About the midterm participation grade email conversation

We’re pretty much at midterm, which means it’s time to have that previously promised email conversation about participation for the first half of the class.  If you look over the syllabus again, you’ll note it says the following:

At midterm, I will have an email conversation with each of you about your progress in terms of participation, and we will do this again at the end of the term as well.

It’s a simple process; here’s how it will work:

First, some time between now and the end of winter break, send me an email about what letter grade you think you have earned for the first half of the term for participation, and explain to my why you think this is the case.  This need not be a long and exhaustive email– less than 100 words will typically suffice.  I’d recommend taking a look over the syllabus to remind yourself what counts for participation– note that the research project work doesn’t fit into that category, for example.

Also, do specify a grade A, A-, B, whatever.  Don’t just write and say “golly, I don’t know, what do you think?”

Once you email me, I’ll read it over and let you know what I think, and hopefully we’ll arrive at some general consensus on this.

You may be asking yourself, “Why is he doing this?” Two reasons, basically:

• I think it is critically important for students at all levels to recognize that grades are not “given,” like presents from Santa.  Rather, grades are “earned,” and they are earned based on what you do or don’t do.  Part of this then is to get you to be conscious and self-reflective on your own work for the term.
• Students tend to be right about the grade they’ve earned.  Not always, of course, and this is another reason for this: if you think you’ve earned an “A” even though you have routinely participated in the discussions late (or not at all), you haven’t done any of the blogs, you haven’t done any of the short/small writing projects, etc., then this will be a chance for me to clear that up for you.  But generally, I think students at most levels (and I do this same sort of thing when I teach first year writing, too) are pretty accurate.