NOTE TO STUDENTS ON CLASS
PARTICIPATION
The class participation
component of your grade will depend upon your attendance, active participation in class discussions, and
preparation before class.
Attendance means being in your seat at the beginning of class
so as to avoid the distraction of multiple late arrivals. I ask your attendance because it is important
to me and to the successful functioning of the class that you be present. Many students only absorb the material we
cover simply by doing the readings or getting a classmate's notes. This is
because the understanding of legal and policy rules, and their application, is
an inherently imprecise process, one that is perfected through repetition of
examples. Therefore, most students need to be present for class discussion of
problems and hypotheticals to fully understand the
material. Your presence also helps facilitate discussions.
By "active participation"
I mean that I would like you to be engaged in the discussions we have in class.
This does not mean that you need to offer comments every day, though you are
welcome to do so. Rather, it means that you need to be attentive and involved
in what we are doing. Also, quality
counts. A particularly thoughtful or
creative comment, that reflects thought about the readings or the problem being
discussed, earns additional participation credit.
Finally, and in order to be engaged in
discussions, I ask that you come to class prepared. At a minimum, this
means that you should have done the assigned readings for that day's class. In
addition, you will find it helpful to think about the readings (what they mean,
how the legal and policy issues discussed apply in new and different
situations) before you come to class.
While there is no mechanical forumula I use to adjust your grades for participation, I
do consider both Bs and As to be “good” grades. Often the difference between an A and a B in
participation is the quality rather than quantity of the participation, based
upon the criteria stated above.