How I Grade Attendance and Participation

This policy was developed by Professor Doug Hesse, Director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Illinois State University. Dr. Stacey has adopted it whole, word for word, from Professor Hesse’s teaching materials, and with his permission.

Dear Student,

You should attend every class meeting for a host of reasons, ranging from the fact that you've paid tuition for access to them to the fact that showing up, as Woody Allen and others have observed, is a fundamental part of life and certainly any career. More important, however, is that I design every class to accomplish things that we simply cannot accomplish outside of class: not through readings, not through electronic discussions, not through conferences. So, you need to be here. You might, in fact, find interesting a poem entitled "Did I Miss Anything?"

Having said that, I choose to evaluate your performance in class not by counting absences but by judging presences. That is, I will consider your contributions to class meetings. In most of my classes, this portion of your grade is called "Participation and Class Contributions." In grading this portion, I'll use a specific procedure and set of criteria.After each class meeting, I take a few minutes to record for each of you a check, a plus, a minus, or a zero in my grade book.

A Check means that you seemed to come to class prepared. You seemed to follow the discussion, and your body language seemed to encourage others in the class to share their insights. You probably made a comment or two-or you may have remained silent. But you were prepared and engaged. Your presence was productive.

A Plus means that you satisfied all of the criteria for a check. However, you also contributed in explicit and effective ways to the class discussion or work. Perhaps you made several appropriate comments (and you were also attentive to the needs of others to participate). Perhaps you made only a few comments but these were of such quality that they moved the class in good and productive directions.

A Minus means that you came to class but that either you didn't seem prepared or that your presence detracted, in however small a fashion, from the quality of class experience for others. Perhaps you read the paper or slept or browsed your textbook. Perhaps you muttered or talked or had some behaviors that discouraged others from talking. A minus, obviously, is a cause for concern, so I'll talk to you if I see this happening more than a couple of times.

A Zero means, alas, that you didn't show up at all.

When I calculate grades for the "Participation and Class Contributions," I review all of my marks for the semester. If you have a large majority of "Plus," you'll get an A. If you have a mixture of "Plus" and "Check," you'll get a B. If you have mostly "Check" (and by that I mean 90% or so of Checks, since coming prepared and being engaged is a minimal threshold) you'll get a C. If you have several "Minuses" or "Zeroes," you'll get a D or F.

Updated January 2004 ddhesse@ilstu.edu