How to Create Your Own School Counseling Course Outline

For any school counselor who will be transferring classroom lessons online or teaching for the first time, here's how to create a course outline.

With many school settings moving online for this school year, school counselors teaching classroom lessons may also have to adapt their course curriculum online just as their teacher counterparts. Moreover, school settings may have opted to creating an online course for students taught by the school counselor due to limited interpersonal contact. I am a school counselor who will now be adapting my classroom lessons from in-person to online. Here is my example of my course outline.

In the beginning of your course outline (also referred to as a syllabus) create a title for the class.

Next is the "Course Description." I use typical wording I would use to describe my school counseling program as well as keywords from ASCA.

Under "Topics," write all the general topics/units/themes that you intend on teaching for the year. You may not get through all the topics but still write them in this section. Remember, school counseling programs in most school settings include a comprehensive curriculum so you would want to include topics that respond to information you included in your course description. For example, the topic, responsibility, can be attached with the student academic development ASCA standard. Continually, self-awareness can be attached with student social and emotional development, and study skills as well as goal setting can be attached with college and career student development. Note: All of these topics can be attached with additional development standards.

"Grading" for my course will only be informal. My class is under the elective category for my school and additionally, I don't believe it's appropriate to apply grades to a student's holistic development for my course. On the otherhand, if you or your school will extend grading policy to your class, then include that information in this section.

For the next section,"Classroom Expectations," I wrote general expectations that students will need to adhere to throughout class time. These are basic, foundational behavior expectations. Include your basic, foundational behavior expectations which may include participation, communication, zero tolerance bullying, focus, quiet space, and much more! The choice is yours. In the actual class session, students will gain more insight on specific expectations especially for each class as different instructional methods and activities will be used.

The "eLearning" section will highlight what, where, and how online learning will take place. With "Materials," I just included the general materials necessary for students to access the class successfully. Specific materials such as an index card, looseleaf paper, colored pencils, and more will be announced in advance (through the Google classroom announcements tool) for students to prepare for the next class.

Finally, include a "Contact Information" section for parents and students to contact you throughout the year. Note: Your students should have multiple ways to access your contact information. I will embed a link in my course outline which will allow any person with the link to access my virtual classroom. With the link, they can request a check-in with me, watch brief videos for quick solutions, or email me directly.

There you have it - your very own course outline! School counselors, formally we aren't teachers but we are educators. Teaching is apart of our school support service. I hope reading this allowed you to feel extra secure in your preparation for the school year.

Mide, MissInterEducation