As a novice teacher, James M. Lang kept track of how often and how much his students spoke in class, and allotted 10 percent of final grades to participation. That’s a practice he now describes as “a poor pedagogical choice” that should be replaced by more inclusive alternatives that don’t involve grade-based incentives, Lang writes for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“Making participation an ungraded classroom norm might be one of the most inclusive practices we could undertake as teachers,” writes Lang, a professor of English and director of the D'Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
When participation is graded, Lang says it can become “subject to every kind of bias imaginable.” This might include unconscious bias based on identity, or “looking more favorably on a student whose comments or demeanor remind me a little of myself—or unfavorably on a student who reminds me of someone I dislike.” And even when teachers are “fair-minded graders of class participation,” he notes, there are still difficult questions to consider such as: “Are all comments equal? What counts as a comment worthy of a good grade? How am I tracking the quality of the comments, as opposed to the sheer quantity?”
There’s deep value when students participate in classroom discussions, including opportunities to develop and articulate thinking, deliver and receive feedback, and hone speaking and listening skills. And while many K-12 schools and districts require participation grading, and some educators argue that it’s a motivator that keeps kids focused and engaged, Lang says he quit grading student participation in order to “help students find their lost voices, empower those who feel deprived of agency in other parts of their lives, and prevent the discussion from being dominated by students who talk over their peers and crowd out other voices.”
Creating incentives for students to participate once grades have been removed from the equation requires some reframing. To encourage contributions, Lang nurtures an important feedback loop in his classroom, noting for example that “invitations [to students to participate] are premised on the fact that their comments matter. We can all learn from what they have to offer to the discussion.” He reinforces this mindset by “expressing my gratitude for participation on a regular basis, both in class and outside of it.”
Here are a few strategies from Lang and from our Edutopia archives designed to encourage more inclusive, low-stakes (or no-stakes) class participation.
SETTING UP LOW-STAKES, RELAXED DISCUSSIONS
At the beginning of the school year, Lang sets the parameters for participation, explaining that though it’s not graded, participation is not “some optional extra.” Participating, he impresses on students, “is as essential to the course as writing the assigned papers and taking the final exam. You can’t be a full member of our community without participating in class.”
And while he does plan for classwide discussions, Lang also intentionally sets up a variety of other opportunities for students to speak in low-stakes, relaxed situations. “Students in my courses will be speaking with one another in pairs or small groups as they complete some assigned task,” he writes. “In a literature course, I might ask them to annotate a certain poem in groups; in a writing class, I might ask pairs of students to identify the three most effective qualities of a piece of writing.”
Throughout the semester, students receive multiple opportunities to speak, express their opinions, and work through differences in thinking with classmates—but in informal setups where even the most reticent speaker may participate. “We all know—or have been—students who are made anxious at the thought of class participation, or who have to learn challenges or disabilities that prevent them from engaging in a whole-class discussion as actively as do their peers,” Lang writes. “Should they be punished for their character traits or anxieties?”
