Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Higher Order Participation Grades

If you are like me, you give students participation grades for attending class on time, bringing a pencil, and staying awake. This has worked well for me as a classroom management tool, but these alone do not guarantee that students are active participants in their learning. I want them to be more than well-behaved; I want my students to be actively involved in thinking, listening, speaking about the topic of the day. This rubric, submitted by Ms. Matthews, promotes active participation by requiring students not only to be prepared and awake but also to be speakers and listeners who demonstrate the skills outlined in Common Core Standards. These are Jordan's Comments:

Mrs. Hamlett and I have taken the rubric and given point values to the letter grade categories (A= 20-17, B=16-12, C/D= 11-5, F= 4-0).  Therefore, participation has become a part of the students' grade, just like any other assignment, test, etc. students are responsible for mastering.
 
The greatest initial impact I have seen has been in students arriving to class prepared, which shouldn't be a problem but always is, and in the use of electronic devices (#6 under the "You May Negatively Affect Your Participation Grade By:" section).  I no longer have to worry about taking up cell phones, and the student has to become responsible- not only for a device that was probably paid for by her parents- but for her grade being negatively affected if caught using this device.  I struggled with whether or not this was ethical, but decided since these devices DO keep students from actively participating- as laid out in the rubric- and students have been made aware of this rule, that it is fair.
 
As the semester proceeds I will have more feedback on how successful the other components are- group dynamics, discussion, etc. but I have already had to remind a few students that negative and offensive remarks WILL hurt the participation grade.
 
If anyone would like to know how I feel about this rubric and the grading at the end of the semester I will be happy to share!
 
The link to the rubric is below:

1 comments:

L. Charles said...

I use classdojo.com to manage participation grades. I matched the behaviors to this rubric, and I have seen significant improvement in class participation in discussions. It has worked really well for me so far.

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