CLASS PARTICIPATION – ENGAGEMENT AND CONDUCT

There are two components of Class Participation. One, Student Skills, evaluates things like late work, organization, and progress tracking and is worth a separate ten percent of your nine weeks’ grade. The other, Engagement and Conduct, is described here and is also worth ten percent of your nine weeks’ grade.

As you can see, this part of your class participation grade involves your dedication to your own growth and improvement and your contributions to the learning of all. There isn’t a certain number of points for each behavior; instead, I look at your day-to-day behavior to determine your overall contributions to both your own learning and that of others. This means your strengths can shine through, and I have the ability to give them more weight in your evaluation. Of course, be careful because the reverse is also true: if you have major problems in any of these areas, they can really poison an otherwise good grade.

THE CRITERIA:

ü ENGAGEMENT: You consistently strive for growth and improvement by

· developing your ideas beyond the obvious or superficial.

· using your time and freedom to learn in a focused and positive way.

· trying new ways to learn and intelligently evaluating alternative points of view.

· applying a variety of problem solving strategies to everyday academic and personal challenges.

· responding positively and constructively to challenges, criticism, and failure.

ü CONDUCT: You contribute positively to the learning and atmosphere of the classroom by

· consistently demonstrating a genuine desire to learn from and share ideas with peers and instructor through oral participation and inquiry.

· taking risks, asserting opinions and supporting them, allowing others to speak without interruption, and listening respectfully to them.

· allowing the activity of the classroom to flow smoothly and without disruption.

· having a constructive attitude towards the challenges of learning.

· encouraging classmates to do their best while respecting their feelings, space, and possessions.

· constructively participating in classroom improvement activities.

· conscientiously following your Academy Roles - Rules.

Perhaps the best way to understand this is to see it in the simple terms that I really use when I look at your performance:

A = Excellent: You exceed the expectations for most of the criteria; you constantly push yourself to do well and do everything you can to make sure the class and classmates succeed as well.

B = Good: You meet the listed criteria on a regular basis; you usually push yourself to do well and sometimes contribute to the success of the class and classmates.

C = Average: You are inconsistent in meeting the criteria; you only occasionally push yourself to do well and rarely contribute to – in fact, you occasionally interfere with – the success of the class and classmates.

D = Below average: You show considerable weaknesses in many of the listed criteria; you rarely push yourself to do well and noticeably interfere with the success of the class and classmates.