Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Son Deureo!]

Starting next month, I am going to be teaching conversation classes in which 40% of the grade is to be determined by class participation. Can anyone give me any suggestions for a fair and reasonably objective system that I can use in the classroom?

I'll be teaching intermediate to advanced adults/uni students, and the class is one month long. Thanks!

[snufalufagus]

Does Kim Someone Someone participate in class ?

[ ] Yes

[ ] No

(Check one)

There you go

[chinook]

in french class back in grade 7, our teacher used to have a seat plan and we had to say 5 things per class to get a full participation mark. she just marked the seat plan for the first 5 things each person said and that was 100% for that day.

[Grotto]

you could always institute a rule in which they have to ask the rest of the students a question or some questions every day.

no two can have the same question
no one can have the same question two days running

could work

[CanadaCommando]

I have a class sheet with all my students numbers on it. I explain at the begin of the course that each time a student answers a question or participates in a way I like, they will get a check. I then say that each time I catch a student sleeping or goofing off, they get a minus. It takes two checks to get rid of a minus. I then say I mark on a curve, and explain that only the top 5 participaters will get the best mark, and so on and so forth. Every 5 or 6 classes, I write on the board the current 5 "A+" students.
I like doing this because it gets the kids anxious and eager to participate. Plus, once a kid gets an A+ mark, then drops down, he is twice as eager to participate!

When it comes down to mark time, I use my plus/minus system as a base, then adjust from there. Despite what I say, there is no way I am going to give an eager participater a B just cuz there are 5 more slightly eager out there.

[ThePoet]

While teaching Drama in Canada, I always marked participation highly. I used a ten point sliding scale. I used it daily for each student. At the end of the marking term, I added their marks, divided by the number of days they had to get a raw mark. The raw mark can then be multiplied by 4 (for your 40%) to get your assigned mark. The 10 point scale I used (modified for conversation) follows:

10/10 - Student is exeptional. Participates fully in all class events. Demonstrates full use of all the skills they have learned in class and offers suggestions as to improvements in performance (in this case, topics of conversation, or grammar, voabulary, etc.) of themselves and classmates. Uses logical, well drawn ideas to support their conversation.

7 - 9/10 - Student makes an effort in most assigned activities and is effective at putting their skills into play. Demonstrates use of skills taught to them in class. They offer general suggestions about the topic of conversation only. Uses original thought

5 - 6/10 - Student uses pre-programmed responses in assignments. Does not fully participate in all assignments. Does not contribute to the flow of conversation. (this is for the student that says "OK", "I don't know", or some other answer that they always use. You can also give this mark to a student who is shy and does not feel comfortable talking.

3 - 4/10 - Student participates in some activities only if prompted to do so. Student requires multiple prompting and tries to avoid participation. Participation is of an unnacceptable method (rudeness or making fun of classmates or teacher [talking in Korean?])

1 - 2/10 - Student will not participate (this could be for a variety of reasons, like preferring to sleep in class, or because you sent them out for rudeness

0/10 - Student uses unacceptable behavior in class.

As a note, I fully understand that 10/10 is damn near impossible to get, but I always encouraged my students to be better each day. The floating mark allows for your discretion in how much the student is participating at that level. Certainly, someone who participates in all activities but not as fully as someone else should get a 7 instead of an 8 or a 9. I used the 5 - 6 marking band for those students who participated in the drama exercises but were not being original. For example, I had one student who, after seeing Forrest Gump, did all of his acting like Forrest Gump - it didn't matter what the situation was. The problem was, his hand went up to be in everything we did, from improv to reading scenes.

Also notice that there are usually 3 objectives in each band the student has to fulfill for full marks. So you can use that as your method of determining whether they get the 7 or the 9 -- did they fulfill All of the objectives or most or few? There is a lot of latitude that you can use when assigning a mark like this and you simply need to justify it as necessary.

I hope this helps.

[ajstew]

I find it too much work doing daily checks on class participation and I don't think the class atmosphere would have been that good, had my students seen me walking around to their groups and checking off marks while they talk. I put my students in groups of 4 students, and tried to get a general idea by the end of the semester as to who the three students were who contributed the most and who the 1 or in some cases... the 2 students were who contributed the least. That generally left me my 30% C and 70% A ratio that I needed, and I was pleased with it.

The only problem with this system, is if students (in a university setting) miss to many classes due to holidays and MT, that cannot be made up... and that can be a problem when my schedule doesn't provide me with time slots that match their's. But it doesn't sound like you'll have that problem.

[Arthur Fonzerelli]

[CanadaCommando]

[Zyzyfer]

Some great ideas mentioned on here, and I utilize something similar, though I didn't initially realize its effectiveness. I would give them one "bonus point" for each question they answered, and a predetermined number of bonus points for various activities and projects. These served to boost their basic grade in the normal classes, and in the intensive classes during the holidays, I would give a special reward based on who participated the most. The winners both got a pack of strawberries, while the kids in last got like a Chocochip or something.

I like that 10-point system, though.