As a Spanish teacher, participation is key for my students’ success. My gradebook allows me to make seating charts with student photos. As you can see in the picture, I have 6 different clipboards just itching for my new seating charts–I teach 6 49-minute class periods a day. Throughout each class, I keep tally marks of participation. In the past, I took a grade every 6 weeks. This year, we’ve moved to 9-week grading periods so I plan to do one every 3-4 weeks. 

So how do I assign a grade? In on level classes, I give them a number to reach for full credit. I do not let them get less than a 70 unless they refuse to participate at all. There are many interventions before it gets to that point in my classroom.

 In honors/IB, they have to get the class average or higher. Again, they cannot get lower than a 70 as long as they are actively trying.

So what gets them points?

• Answering questions in class
• Sharing ideas in class
• Participation in an activity (sometimes I offer 2-3 points for hard, collaborative group work)
• Speaking to me in Spanish before/after/outside of class
• Sharing an experience using Spanish outside of school with evidence (photo/video/receipt)
• Other ideas they come up with and get approved

All in all, I’ve had much success with this over the years and cannot believe I forgot to do this last year! That’s what I get for taking a year off!

It is important to note that I keep the students in the know about their points. They can check on them during passing period or before/after school. I know there are apps that allow us to do this as well. I prefer the paper route simply because the apps I have don’t allow my room configuration and I already have the photo seating charts created for me in gradebook.