for icebreakers and/or syllabus engagement on the Open Space document. 

Items Mentioned in the Video: 

Event: 

On Friday, March 5th, The CUNY Games Network will host a free workshop on quick activities to incorporate into your courses. Click here for more information. 

Ten Ideas for Syllabus Engagement

  1. Hide an Easter Egg in your syllabus. Easter eggs are hidden pieces of information that reveal who has accessed your material (an example is available in the syllabus annotation activity).
  2. Add images to your syllabus, but make them accessible with alternate text
  3. Design a syllabus quiz or scavenger hunt for students. 
    1. Kahoot! and Quizizz are free online tools for creating asynchronous or synchronous quizzes
    2. 321Go! for synchronous Zoom sessions. Ask students a question. Have them type responses in the chat but tell them not to press Enter until you say so. Then say “321Go!” as all answers appear at once.
  4. Black out portions of the syllabus you don’t need yet. If students see too much information at once, they are less likely to read it.
  5. Design a “choose-your-own-adventure” activity with Google Forms. A quick Google search can uncover many guides and templates for creating a form. Here is one guide.
  6. Check in with the students and have them workshop any syllabus revisions with you. They will feel more agency over the syllabus if they help design a piece.
  7. If you meet synchronously, use breakout rooms for student competition. First, ask the entire class what information they think they need to succeed in class. Collect the responses. Then, break students into group and have them compete against each other to find each piece of information in the syllabus. The first group to finish wins.
  8. Use Think Pair Share: Have students review the syllabus on their own, then pair them up to share their understanding of the document, discuss confusion, etc. Have them write out their feedback to share with you (they can even do this anonymously if they want).
  9. Embed this video from Snoop Dogg.
  10.  Syllabus annotation: Make a copy of your syllabus for students to annotate on Google docs. Change the privacy settings so anyone with the link can comment. Practice annotating a syllabus here.