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nevadafighter
2010-01-20 04:30 am UTC (link)

Yeah, I had the 10% participation section as well, mainly because there was lots of peer review and discussion that students really needed to be there for. I guess my approach was more that "I'm not going to run after you and pester you about coming to class; if you miss too many classes it will only hurt you in the end, not me." I put the burden of caring about coming to class on them.

I took attendance, counted the days, etc. but I let them know I wasn't going to lecture, pester, or even remind them. All told most of my students had very good attendance and I don't think I reduced anyone's grade because of excessive absence.

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snarkhunter
2010-01-20 02:13 pm UTC (link)

I'm not going to run after you and pester you about coming to class; if you miss too many classes it will only hurt you in the end, not me.

I completely agree. I don't chase them down, either. I figure they're adults, and if they want to fuck over their participation grade (which in my classes is usually 15-20%, and honestly kind of an easy A), that's their business. I'm also not a complete hard-ass. If there's something serious going on, fine. But it's up to them to let me know about it.

I have reduced people's grades because of excessive absence--but we're talking like missing half the class, here. If you miss 5 days, I might give you a *little* ding on your grade, but not enough to be really noticeable.

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	funwithrage 2010-01-20 10:51 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, that's the thing: class participation is maybe twenty percent, at most. If you know the material well enough that you don't need to be in class, you should be doing well enough on your tests that you can take the participation hit and come out fine. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

snarkhunter
2010-01-20 11:17 pm UTC (link)

The problem with that is that you have to ace the tests and the papers to get a good grade without a decent participation grade in my classes.

Traditionally, my classes (English) look something like this: 20% Participation, 20% Midterm, 20% First Paper, 20% Second Paper, 20% Final Exam. And I'm a tough grader on papers.

I'm a complete bitch (or a smug arrogant teacher, according to the Baleetion Fairy, above) because I determine what goes on the tests based on the class discussion. So if we read Poem A, but never talked about it in class? It's unlikely to be on the test.

Basically, people who don't come to class don't do well on exams, because the exams are designed around in-class discussion.

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