A Primer on Class Participation

Participation doesn’t have to mean policing your classroom. This post defines what participation is and is not, landing on “the interpersonal and informal parts of studying that make learning stick and feel good.”

Natalie Thompson

This post helps me remember that I can define participation as more than just “speaking in class.” I love the idea that students can self-report ways they’re engaging with the class that I don’t see. Setting up a structure for participation self-assessment helps students be intentional about how they want to contribute to the classroom community and tailor the course to their own goals. It also means that I’m more transparent about what good participation can look like, so I feel confident assessing participation, whether I’m the instructor of record or a teaching assistant.

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New Ways of Encouraging and Assessing Participation

Kirby Conrod

I encourage you to reconceptualize participation as the interpersonal and informal parts of studying that make learning stick and feel good. If you’re teaching, hopefully your goal is to aid and allow people to learn stuff; learning does not stick if it feels bad. Furthermore, humans are social animals, and need interpersonal and informal interactions with each other in order to be alive and healthy. This is especially important during pandemic teaching, when students and instructors alike are feeling isolated, alienated, and fatigued.

kconrod.medium.com/new-ways-of-encouraging-and-assessing-participation-81928518e518

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This post offers specific practices that will get your students excited about participating in class. Many of these ideas can be implemented in addition to—or instead of—traditional methods for grading participation.

Natalie Thompson

The subtitle of this post is “three ways to elicit great participation without grading it.” I find that these practices can help make participation meaningful, even if you do end up assigning a participation grade. As a teaching assistant, these principles help me connect participation to course learning objectives so students see active engagement as a tool for learning, not a rote exercise.

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Prioritizing Participation

Robert Talbert

One of the secrets of teaching is that we cannot make students do things, with or without grades. We can only give them things that they will want to do and then clear any obstacles in the way of doing them. So it's not about "getting students to participate" but setting up a class environment where active participation is a more attractive choice than the alternatives. Here are three concrete ideas for doing this.

gradingforgrowth.com/p/prioritizing-participation

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Meaningful icebreakers can help students see the value of participation and signal that you value their individual strengths and abilities. Here are two prompts that will help you get to know your students and set you up to promote a growth mindset on the first day of class.

Natalie Thompson

This “icebreaker” is both a great first-day activity and an example-in-miniature of a whole philosophy of what class participation should do. I love any activity that accomplishes multiple pedagogical goals at once, and these are two no-frills questions that can spark a fun discussion and get students thinking about their own learning.

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A Growth-focused Icebreaker

Robert Talbert

I hate icebreakers. I don’t use that word “hate” often or lightly. But here, it’s justified. The purpose of icebreakers is, supposedly, to get people involved in some activity to make them more relaxed when working together. But the idea of going through some contrived activity, with a group of people I don’t know, specifically to expose myself to them on a personal level, usually through some horrifyingly embarrassing action or fact I’m forced to share — does not in any way relax me. And most of the time, icebreakers accomplish nothing except a lot of eye rolling and spiked anxiety levels.

So I’m not a fan of icebreakers. Therefore, when I say that I’ve finally found an icebreaker activity that really works, and one that I can live with, it’s a big deal. I’d like to describe it to you today. I use it on the first day of every class, as well as in the talks and workshops I give. You can run this activity with students at any time of the semester and get good results. In fact, it benefits from being given repeatedly throughout the semester. And it reinforces all the ideas about learning and growth that we write about on this blog.

gradingforgrowth.com/p/a-growth-focused-icebreaker

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