Participation can be a heart stopper, nerve jumper and an absolute bone crusher for some. A teacher’s grading on participation may be either your best friend or your worst nightmare. For this reason, it may have students like you questioning its necessity.
As of now, the school does not require teachers to grade participation and engagement in classes. However, every subject must meet state standards applied to them. In some cases, subjects like English and social sciences have a high demand for the integration of knowledge and ideas. This in turn, encourages teachers to grade participation in the classroom. But even then, some choose not to.
This misleadingly limits participation’s value only to specific subjects, but we need all classes to include a participation grade. For almost every career, cognitive and communicative skills are a major part of the career’s tasks. Participating in class, in its simplest form, is just practice for the real world. Just as it is important to share ideas on paper or digitally, it means nothing when oral delivery doesn’t hold the same value.
Today, one in four Americans possess a phobia for public speaking. In response to this, teachers such as history teacher Ms. Stacy Rudzik incorporate participation as a part of students’ grades because it serves as a crucial skill for the rest of their lives.
If it was not for my ability to participate in class, I don’t see how I would find the courage to approach teachers for help if I couldn’t answer a question or two during class. From a teacher’s perspective, grading participation serves as another eye opener to their students’ comprehension of the material. The teacher then can choose which course of action is best to help their students improve. For that reason, every teacher should put emphasis on participation by grading students in class.