Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice?
Ideally every student will attend every class meeting, but how can a student who misses class because of illness, work conflicts, jury duty, family obligations, or other legitimate reasons get caught up quickly without you having to recreate the class for her?
Take a SIP of this: Attendance
Here’s something to think about: the magic of a class meeting goes beyond the content presented. When students are in class they are not only getting information but interacting with it and their classmates; here are two ways you can help students who miss class interact with material and their classmates.
Allow students to make up all or some of their class participation points by reading the notes taken by several classmates and writing a synthesis that is then posted to BlackBoard or shared in class.
If students in class produced something, such as posters, diagrams, or PowerPoint slides, the student who missed class can create something akin to a “blog carnival.” A blog carnival is a blog entry that organizes other bloggers’ entries on a particular topic into categories and includes links to them. This concept can be extended to diagrams, for example, by having the student who missed class create a new diagram that indicates the categories and relationships among the diagrams created on the day she was absent.
Still thirsty? Take another SIP of Attendance
- Information about what a blog carnival is: http://natureblognetwork.com/blog/what-is-a-blog-carnival/
- An example of a blog carnival: http://mizmercer.edublogs.org/category/blog-carnival/
- A menu of options for making up missed classes from one teacher: http://www.cusd80.com/cms/lib6/AZ01001175/Centricity/Domain/3385/Participation%20Points%20Make-Up%20Assignment.doc
