Students learn at least as much from one
another as from their instructors in the collaborative learning
community that we strive to foster in the Program in
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. I consider each student's
contribution
to be a critical component of every course, so it also is a critical
component of your grade.
This document is considered part of the
course syllabus, and students are responsible for understanding its
contents.
There is no "recipe" for conducting or
evaluating class contribution, but we can isolate some of the
characteristics of relatively successful or unsuccessful performances
in this category. What follows are profiles, or composites, of
characteristics within graded performances in class contribution. In
other words, these are lists of attributes frequently demonstrated by
class members earning various contribution grades. Not all must be
uniformly present in a given class member or across every class
session, and conduct of individual participants over the weeks of a
term frequently will combine attributes from multiple performance
profiles. Therefore, while these profiles begin to speak to criteria
at work in evaluating class contribution, they are not offered here
as definitive benchmarks (hence not made to coincide exactly with
numerical scales or grade equivalents), and are furnished only to
dramatize some nuances in class contribution behaviors, as well as
distinctions made in assessing performances.
In the end, I score contribution using a combination of three modes of assessment: individual assessments (a student's development and progress during the term), comparative assessments (what members of the same section, or class, demonstrate is possible), and contextual assessments (what students whose work I have evaluated over the years suggests about the full spectrum of class contribution performances). You may not agree utterly with my scoring of your performance (and I do not ask you to agree), but I want you to have clarity about how I understand the process of assessing class contribution.
Instructor Observations about this Profile:
Typical Peer Responses to this Profile:
From a peer's perspective, this profile might describe class members who lead, mobilize, challenge, stimulate, redirect, and help others.
Instructor Observations about this Profile:
Typical Peer Responses to this Profile:
From a peer's perspective, this profile might describe class members who listen actively, build on previous comments, synthesize findings, and return discussion to crucial questions or dilemmas.
Instructor Observations about this Profile:
Typical Peer Responses to this Profile:
From a peer's perspective, this profile might describe class members who contribute consistently by adding ideas, asking clarifying questions, and responding to other class members.
Instructor Observations about this Profile:
Typical Peer Responses to this Profile:
From a peer's perspective, this profile might describe class members whose contributions are considerably more modest, even limited. They may speak only in small-group work, falling silent in full-group discussions. Their preparation level and/or engagement level constrain their contribution, and may even inhibit the process for others.
Instructor Observations about this Profile:
Typical Peer Response to this Profile:
From a peer's perspective, this profile might describe class members who, in important ways, refuse the invitation of shared inquiry a university affords. While remaining enrolled, this person stays remote from, or withdraws from, the course enterprise. In fact, this might be the class member peers thought withdrew formally from the class. It might be the person whose voice (and so, ideas) class members do not recognize, even at term's end. It might even be the class member whom peers regard as a detrimental presence.
[The preceding information is adapted, with slight modifications, from Prof. Linda Watts's expansion of Prof. Kenneth L. Verosub's document at <http://www-geology.ucdavis.edu/~GEL242/G242Rubrics.html>. Used with kind permission of Prof. Watts.]
In courses in which the syllabus indicates that I will provide a numerical score for your contribution, the letter grades above will be converted to a point score, based approximately on a percentage of the total number of points available for contribution in that course:
approx. 91-100 percent of
available pts. approx. 81-90 percent of
available pts. approx. 71-80 percent of
available pts. approx. 61-70 percent of
available pts. approx. 0-60 percent of
available pts.
I rely on two principal means of evaluating your contribution:
I expect students to be present, prepared, and participating in every class session. I know that emergencies sometimes arise, and one or two absences are unlikely to affect your contribution grade much. More than a couple of absences, however, obviously decreases your value to your groupmates and classmates, which will be reflected in your contribution grade. Note that, although I am quite sympathetic to problems such as long work hours, other coursework, traffic, computer malfunctions, and typical family matters like childcare, I expect students to set their own priorities and to take responsibility for the consequences of choices. If you expect--or find that you are having--significant conflicts throughout the quarter, you should consider taking this course at another time. If continuing issues arise in the middle of the quarter, you might wish to contact Student Affairs <http://www.bothell.washington.edu/students/> to discuss a hardship withdrawal.
If you miss a class in which an assignment is due, you are responsible for getting the assignment to me, in a manner that I have specified, no later than the due date and time. It is your responsibility to fulfill this obligation. I will make exceptions only for extreme, unpredictable circumstances that prevent you from getting the assignment to me on time.
If you miss a class in which I return graded work, you are responsible for arranging the return of your work. I normally carry graded materials to class only once.
Most of your contribution will take place in small groups, and that will be the principal basis for your contribution grade. A smaller portion of your grade will come from your contribution in full-class discussions. I know that some students are reluctant to speak in a large group. I understand the fear of speaking out, but I also strongly believe that when everyone contributes, everyone learns more; I want you to share your ideas. My courses provide an opportunity to face and overcome your reticence. Your classmates and I will do our best to be friendly and respectful! College is the time to take some calculated risks in order to grow. In this effort and in all others in the course, I expect excellence from you.
I hope and expect that no students will be reluctant to express their opinions because they fear being ridiculed, judged, or ostracized. Furthermore, your grade will not be affected by the content of your opinions. We need not agree with one another, but we must respect one another.
Please monitor your own behavior to neither dominate small-group or full-class discussions nor remain unduly silent. Your contribution is valued but it is important for everyone to get a chance to speak. Please limit private conversations during large group activities. If you feel that others are not allowing you to speak, please tell them or me. Similarly, if you feel that others are not contributing their fair share to small-group or full-class discussions, please tell them or me as soon as you notice a problem. Please do not wait until the end of the course.
Small Group Roles
The dynamics of small groups require some
flexibility and some risk-taking among each group's members. Members
of a group can participate and contribute in different ways, all of
which are valuable. The best way to ensure the most rewarding
experience possible for all of the group members is to take turns
assuming these roles. Stretch! Do not stick with the roles with which
you are most comfortable. Try out all of the roles. Rotate among the
roles each time your small group meets. I expect groups to determine, explicitly,
the roles that each member will take for each class meeting.
This will help ensure that you will have a chance to take on each of
these roles at least once. These roles are not always clearly
differentiated from one another in the give-and-take of class
discussions--one can rarely be only a manager for a whole class period,
for example--but you should try to emphasize each of these roles at
least once or twice throughout a course.
The following are small group roles that Daniel K. Apple, Wendy Duncan-Hewitt, Karl Krumsieg, and David Mount identify in A Handbook on Cooperative Learning (Corvallis, OR: Pacific Crest, 1994).
I hope that, together, we can make this a terrific course! Thanks for doing your part.
This page last updated September 19, 2006.
