Instill Student Ownership and Accountability with Class Participation

Ever since I have started teaching I have tried to instill student ownership and accountability on every student. Every teacher grades classroom participation a little differently. I take pride in that I am sometimes the exception, my students grade  their OWN classroom participation with a specific rubric I designed. They evaluate and justify “why they deserve that grade?” I always joke with them when I say I have the final veto and override power over their participation grade (I’m a history teacher so they always laugh at that joke).

 

I find they are more critical of themselves when ranking their participation then I would have been. Sometimes I need to increase or decrease a student’s grade on the rubric if I think their participation is different than how they graded themselves. A wonderful of colleague of mine suggested to have a meeting with any student whose grade is lower than their evaluation. That way they can see how I evaluated and encouraged improvement with their classroom participation.

 

Another strength of the this method of evaluation is how they justify their grade with the why section of the rubric. That way it gives them a chance to reflect on their behavior, attitude, preparedness, and accountability. 90% of the time they write how they can improve their class participation. Through this method of evaluation my students are reflecting on their behavior but more importantly suggesting ways they can improve themselves. Don’t we want our students to be reflective lifelong learners?

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6 Comments
  1. Pingback: Instill Student Ownership and Accountability with Class Participation - NJ Education Now

  2. Pingback: Instill Student Ownership and Accountability with Class Participation - NJ Education Now | NJ Education Now

  3. I was working on creating a document for students to assess them own participation when I decided to do a little research and see how other teachers handle this. I love the philosophy behind this and the rubric you put together to use with your students is spot on. I hope you don’t mind if I use it as inspiration for my own. I’m so glad to read about another teacher that shares my desire to help students find to motivate themselves through personal responsibility and reflection!

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