Participation: The Hornet's Nest
(This is a repost, by request, from a message sent to the moretprs listerv. )
If you can and do use a participation grading or rewards system that works for you ...that is great. I am not trying to criticize you or your methods. This is not about you. This is about me, my biases and my relationship with my students.
Grading participation goes against everything I believe in as a teacher and as a human being.
It is impossible to teach well and pay attention to participation points at the same time.
Participation grades and rewards discriminate against a large number of students.
Participation systems reward playing the game, not true involvement.
The only students that were motivated by and rewarded by a system in my class were the ones that didn't need it or the ones that manipulated it to their own benefit.
My students never learned more Spanish because I had a participation system.
Students who didn't participate did not participate for other reasons...NOT because I didn't have a good system...and the system was not going to change that.
It is possible to teach, and for students to participate, without participation grades and/or points.
So, one day I just decided not to evaluate participation. (Note: I did not say "not pay attention to it.")
What I have observed is that students participate when ....
* they are feeling well enough physically and mentally to participate.
* when they trust me to treat them well.
* a variety of ways to participate are offered and honored.
* when they trust their classmates to treat them well.
* when they believe that they are capable of acquiring language.
* when the activities we do actually produce results.
* when the activities are interesting, personalized and comprehensible.
So I focus on achieving the above...whenever possible. NOT having a participation rewards system has freed up an enormous amount of time and energy to do that.
NON-participation is a classroom management/behavioral issue...not an academic issue and I treat it as such.
It does take a little time for some students to adjust...but it is almost always the "point-chasers" not the "slackers" who have trouble.
There are a number of kids who use most of their intellectual energy figuring out how to beat the system rather than do the work. When I take away the system, they actually do refocus on what we are doing, not how to get out of it.
Classroom management is really about the relationships I create with my students, not the system I have for manipulating their behavior.
Removing the "participation evaluation" framework takes a leap of faith. It also requires replacing it with concerted efforts to connect with students in and out of class ...as human beings. Doing so has definitely changed my teaching and my classroom for the better.
with love,
Laurie
PS. It was also illuminating. I put a lot of time, energy, creativity and money into "fun" participation pieces and rewards systems. I was kind of proud of them. In hindsight, my system was really a way to highlight my strengths. My students had that figured out long before I did and many of them didn't respect that, or me, because of it. The ones who did were, well, students like me. It was a "legitimized" form of favoritism. It has been very humbling to have to get to know, and love, my students for their strengths, rather than for how they have supported mine.
If you can and do use a participation grading or rewards system that works for you ...that is great. I am not trying to criticize you or your methods. This is not about you. This is about me, my biases and my relationship with my students.
Grading participation goes against everything I believe in as a teacher and as a human being.
It is impossible to teach well and pay attention to participation points at the same time.
Participation grades and rewards discriminate against a large number of students.
Participation systems reward playing the game, not true involvement.
The only students that were motivated by and rewarded by a system in my class were the ones that didn't need it or the ones that manipulated it to their own benefit.
My students never learned more Spanish because I had a participation system.
Students who didn't participate did not participate for other reasons...NOT because I didn't have a good system...and the system was not going to change that.
It is possible to teach, and for students to participate, without participation grades and/or points.
So, one day I just decided not to evaluate participation. (Note: I did not say "not pay attention to it.")
What I have observed is that students participate when ....
* they are feeling well enough physically and mentally to participate.
* when they trust me to treat them well.
* a variety of ways to participate are offered and honored.
* when they trust their classmates to treat them well.
* when they believe that they are capable of acquiring language.
* when the activities we do actually produce results.
* when the activities are interesting, personalized and comprehensible.
So I focus on achieving the above...whenever possible. NOT having a participation rewards system has freed up an enormous amount of time and energy to do that.
NON-participation is a classroom management/behavioral issue...not an academic issue and I treat it as such.
It does take a little time for some students to adjust...but it is almost always the "point-chasers" not the "slackers" who have trouble.
There are a number of kids who use most of their intellectual energy figuring out how to beat the system rather than do the work. When I take away the system, they actually do refocus on what we are doing, not how to get out of it.
Classroom management is really about the relationships I create with my students, not the system I have for manipulating their behavior.
Removing the "participation evaluation" framework takes a leap of faith. It also requires replacing it with concerted efforts to connect with students in and out of class ...as human beings. Doing so has definitely changed my teaching and my classroom for the better.
with love,
Laurie
PS. It was also illuminating. I put a lot of time, energy, creativity and money into "fun" participation pieces and rewards systems. I was kind of proud of them. In hindsight, my system was really a way to highlight my strengths. My students had that figured out long before I did and many of them didn't respect that, or me, because of it. The ones who did were, well, students like me. It was a "legitimized" form of favoritism. It has been very humbling to have to get to know, and love, my students for their strengths, rather than for how they have supported mine.
Posted by Laurie Clarcq at 8/12/2011 8:40 AM 
Categories: Musings and Philosophy, Classroom Management, Solving Problems
Categories: Musings and Philosophy, Classroom Management, Solving Problems
Laurie, this is such a great post that I wonder whether I may adapt it an.d use it on my parent page. Assessing spoken language is very different from measuring participation.
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Absolutely!!!!!!
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Thank you Laurie for posting about this topic.
You articulate quite a convincing argument against using participation points for evaluation. You are talking about lowering the affective filter. It sounds wonderful. In what you are saying I hear the challenge for us teachers to give up control, any amount, whatever the amount.
How do you get there?
Which system do you have that replaces participation points that works?
We live in the reality of having to produce a grade.
How do you grade your students?
How do you deal with discipline (attitude, absences, English).
Which is the social contract you have with your students and parents?
How did you reach this social contract?
How do you enforce the rules that make daily living (la convivencia) possible?
What does your grade represent?
In my grading so far, 60 per cent for comprehension quizzes, emphasizes the skills of the fast processors. I have been thinking for a while that I would like my grades to represent effort inside the classroom more than comprehension or production skills because:
--classroom time is the time we spend together and I want to make that time as easy, pleasant and productive for myself and for everyone. It is in this time spent together that we earn our chops. It is an effort for everyone to be focused for those 55 minutes.
--good grades motivate all, even the ones who don't care, do care when they can show a high number there;
--I believe that language is acquired subconsciously, as per Krashen. This would be when we feel good, when we are relaxed, when we feel safe, when we are asleep, when we feel acknowledged, etc. Then those sounds with new meanings start to stick and make sense, they can feel familiar –true acquisition doesn’t necessarily take place inside the classroom, but the conditions in which the language is encountered affect significantly the possibilities of that acquisition.
--as human beings that teach teenagers, we try to create those conditions, but we have to juggle many balls simultaneously;
--our skills as tprs teachers need much improvement (ie: how does slow look like at different levels of time spent in the language). Most of us suck, as per Ben Slavic;
--dealing with discipline issues tires me immensely (me agota) takes focus away from perfecting other important skills: trying to figure out what is meaningful, how to say it right, repeat it in as many ways I can keeping it fresh (not an easy task), keeping even the motivated ones engaged, using the amount of vocabulary appropriate to the group, trying to figure out how to get in dialogue, and so on.
Participation points in whichever way they are handled is a form of this contract. It is one that doesn’t workv very well, just as the bigger social contract is broken. Nevertheless, I believe we need a contract, because we have to get along, and produce a grade. How to get there. How to enforce it. Even sports coaches have a contract.
With much respect,
Laura
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Thank you so much for the post - truly liberating! My school requires that 20% of each student's overall grade is based on "participation". So much of my time and energy is wasted on this... What would you do with such a requirement?
Thank you SO much for your posts and your help.
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If your school does not tell you how to grade participation, then I think that you have 3 options (or a combination of them):
a) have students self-evaluate via a rubric...you look them over and adjust if necessary.
b) count the work done in class grades ( ie a "dictation", illustration, adding sentences to a story, etc. as participation...after all..isn't that what participation is? the work done in class? You don't have to choose every activity...pick one or two per week that best illustrate "participation" and use those grades.
c) keep track with points/checks/a rubric etc as best you can.
Hope that helps a bit..
with love,
Laurie
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Here, here! Rewards are about judgement. While school systems are set up to judge who is getting it and who isn't, judgement is hurtful in the long run because what we really want to do is empower students to be life long learners and only they can look at what they are doing and make the adjustments. So we have to help students learn critical thinking skills to help them evaluate their work rather than "us--the system." That is what employers say they want. Self-motivated and actualized adults that can make the necessary decisions to move their companies forward.
It is what I want as the future voters and legislators and ambassadors of our country. People who look within themselves for knowledge of whether they are doing what feels right and benefits the community and themselves.
Rewards rob students of that self knowledge as they are always looking to beat the system so they can get the candy bar. Are we training dogs or people?
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