Finalists: How to Participate Effectively
This year, all FINALIST students in this module will receive a summative mark for their active participation in class. The good news is that this means that 10% of your final mark is under your own control. At our first meeting, you will be assigned to a small group, and will normally remain in this group for the whole term.
Please note: I will be assessing you based on your in-class spoken performance, but:
If there is a reason that you feel unable to perform to your best ability in whole class or group discussions (e.g. perhaps you experience social anxiety, or are likely to miss a significant number of classes due to caring responsibilities), please come see me and we can discuss how to make participation work for you.
So I'll be looking at your active participation in class discussions. This means how you engage with small group discussion, how you participate in whole group discussions, and what you might add in addition as an individual -- this might range from asking really useful questions about the readings or 'how to' questions about assessments all the way to doing what one of your predecessors did last year: she repurposed a word game to suit a particular class, and we used it to really get discussions going.
I will assess this aspect of your performance very simply:
- If you were mostly a listener in your small group discussions, speaking only rarely to your group, and rarely joining in with whole group discussions, you will received a 2.2 score for that day.
- If you actively joined in your small group discussions, and/or were able to share aspects of those discussions with the whole group, and/or asked good questions, you will receive a 2.1 score for that day.
- If you led your small group discussions, showed original insights or strong analysis of the readings, or prompted further discussions in class, you will receive a 1st class score for that day.
- If you had an unexcused absence you will receive a 39 for that day. This means that you need to tell me if there was a good reason you missed class: perhaps you were ill, perhaps you had a job interview, or perhaps you had caring responsibilities that day. Maybe your transportation let you down, or you had to stay in to wait for a plumber/the police/the roommate who took your keys accidentally [just to list a few real-life emergencies students have had]. Send me an email, explain what happened, and I will amend the record if necessary.
- At the end of the year, I will take an average of all the days' scores, which will be the mark for this element (rounded to the nearest point on the marking scale). Days on which you had an excused absence will NOT be counted -- so be SURE to email me if you have a good reason for missing class.