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SAMPLE COURSE SYLLABUS AND COURSE OUTLINES
How you choose to organize your teaching of the chapters of Reflect & Relate will depend on
your teaching philosophy and your course learning objectives. The following pages present a
sample course syllabus in three different versions: a semester schedule, a semester schedule that
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SAMPLE COURSE SYLLABUS
Instructor availability
TEXT
McCornack, S. & Morrison, K. (2018). Reflect & relate: An introduction to interpersonal
communication (5th ed.), New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course surveys theory and research related to interpersonal communication. The course
focuses on effectively managing personal and professional relationships. The course’s format
consists of lectures, group discussions, experiential activities, and written assignments that
require your active involvement.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon the successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
2. Manage yourself and your communication with competence within personal and
professional interpersonal relationships.
Your class attendance, diligent work, and careful reading of the textbook help you to attain
these learning outcomes.
A POSITIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Successful learning experiences take place best in settings that are safe and respectful. Students
should feel free to discuss and ask questions without fear of consequence from the instructor or
other students. Additionally, positive learning environments are fostered when students are
thoughtful and prepared for each class, and behave in ways that a reasonable person would judge
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civil, ethical, and cooperative.
As your instructor, I will maintain a commitment to a positive learning environment by being
respectful, preparing for class, being regularly accessible, answering your questions, and
providing you with timely feedback on your learning.
Finally, we are all responsible for adhering to school policies as outlined in the student
handbook.
ATTENDANCE
ASSIGNMENTS
I encourage you to start assignments early and to seek assistance if you need it.
All late written work will be discounted 20 percent of the point total. A 24-hour grace period
will be given upon request. Some homework will be checked in class; these assignments can
only be credited during the class period.
What follows is a brief description of the graded assignments for this course. I will allow
ample time to answer questions as we approach each assignment. But in the meantime, here’s a
glimpse of how you’ll be graded:
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Sample
Course
Schedule
for 15-
Week
Term
Week
Lesson/Assignment/Examinations
Reading
1
• Course introduction
• Getting acquainted
• Defining communication
• Defining interpersonal communication
• Begin journal assignment
Chapter 1
2
• Focusing on self-awareness and self-concept
• Sources of the self
• Displaying the self to others
Chapter 2
3
• The process of forming perception
• Impact of biases and errors on our impressions of others
• Steps to improving perception
Chapter 3
4
• Nature of emotional arousal
• Emotional intelligence
• Effectively managing emotions
• Exam I preparation (Chapters 1–4)
• Journals due
Chapter 4
5
• Exam I (Chapters 1–4)
• Return and debrief journal assignments
6
• Cultural influences on communication
• Creating intercultural competence
• Considering gender roles
• Understanding and “doing” gender
Chapters 5–6
7
• Defining the listening process, listening styles, and
listening purposes
• Ways of improving listening
• Begin journal assignment
Chapter 7
8
• Characteristics of verbal communication
• Cooperative verbal communication
• Barriers to cooperative verbal communication
• Nonverbal communication codes
• Functions of nonverbal communication
Chapter 8-9
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9
• Understanding the nature of conflict and the role power
plays in conflict
• Approaches for handling interpersonal conflict
• Challenges to resolving conflict
• Exam II preparation (Chapters 5–10)
• Journals due
Chapter 10
10
• Exam II (Chapters 5–10)
• Return and debrief journal assignments
11
• Romantic attraction and the nature of love
• Maintaining romantic relationships
• The dark side of relationships
• Begin journal assignment
Chapter 11
12
• Defining the features of family
• Understanding family communication
• Challenges to family communication
Chapter 12
13
• Defining friendship and types of friendships
• Understanding how communication affects the way
friendships survive and thrive
• Challenges to friendships
Chapter 13
14
• Understanding how workplace relationships compare
with other types of interpersonal relationships
• Tactics for healthy workplace relationships
• Strategies for competent workplace communication
• Exam III preparation (Chapters 11–14)
• Journals due
Chapter 14
15
• Exam III (Chapters 11–14)
Note: The instructor reserves the right to make changes in the course policies, assignments,
and/or schedule as needed.
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Sample Course Schedule
for 15-Week Term with
Presentation or Group
Assignment
Requirement
Week
Lesson/Assignment/Examinations
Reading
1
• Course introduction
• Getting acquainted
• Defining communication
• Defining interpersonal communication
• Begin journal assignment
Chapter 1
2
• Focusing on self-awareness and self-
presentation
• Perceptual processes and obstacles to
accurate perception
• Steps to improving perception
Chapters 2–3
3
• Nature of emotional arousal
• Emotional intelligence
• Effectively managing emotions
Chapter 4
4
• Cultural influences on communication
• Creating intercultural competence
• Considering gender roles
• Understanding and “doing” gender
• Exam I preparation (Chapters 1–6)
Chapters 5–6
5
• Exam I (Chapters 1–6)
• Return and debrief journals
6
• Defining the listening process, listening
styles, and listening purposes
• Ways of improving listening
• Begin journal assignment
Chapter 7
7
• Characteristics of verbal communication
• Cooperative verbal communication
• Barriers to cooperative verbal
communication
• Nonverbal communication codes
• Functions of nonverbal communication
Chapter 8-9
8
• Understanding the nature of conflict and
the role power plays in conflict
• Approaches for handling interpersonal
conflict
• Challenges to resolving conflict
Chapter 10
9
• Romantic attraction and the nature of
love
• Maintaining romantic relationships
• The dark side of relationships
Chapter 11
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10
• Presentation/Group Assignment
11
• Presentation/Group Assignment
12
• Presentation/Group Assignment
13
• Defining and understanding family
communication
• Family maintenance and communication
challenges
• Defining friendship and types of
friendships
• Challenges to friendships
Chapter 12-
13
14
• Understanding how workplace
relationships compare with other types of
interpersonal relationships
• Tactics for healthy workplace
relationships
• Strategies for competent workplace
communication
• Exam II preparation (Chapters 7–14)
• Journals due
Chapter 14
15
• Exam II (Chapters 7–14)
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Sample
Course
Schedule
for 12-
Week
Term
Week
Lesson/Assignment/Examinations
Reading
1
• Course introduction
• Getting acquainted
• Defining interpersonal communication
• Focusing on self-awareness and self-presentation
• Begin journal assignment
Chapters 1–2
2
• Perceptual processes and obstacles to accurate perception
• Steps to improving perception
• Nature of emotional arousal
• Emotional intelligence
Chapters 3–4
3
• Cultural influences on communication
• Creating intercultural competence
• Considering gender roles
• Understanding and “doing” gender
• Exam I preparation (Chapters 1–6)
Chapters 5-6
4
• Exam I (Chapters 1–6)
• Journals due
• Principles of effective listening
• Ways of improving listening
Chapter 7
5
• Characteristics of verbal communication
• Cooperative verbal communication
• Begin journal assignment
Chapter 8
6
• Differences between nonverbal and verbal communication
• Using nonverbal codes
Chapter 9
7
• Understanding the nature of conflict and the role power
plays in conflict
• Approaches for handling interpersonal conflict
• Challenges to resolving conflict
• Exam II preparation (Chapters 7–10)
Chapter 10
8
• Exam II (Chapters 7–10)
• Journals due
• Romantic attraction and the nature of love
• Maintaining romantic relationships
• The dark side of relationships
Chapter 11
29
9
• Defining the features of family
• Understanding family communication
• Challenges to family communication
Chapter 12
10
• Defining friendship and types of friendships
• Understanding how communication affects the way
friendships survive and thrive
• Challenges to friendships
Chapter 13
11
• Understanding how workplace relationships compare with
other types of interpersonal relationships
• Tactics for healthy workplace communication
• Strategies for competent workplace communication
• Exam III preparation (Chapters 11–14)
Chapter 14
12
• Exam III (Chapters 11–14)
Note: The instructor reserves the right to make changes in the course policies, assignments,
and/or schedule as needed.
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Developing the Learning Experience
DESIGNING AN EFFECTIVE LESSON PLAN
While Reflect & Relate is an important tool for thinking about the key elements that students
should be exposed to in their studies, learning outcomes are achieved largely by the planned
ESTABLISHING LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the center of every lesson are learning objectives, or goals for what learners should be able to
do when they’ve completed the lesson. Traditionally, learning objectives fall into one of three
learning domains (Krathwohl, Bloom, & Bertram, 1973):
• The cognitive domain, where learning focuses on the development of knowledge and
understanding
• The affective domain, where learning focuses on the development of attitudes and values
• The psychomotor domain, where learning focuses on the development of physical skills and
abilities
Here is an example of learning objectives from each of the three domains in a lesson related to
empathic listening:
Learning
Domain
Learning Objective
Cognitive
The learner will accurately list and explain in her own words
three empathic response skills.
Affective
The learner will discuss personal benefits of improving empathic
listening skills.
Psychomotor
The learner will demonstrate nonverbal attending skills that are
consistent with empathic listening.
When writing learning objectives, use action verbs to indicate measurable behaviors that you
expect learners to perform as a result of the lesson. In other words, what evidence will you be
looking for to determine whether students have learned the lesson? Some examples of such
action verbs include:
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• Apply • Operate • Choose
• List • Compare and contrast • Demonstrate
• Recall • Discuss • Identify
The use of such action verbs clarifies the kind and level of learning that you want students to
achieve. It also shifts the focus from teacher activity (e.g., lecturing, facilitating, conducting) to
and Jay McTighe’s Understanding by Design (2005).
CHOOSING A CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT STRATEGY
After establishing the learning objective for the lesson, an instructor should next develop a
strategy for assessing student learning, commonly known as classroom assessment (Angelo &
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or topic.
• Paired summaries. At strategic points during a class session, you might stop and have students
pair up to construct a written summary of the material that has been discussed up to that point
in the class period. This is an opportunity for them to compare notes, fill in gaps, and
synthesize the lesson. After about two or three minutes of paired discussion and writing, ask a
sampling of the pairs to read aloud their summary statements, which will provide you with a
check on whether your learning objectives are being met.
• The minute paper. Perhaps one of the most commonly known classroom assessment tools is
the minute paper (Angelo & Cross, 1993). At the end of a topic or class period, students are
given one minute to respond in writing to two prompts provided by the instructor: (1) What is
the most important point of this class period? and (2) What is a question you have? (Angelo &
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• Lecturing. Lecturing is a staple of college teaching to which most students are accustomed.
Any academic subject has difficult concepts and principles that are best learned through
deliberative reading and listening to a lecture. However, we can surmise that student attention
and learning during a lecture are predicated on the quality of the lecture preparation and
delivery. The following are tips for effective lecturing.
• Weave in relevant humor in the form of anecdotes and images.
• Move around the room purposefully, remembering to address all areas of the classroom.
• Provide intermittent summaries of key points prior to introducing a new topic.
• Review learning objective(s) and summarize key concepts at the conclusion of the lecture.
• Think Pair Share. A fairly simple means of creating an active learning experience for students
during lecture is the “Think Pair Share.” Similar to paired summaries, the technique starts with
each of the chapters in Part II of this manual.)
• Brainstorming and “buzz groups.” Brainstorming and buzz groups are active learning groups