I have taken two steps to deal with Leon's issues about getting students
to attend, to be prepared and to participate. I give 7 unannounced
quizzes during the semester for 20% of their grade. Each one is fairly
straight forward based either on the current assignment or the last
lecture- if they have done them they should get full points. Students
can drop the two low grades. If they are not in class and have not
e-mailed me with an excuse before class they can not drop that zero.
The students do not complain about this system. Second, I have all of
my students in teams and I call on teams to answer questions in class.
This does not put undue pressure on someone who is not prepared or
subject the class to an uninformed answer, but it does distribute the
participation. It does not eliminate having a quiet member of a team
avoid talking.
Grading & "F's" From: Leon Levitt <
levitt@DHOL.COM>
Terry,
I have been allocating a portion of student grades to participation for
many years;
if you were an undergrad in the late '80s, probably since before you
were born! It
has expanded from the initial purposes, but they are still valid. They
are:
1. To assure some acceptable percentage of class attendance. (It is
unfair to the
others to be absent when they make oral presentations, come only when
one's own is
scheduled, among other considerations.)
2. To shake up the silent observers or sleepers who line up in the
back of the
room with their baseball caps over their eyes and their feet on the
chairs in front
of them (too often these have been varsity athletes), so they realize
there is more
to participation than simply putting one's inert body in the room.
3. To be sure that they are at least minimally prepared on the subject
being
presented (else, how can they make informed comments or ask informed
questions --
the criteria for acceptable participation activity).
Hope this is helpful. My sense is that it has just emerged; an
oldtimer like
me started it (I was not alone) and our students who became teachers
carried it on.
I don't recall whether someone suggested the method to me, or I read
about it
somewhere, or it was a carryover from mandatory grading formats when I
taught high
school.
Good Luck! Leon
Terry Rock wrote:
--
Andrew Crawford, 2785 IOE Dept., University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 734 764-9410, Ascott Corp 734 663-2023
http://ascott.com/