Your Class Participation Grade

The A student must be actively engaged in all aspects of the classroom experience.  He or she will be on time and in possession of all materials needed for class—rough draft, textbook, completed assignments, etc.  He or she will be a regular and insightful contributor to all classroom discussions and will be actively involved in note-taking and listening, remaining focused upon and respectful of all opinions expressed by others.

The B student will be engaged in all classroom activities.  He or she will be on time and in possession of all materials needed for class.  This student will be a fairly regular contributor to the classroom discussion.  His or her comments will be relevant and significant, and he or she will be actively involved in note-taking and listening, while remaining focused upon and respectful of the opinions of others.

The C student may require prompting in order to be fully engaged within the classroom.  He or she might occasionally arrive late for class or come in without having done the reading or without having all needed materials.  This student might contribute to the class discussion, but will generally do so only on a superficial level. He or she may or may not take notes and may or may not always be focused on the classroom experience.

The D student may often arrive late and be an unreliable participant in class.  He or she usually must be called on for comments and rarely has anything of substance to add to the discussion.  He or she can arrive unprepared and may often be found daydreaming rather than taking notes and remaining actively focused on classroom activities.

The F student functions mostly as a classroom decoration.  He or she is not an asset to the learning process, often arriving late or not at all.  Virtually always unprepared, this student is simply taking up space and, in doing so, fails to participate, to listen, or to be respectful of others.