On Engagement/Participation Grading

My Engagement and Participation policy is the same across all my courses — and it is very straightforward. Please click here to review that policy, to make sure you know what you’re asking about!

I never keep track of the quantity of any student’s contributions. Rather, I compose this grade based on how much I feel that the student has shared intelligent thoughts with me about the class subject. If, by the end of term, we all have a pretty good idea of how you approach class material, you’ll do well.  And remember: if just jumping into class discussion doesn’t work for you, there are always alternative avenues for participation available to you (click here) — taking advantage of those alternative avenues may be the key to getting a good engagement/participation grade for you, so try them out!

Marks in Engagement and Participation are necessarily somewhat subjective, but I do use thorough triple-checks and reviews during term to ensure that the marks are a fair assessment of the quality of each student’s contributions to class discussion.  My final assessment of the overall quality of class conversations across term, based on all students’ contributions, will determine the mean and cap marks: so every student’s quality of contributions will affect everyone’s mark.  

Generally, I rate the student’s quality of discussion once at midterm and once at the end of term, then take the average of the two marks. These marks are out of 100: following the U of T grading scheme, excellent participation earns about 85/100; good participation earns 75/100, and so on.

You can always ask me (or your TA) what your current engagement/participation grade is currently looking like.