Attendance and Participation in HIST 104

Attendance and participation—general engagement with the class—will do a lot toward your success in the course. Taken together, the attendance and participation elements described on this page account for 50% of your grade. Moreover, people who stay engaged do better on exams.

Come to Class!

Class attendance and participation are required and play a significant part in evaluation of your work in the course. Every day in class you will be asked to complete some participation item—filling out a questionnaire or card. Every time you do so, you will receive a mark in the class participation record, and your marks will be totaled at end of term. Thus, if you fail to attend class and participate, then the damage to your grade will be direct and linear.

Routine In-Class Participation Items

There will be a written in-class participation item every time we meet. Sometimes this will be a questionnaire for you to fill out. Commonly, though, you will be given a 3x5 note card and asked to do one of two things with it.

• Write down a question you have about the material covered this day, something that ought to be reiterated or explained better.

• Write down a multiple choice question that might be used on an exam, drawing on material covered this day.

Multiple-choice questions for this course should be concise and straightforward measures of factual knowledge. Here are some things to avoid.

• "All of the above" answers

• "None of the above" answers

• Questions phrased in the negative, such as, "Which of these was not part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal?"

A Few Examples of Useful Multiple Choice Questions

What experience did Frederick Jackson Turner say was the origin of American national character?

A. the Revolution
B. the frontier
C. the trade union movement
D. the Great Awakening

Alfred Mahan spoke for those Americans who said the country needed

A. forest reserves

B. colonies in Greenland

C. better relations with Russia

D. a big navy

Henry Ford believed,

A. Pay good wages, and your workers will buy your products

B. The automobile is a luxury for the elite

C. The typical American family had little hope of owning an automobile

D. The government should redistribute wealth

Participate in the List!

Participation in the e-mail list, your discussion section of Cumberland Gap, also plays a significant part in determining your grade. You'll find some expectations about your participation in Cumberland Gap given in the Study Guide for Democracy in America. And you'll find instructions for how to participate in the Cumberland Gap page. So, how is this online participation counted for grades? Two ways: individually, and collectively (that is, by groups).

Here's the individual part. All your contributions to the list are archived into a mailbox with your name on it. At the end of the semester we review these for frequency, timeliness, and quality. That's a lot of work for us, but from that you can infer we take this aspect of the course seriously. You are graded on your contributions to the list. This is not extra credit.

Now the group part. Twice during the semester we will review the on-line discussions that have taken place thus far group by group. Again, we will be looking for frequency, timeliness, and quality. The best discussion group in each review gets 10 participation points added to the score of every member of the group. Several other runner-up discussion groups get 5 marks each.

Students have asked for specific criteria to be used in evaluating participation in the list, Cumberland Gap. Fair enough, here they are. Some aspects of the evaluation are quite quantitative, but others are qualitative. We have to read your work and make a judgment. Still, it is possible to say specifically on what grounds we intend to make such judgment. Remember that participation is evaluated in two ways—by individuals and by groups (discussion sections).

Criteria for Evaluation of List Participation
Individual	Number of contributions to the list. There is no set number required, but if you have less than ten, I would say you are below average.
	Timing of contributions. The dates of receipt of your messages should show engagement throughout the semester. A bunch of messages right at the end of term, or any other time for that matter, will count for little if you are a non-participant the rest of the time.
	Quality of contributions. It should be apparent from what you write that you have read the assignment and thought about it. And you should take care to communicate your thoughts clearly and cleanly to your peers.
Group	All the same things as are applied to individual participation.
	The fostering and practice of dialog. This is supposed to be a discussion. We want to see evidence that you are reading one another's contributions, thinking about them, and responding to them.

Points for Attendance and Participation

The table below summarizes the point scheme for attendance and participation. Note that it includes reference to three out-of-class assignments, Cultural Currents of the University, History in Your Community, and Service Learning. Follow the links to see specifications and guidance for these two assignments.

Points for Attendance and Participation
Element		Explanation	Points Possible
In-Class Participation	See explanations above—you have to come to class and turn in participation items (4 points each)	Hard points—must be earned through in-class participation	100
Individual List Participation	See explanation and criteria above—you have to read Tocqueville and discuss it online	Hard points—must be earned through list participation	100
Group List Participation	See explanation and criteria above—you need to be concerned about the quality of discussion in your list	Soft points earned through list participation	20
Cultural Currents of the University	An assignment designed to get you into university activities and relate them to Tocqueville	Soft points: must be completed once; can be repeated for additional points	20 per
History in Your Community	An assignment designed to get you into your community and relate the experience to ideas about History	Soft points: must be completed once; can be repeated for additional points	20 per
Service Learning	An assignment to promote hands-on learning and community service (watch weblog for announcements of opportunities)	Soft points	variable
Total Participation Points Possible			300

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