Participation grades ("lecture")

Participation is sometimes known to teachers as "the wiggle grade" or to students as "the bullshit grade." I try to make things a bit more transparent. No names are used below...if you want a more detailed breakdown than EEE gives you, see me in my office hours next quarter.

Per the syllabus I handed out on the first day of class, the "lecture" participation grade is determined by homework (completion only, with extra credit assignments canceling out missed ones) and by vocal involvement in class discussions.

So that's basically 5% for homework and 5% for speaking in class.

Speaking

3 essential contributors = A
4 frequent contributors = B+
4 occasional contributors = B
4 if I dragged it out of you = C+
3 even dragging didn't help much = C

Per the syllabus, more than two absences to discussion eroded these grades, by one letter grade per day absence, in fact. (Egregious lates/earlies counting as 1/3 of an absence.) This led to one of the B+s becoming an F and two of the Cs becoming an F. Then I added in unused homework extra credits for eight of you who were blog-crazy. Resulting in:

1 A+ (EEE actually gives this a higher score)
3 A
5 B+
2 B
2 B-
2 C+
3 F

Homework

There were 17 homework assignments by my count. I'm throwing out the 2 group homeworks because I can't remember who was responsible for what... I'll just assume everyone did those. That leaves 15. I'm also giving extra credit for additional posts or ones that were exceptionally good, either the assigned ones or useful ones that you posted spontaneously. (If you had no missed assignments to cancel it out, I put it towards your discussion participation above.)

13 of you missed none, or just one, or even did extra. That's definitely an A.
1 of you missed four, which I'm giving a B- by counting down for each (A-, B+, B, B-)
1 of you missed five, thus C+, but she also won the "helpful" poll, so that's B-.
1 of you missed six, so that's a C.
1 of you missed eight, so that's a D+.
1 of you missed twelve, so that's an F.

Total

The average grade for lecture participation, taking both talking and homework into account, is more or less a B.