Encouraging Participation (and Note on E-mails)

This past semester I encouraged participation in my Communications for English Majors II class in many of the ways we discussed at conference; I was explicit about expectations and gave examples of what good participation looks like. Also, throughout the semester I gave specific, immediate praise to students who went beyond simply answering my questions (e.g., if they responded directly to what another student said by building on it/critiquing it, if they asked a question that was not solicited but was still on topic). All these things helped raise participation levels. Something else that increased participation dramatically however was when I sent out a ‘Participation Progress Report’ midway through the semester.

I sent out these reports in individual e-mails and in them praised students specifically for what they did well at with regards to participation (e.g., quality comments, consistent comments, building on what others said, critiquing what others said well, etc.), told them if their participation levels needed to increase (and roughly by how much), and how many absences/tardies they’d had. Additionally, if a student didn’t participate much but wrote excellent papers (several students fell into this category), I commented on how given the quality of her/his papers, s/he would contribute greatly to the class if s/he spoke up more. After sending out the reports, every student participated voluntarily at least once per class and most mid-level participators turned into high level participators. I’m not sure exactly why it worked (The praise? The knowledge that I was watching them closely? The reminder they were being graded in participation?) or how well it will work again, but at least for this semester, it worked very well.

A side note on e-mails though: I’m not sure what it’s like at other sites, but at least most of my students are used to more indirect feedback/are more sensitive to write I write in e-mails than their American counterparts might be. Because of this, I now make sure to add plenty of praise in my e-mails, to warn them of the directness of my feedback beforehand, and to be direct but gentle in my comments.