Class Participation and Attendance
Class participation will be graded in the following way. You have the opportunity to earn up to 5 points every class period:
- A student who comes well-prepared to class and contributes substantially by participating in group discussion as well as showing work-in-progress, volunteering answers, or responding during crits in a thoughtful, intelligent manner that indicates clear preparation and engagement with the course material will earn 5 points for that day
- A student who comes well-prepared to class and contributes by participating in group discussion will earn 4 points for that day
- A student who is present in class but does not engage in or participate in group discussions will earn 3 points for that day
- A student who shows a lack of preparedness and engagement via an inability to answer questions thoughtfully on the material will earn 1–2 points for that day
- An unexcused absence will earn 0 points for that day
Video discussion prep: Additionally, all students will submit a very short video response to a discussion prompt before select studio sessions (in accordance with due dates outlined in the course schedule) to better prepare for meaningful engagement. Each prep video is worth 2 participation points.
Tardies: 1 point will be docked from a student’s daily participation grade in the event of an unexcused tardy.
Unexcused absences earn 0 participation points for that class session. One lowest participation grade will be dropped for all students—in practice, this means that anyone with one or more unexcused absences will have one absence automatically dropped. Additional absences will be excused only with documentation of illness or extenuating hardship.
Excused absences: In the event of an excused absence which has been previously communicated to me, you will receive an exemption for that day’s participation. An exemption means that day’s participation points will not be tallied toward your final grade (an exemption neither helps nor hurts you).
Avenues to increase participation points: Due to the size of the class and the nature of our materials, it won’t be possible for every student to contribute to discussion in every class (even when you have valuable, well-prepared contributions!). Students may raise their daily participation grade by one point each class session by contributing a thoughtful, intelligent video discussion contribution to our class video discussion board. Video contributions are held to the same standard as in-class contributions—they should indicate clear preparation and engagement with the class discussion from that day. To receive credit, contributions must be posted before midnight the same day of the in-class discussion to which you are contributing.
Source: Fall 2026 course syllabus — Class Participation and Attendance, copied October 6, 2026.