# Class Participation



## 99x (Oct 4, 2007)

I hate it when teachers use this as criterion to assess your final grade. This is the case in one of my classes. I can understand this in a speech or presentation class, but not in something like World Religion. It should be suggested and encouraged, but not mandatory. Today my teacher made a comment that was something like "A portion of your grades are going to be on class participation which could be as simple as asking a question or making a comment every now and then. Some of you still do not participate." Of course I know I'm one of them. It's unfair because I see some of these people texting and sleeping through half the class, but because they crack a few jokes here and there they're getting credit for participating. At the same time I'm sitting there giving my full attention and taking notes, just doing so very quietly and not getting credit for participation. A student shouldn't have to be worried about failing a class because he kept to himself.


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## tainted_ (Feb 20, 2008)

I think you should go talk to the teacher and explain you have difficulty speaking in class and maybe ask if you could possibly do something else to show you understand the class eg. handing in a page of notes every week? 

That's what I do at uni.


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## blueFsharp (Mar 18, 2008)

ive seen a lot of posts like this. at my school there is a disability office, is this not the norm at most schools? someone in charge of accomodations for students with disabilites? it seems like it must be. i've got my sa on record with them for things like this, so whenever i have a freakout period or anything, i can just go to the teacher with my records, and they make the necessary accomodations to grading, assignments, etc. you should try looking into that.


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## 99x (Oct 4, 2007)

Thanks for the responses and the advice. I hadn't thought about seeking out a disability office, mostly because I figured it wouldn't fall under their idea of a disability, but since I'm taking medication and everything I guess it's worth a try. Not only that, but I tend to deny that I have a problem but rather complain about stupid rules. I guess I find it easier. Anyways, thanks.


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## livingnsilence (Feb 4, 2008)

Many of my teachers have done this and it allways scares me when I see something on a sylabus that says like 5%of your grade is participation and I never participate in class except maybe answer a question when asked and normally I can't do that b/c I freeze up and say I don't know even though I do. But I'd say about 90% of them never really gave a participation grade it was just like an automatic 100 so long as you showed up to most of the classes.


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## bezoomny (Feb 10, 2007)

One thing that I used to do in discussion courses was that I'd literally write a quick outline of what I was going to say before I said it. That way I minimized the possibility of embarrassing myself. If I tried to just speak, it never worked because I forgot what I was going to say.


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## emptybottle (Jan 3, 2005)

blueFsharp said:


> ive seen a lot of posts like this. at my school there is a disability office, is this not the norm at most schools? someone in charge of accomodations for students with disabilites? it seems like it must be. i've got my sa on record with them for things like this, so whenever i have a freakout period or anything, i can just go to the teacher with my records, and they make the necessary accomodations to grading, assignments, etc. you should try looking into that.


Do you know if you have to be on medication for SA for the disability office to let you have special accomodations?


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## HoboQueen (Jan 25, 2008)

I actually like class participation in some classes. It's only when I'm clueless about a topic that I hate to speak up.


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## Nihlanth (Sep 1, 2004)

Online courses solve this problem quite nicely  You still participate, but since it's in a text format (no speaking involved) there is much less pressure.


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## nightmahr (Jan 2, 2008)

I always just accepted getting poorer grades because of that. I have this instilled sense of personal responsibility in the face of insurmountable problems that would prevent me from doing otherwise. I don't really have a problem with getting a grade reduction for being how I am, since being how I am is clearly affecting my expected performance in classes and certainly does so in professional situations as well. It's the same with any other shortcomings. I expect to do horribly in math and physics classes because those subjects are extremely difficult for me, for example.


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## russophile1977 (Jan 16, 2006)

I don't like the way teachers try to bully students into talking by giving marks for participation. The outgoing students will talk all the time, whether or not they're given marks for it, just because they're naturally very talkative. But just because someone doesn't particpate in the discussions, it doesn't mean that they don't know the material. The only reason I never went to grad school was that I knew I'd bomb my thesis defense at the end of the year, even though I knew I'd do really well on the written tests.


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## blueFsharp (Mar 18, 2008)

emptybottle said:


> Do you know if you have to be on medication for SA for the disability office to let you have special accomodations?


you probably don't have to be on medication, but i would assume you have to have been formally diagnosed. because to go through the process at my school, i had to have my therapist write like a note about my treatment, and have all the professionals i have dealing with it sign some papers and whatnot to prove that YES she has this and YES she's getting neccessary treatment.


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