[MATHEDCC] Attendance/class participation

Jane Brandsma (jabrands@unity.ncsu.edu)
Thu, 17 Apr 1997 20:31:26 +0000

As we teach our classes using more student-centered activities with
projects, labs, and cooperative learning, attendance becomes a problem
that impacts more than the one student who is not in class. My Calculus
students did a lab today, and one student who had been absent all week
showed up (late). She was not prepared, and I had trouble deciding
quite what to do with her...Pair her up with someone else (it was
definitely a two-person adventure)? That's what I did decide, to put her
with someone who was absent yesterday, but that student still had to
spend precious time "catching her up" with Monday and Tuesday's
stuff...and that's not fair to him (but some would say, that's real
life...workforce preparedness skills!). It's also a two-day project...so
what happens when one student in a pair doesn't show tomorrow? With 50
minute classes five days a week there are just some times when things
take more than one day.

Part of my students' grade is "class participation" (10%) and attendance
is a major factor in that...my philosophy is, if you're not in class,
you can't participate. And three tardies count as an absence. I don't
nag or whine, I just mark it in my grade book and
they pay at the end of the quarter. Of course, all of this is spelled
out in great detail in my syllabus.

This approach seems to be working better for me than some other things
I've tried in the past (like dropping students after so many absences)
but it's still far from perfect.

Jane Brandsma
Guilford Technical Community College
Jamestown, NC 27282
jabrands@unity.ncsu.edu
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