MTT

Monday was my first day back in Ellsworth observing in a high school math classroom.  I was able to observe a class that is new to my cooperating teacher for this semester.  Immediately I noticed how much less class participation there was.  The other classes I observed last time I was in the class would willingly volunteer and respond to questions she asked.   This class, however, was like pulling teeth.  So I looked up some information about classroom participation. 

I found an article that talks about classroom participation including the pros and cons to grading it, ways to encourage it/overcome the cons, and a possible way to assess it.  I believe the article is actually referring to class participation in college as it says professor and not teacher, but I feel the information is still very relevant and useful. 

Here are a few comments about the article:

• The article states that the professors use the classroom participation as a fudge factor for the final grade.  This can cause many problems, a parent or student could ask for justification and the teacher would not be able to show it. 
• Personalities can play a huge factor in a person participation, a few strategies that are given to over come this are to use ‘comment cards’ that will count as participation in discussion or to count small group discussion towards participation.
• Research shows that high achieving students value only the portions which are graded, so by grading classroom participation the teacher is demonstrating the classroom participation is important.  While some may disagree that this is important, students will need to be able to communicate by listening and speaking in their future jobs.