New Tool for Calculating Participation Grades (downloadable)

I've always struggled with calculating students' participation grades.  I have experimented with rubrics for students to fill out for themselves, or ways for them to track their participation grades daily or weekly. I've tried ditching it altogether and just grading students for distinct speaking activities. 

Often, I settle for making up a participation grade for each student at the end of the period.  I tend to criticize myself for this imprecise method, but this time, I had an idea.  What goes through my head when I "make up" this grade? I thought.  If I could just find a way to put that down on paper for my students to understand...

I was really satisfied when I created this product.  The grades I often calculated in my head were based on two big categories that create a push-pull effect:

(1) how well and often a student contributes to the group's learning and

(2) how well they manage their own conduct so as not to disturb the learning process.  

We all know students who contribute so much to discussions and group work, but also struggle to manage their behavior, sometimes disrupting as much as they contribute.  I also know students who have no trouble managing their behavior, but who are extremely reluctant to contribute to discussions, group or partner work. Both of these students end up with a mid-level grade (a C of some sort). The C doesn't explain this huge distinction, though.  This tool helps the student and me reflect and communicate about what he or she is doing well and what to work to improve. 

I shared this with my classes and had students self-evaluate by putting a dot on the continuum where they thought they were on each side and taking an average of the two.  I then had each of them do this for one randomly-selected classmate. (I overheard some golden conversations between students during this activity--"Yeah, he behaves and does mad work, but he never raises his hand! Think about it! X never talks in discussions.")  

I reviewed the papers that night and found that students were quite honest and accurate. I initialed if I agreed with the students' self-evaluation, and I made adjustments with notes and signed my initials if I felt necessary.  I haven't yet decided what to do with the peer evaluations...

Overall, I'm quite happy with the process and the results!  Feel free to use or adapt: Download Calculating participation grade   

 

Comments

[TDWolsey]

Ariel, thank you for this very effective tool. I like the idea of the twin sliding scales; participation is so very hard to measure. One question that comes to mind as I look at these scales relates to the notion of frequency. If participation is a function of how often one speaks (asking questions, sharing ideas), what of the student who listens frequently? Such students often contribute by sustained listening over time. They may contribute one or two very insightful sentences that benefits others as much as those who speak often. Is there a way to incorporate the listening dynamic?

[Robert Ryshke]

I certainly understand where you are coming from in trying to get a handle on assessing student work in the more subjective domain of class participation. It is challenging.

Here are some thoughts of mine:

*Why do we have to grade class participation? Extroverts participate and introverts tend not to so we are grading someone on their proclivity to be out in front of a group. Some are not comfortable there.

*Why do we grade on frequency of contribution? Some students contribute frequently but not deeply. Others contribute much less frequently but more thoughtfully.

*Assessments of participation MUST be separate from assessments of achievement. Whether a student really knows the standards (know and can do) is not directly related to how much they contribute.

*Teachers need to learn many different strategies to bring students into the conversation. Most teachers I have observed (100s of observations) rely on a limited number of strategies to get students involved. So whose problem is it?

*Contribution and engagement is dependent upon a lesson being engaging, motivating and relevant to future learning. So I see a students contribution linked more towards the ability of the teacher to design a lesson that draws students in. Should we decrement students grade because they don't participate? What if the lesson isn't interesting?

*Finally, we should penalize personality. Some students are not as public with their feelings as others. And if they are to "come out" they need some instruction on how to do that, rather than get a grade for "poor performance."

I am not a fan of grading participation.

Bob Ryshke
Center for Teaching

[Kathleen Walters]

Rather than grade students for participation, I prefer to shape students behavior by positive reinforcement. Students who participate on a regular basis receive extra "participation" points at the end of the semester.

Those who do not participate, for whatever personal or academic reason, are not graded (they do not lose points) or penalized. I don't keep daily records - I don't have to! If the students are participating on a regular basis, you know who they are. I may give up to 5 points for really good quality participation or 2-3 points for all around effort.

I would say, "don't grade participation, particularly at the college level." Many students today (at the community college level) are First Generation College Students - they often feel overwhelmed and intimidated in the classroom and many do not know how to "act." These students need specialized guidance and support from both faculty and the administration.

Learning "how to be a college student" is key if you want more student contribution in the classrooms today.

[L. Mitchell]

I'm an ELA teacher from Alberta,Canada and our curriculum is Outcome based. One of our strands includes "speaking" and another one "team or group collaboration" and yet another one on "managing information, time and productivity". I think your sliding scale is a useful assessment tool in perhaps a Formative way and over the course of a unit could also provide a Summative mark that contributes to assessing these considerations which in our case really do fit into the outcomes we want students to be mastering. I think using the assessment tool with your students is a very metacognitive approach which gives them ownership and understanding of why these components of class work are life skills and important not simply a teaching management strategy.

[Galvin Deleon Guerrero]

This is awesome! Thank you so much for sharing.

[Rosalind Flynn]

As with any innovative assessment tool, it's great to have something to start with to adapt to your own needs. I will be sharing yours with the future Theatre teachers in my courses. Each semester, our conversations focus in on how to encourage students to use the rehearsal time we allot them during class. Your tool will be a valuable example. Thank you for so generously sharing it.

[TracyParido]

The National Paideia Center acknowledges a structured class discussion method which encourages and demands participation by all students. The class participation tool shared here could be paired with Socratic Circles.

students.http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/socratic-seminars-30600.html

[Ken O'Connor]

I agree completely with Bob Ryshke that class participation should not be graded. In fact I am appalled that a teacher leader's organization that is concerned about quality practices would even publish such a piece. Grades should be for academic achievement only and behaviours must be reported separately.

[Nancy Grant]

With a 1-1 laptop program and software that allows written participation, you quickly discover some of the "quiet" students are quite capable of actively engaging in class "discussions"! And you have a written record that both allows reflective thinkers to engage at a later date and gives you a written record of their growth in thinking.

[Todd Finley]

Love the way you think, Ariel. Thank you for the resources! - Todd

[kyle]

If students are given credit/ grades/or point value related to how they express their understanding in writing, why is it wrong to find ways to do the same when they express their understanding orally? I am not clear on why that doesn't qualify as "achievement"? The only distinction in the two situations is the tool the students use to express their understanding (mouth vs. pen or keyboard). If a student can express comprehension of content orally, why should that be dismissed? Individuals are rewarded for expressing understanding orally in most (if not every) work subculture. Why should school be different?

Kathleen, I like the clever idea of looking at oral expression of knowledge as a value add only, to avoid unintentionally penalizing any introverts in the class.

Clearly, a distinction needs to be made between adding intellectual value to a conversation and comporting oneself well during class discussion. One is an achievement, the other is a behavior. Both are important attributes, but the first one is an important means of sharing knowledge and understanding.

Thank you for sharing your thoughtful measurement tool, Ariel.

[Nancy Flanagan]

Ariel, I am a faithful reader of this blog and admire your insights. But I am with Ken and Bob here-- although you are probably required to "grade" participation and compliance (that second column), this kind of tool takes us back decades in our professional understanding of assessment, its purpose in the classroom and its value in enhancing student learning.

I have no doubt this column will be very popular. "Tools" almost always are. But teachers have been enthusiastically adopting tools--graphs, charts, grids, sliding scales, rubrics, templates--for decades, in an attempt to get teaching, a messy and nuanced business, under "control." I used to have to give students a "citizenship" grade (exactly the same behaviors you list, above). I thought it was just another way to control kids-- bribing them with a good citizenship mark if they followed the rules. After years of playing that game, I got sick of it. I told students they all got an A in citizenship, every marking period--that I was going to presume they were all doing their best to participate and behave. The really amazing thing is that behavior and enthusiastic participation improved once I stopped grading it.

Given the passion for data and management driving education reform right now-- in the wrong direction-- this is just another opportunity to try to quantify something more precisely than necessary. But I'm sure everyone will jump on this bandwagon.

[Bill Ferriter]

Wow, Ariel --

The amount of negative feedback that you got on your tool here surprises me simply because I love it and use something like it in my room.

I think that the notion that your tool is about controlling your kids is off a bit primarily because I teach middle schoolers too -- and if there's anything that I know, middle schoolers don't naturally possess the kinds of productive work behaviors that we all say we value in kids.

They don't automatically know how to make productive contributions to classroom conversations or how to come prepared on a regular basis. They don't know how important it is to participate regularly -- even when the content is dry. They don't know what good leadership skills or independence looks like in action.

Your tool is designed to do nothing more than to give tangible feedback in each of these areas to kids who definitely need it.

While I'm not sure that I'd actually put this kind of thing in a student's average -- I like to keep work behaviors separate from academics in my reporting of scores -- I definitely would fill it out regularly...and have students self assess regularly...and have peers rate one another regularly...over the course of the school year.

We talk a good talk about the notion that a part of schooling is making sure that kids can be productive contributors -- to their communities, to their families, to their workplaces -- but we rarely make it clear to our kids what being "a productive contributor" really looks like.

That is what your tool is designed to do.

Any of this makes sense?
Bill

[Ariel Sacks]

Interesting comments and push-back. I am not a fan of student compliance, and I hadn't thought of this as a tool to push compliance. It's asking the students to reflect on their overall impact on the class in two big, separate, categories.

Both introverts and extroverts experience an advantage and a disadvantage when it comes to "class participation." Introverts have a disadvantage when it comes to willingness to share their thoughts aloud, and extroverts are at a disadvantage because they want to speak all of their thoughts aloud to a neighbor, whether or not this disrupts the rest of the group. The reality is, chatty extroverts need to learn to moderate this tendency for the good of the group--so they don't dominate the airtime. This is not about compliance with the teacher, and I don't think it is viewed this way by students in my classroom, because we have community meetings so often, and students determine so much of the agenda there, coming to conclusions on their own about the group's functioning and what we should work on. When it comes to introverts, I agree with Bob--teachers need to learn different strategies for bringing a range of students into the conversation. This is also something I work hard to do, and made a point with students that "contributions" includes a lot more than just raising your hand in whole class discussion.

By and large, these participation grades helped students' overall grades because it gave them credit for so much work they do during class that is not written down.

I am actually, at core, not a fan of grading at all. I don't think it helps students much and I'd rather do without it, assessing specific assignments, but I hate giving end of quarter grades, which don;t say much about what a student can and can't do, or how much a student has grown. Nancy, your story is interesting to me for that reason. What would happen if we just gave all students A's? What would they learn then?

I have tried to ditch the participation grade all together, but when I did that, I felt like something was missing from the grading average. Students who speak a lot in discussions sometimes don't write as well as they speak. Both speaking and writing are ELA standards. Listening is as well. In an ELA classroom, speaking and listening, whether in whole group discussion or small group or partner work, are so important (perhaps not as much in other subjects). If we are going to grade, then why should we leave out these aspects of the learning process?

In terms of the "behavior" part: I also believe that the ability to weigh one's own needs and wants against the needs of the entire group is an important concept and skill that we use in our adult lives. I believe that is developmentally appropriate for middle school students to think about this, and it is the concept I try to teach when I need to approach students about their behavior.

Still thinking about your comments... thanks for bringing out the issues here.

[Jemima Riley]

Tools for participation in a class environment must offer value to the student. Students come into a new class as a product. Many factors outside of the control of teachers contributed to the product of each child in our class.

A student lack of opportunity maybe one factor that causes a student to achieve a low rating on the participation tool.
Participation assessment therefore must be done in a classroom that facilitates student’s movement from where they are now into becoming the participator they desire to become. If a student began a class as an introvert and one year later moves to another class as an introvert the question should be asked, "Did that student desire movement away from his or her behaviour as an introvert?"

Discussions that discern the aim of the teachers and society may help students recognize what is required of them. The value of the participation must be in the mind of the student. Then the creative use of a participation tool can help each child gain value and make the movement as understood. The extrovert may recognize the need to think deeply and the introvert may need more time to speak. It’s a management dynamic with tremendous value capability.

Schools are places of human resource treasures and tools are simply what they are, just tools. The use of the tool determines its value to education. A society that gets it proper may have greater possibilities of its schools graduating better citizens.

This participation tool can be a
useful human resource value tool
depending on who uses and how used.

[NicoleSheahan]

Ariel, I just want to throw in my two cents. First, I think the truly negative comments are unwarranted and unprofessional. You shared a tool in a collegial setting, and any time we put forth our ideas, sadly, there are those who feel the need to condemn. As we all teach in our classrooms, there is a difference between constructive criticism and harsh comments. I think we have seen both within these posts.

As others have noted, oral as well as written participation factor into ELA grades. Your critics realize this, but they (I'm guessing) feel that oral assessment should be more formal. However, just as the freewrite has a place within the same classroom as the formal essay, I do feel that daily participation has a place in the same classroom as a formal speech.

I think the best use of your tool is probably in the area of self-assessment. The conversations that your students had and their own evaluations of their performances likely have more meaning than a daily grade assigned by you. One thought is for students to keep a copy of this in their binders each week, and daily they can jot down a response to a ticket-to-leave type of question on the reverse side plus take a moment to decide how they performed that day. At the end of the week, they could hand it in to count toward their CP grade. Just a thought.

Being an effective member of a classroom community (not "compliance" -- but participation and acceptance of responsibility for one's own learning) is a skill that often our students have missed, and it's a valuable skill. In general, students have a better classroom experience when they are engaged and active.

As noted by others, designing lessons that encourage that engagement is our job. Assessment of lessons could be part of this process... Maybe the question at the end of the class is something about what caused the student to engage/not engage on that given day. That would offer the student an opportunity for self-assessment while also giving the teacher feedback on lesson design.

There is no "right" answer, but you certainly should not be condemned for sharing your work. To steal and modify an old tagline from Reebok, "Teaching is not a spectator sport." We have to get our hands dirty and keep trying new ideas. If we are condemned for doing so, then we all will become that quiet kid who's afraid to share in fear of being "wrong." Let's not do that. Peace.

[Allyson Bogie]

Ariel, I was an 8th grade English teacher in Oakland, CA and now I'm a middle school librarian in a nearby district. I enjoy your blog and found this post helpful. I shared the link and the tool with the teachers at my school.
There is a growing emphasis on 21st century skills, and communication and life skills are two large parts of the 21st century skills framework. I think those skills and standards are an important complement to the academic standards that are organized by content area. Here is a link to part of the framework: http://www.p21.org/overview/skills-framework/261

I don't have time to read every single comment on this post, but from what I saw I appreciated the critical thinking and professional discourse. I think it's fine for people to disagree, and I thought your response was also useful. Thanks for blogging!

[Carissa]

I use something a little similar. I have my students fill out a form halway through the semester.

http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/06/self-evaluation-for-participation.html

It varies from class to class but it basically asks them to self-evaluate their participation and leave a comment if they feel (sometimes these are justifying their actions, other times these are just "hellos")

Some students do lie, others are very harsh on themselves, but I can leave a comment back explaining why their participation grade is what it actually is.

It works quite well, and takes the mystery out of it.

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