In order to take ownership of the learning process, students need to understand a little about themselves and be provided opportunities for self-evaluation. I have found it is the second-best way to increase classroom participation. The first being me providing compelling content. I mean, let’s face it, if what I’m doing in the classroom is uninteresting and down right boring, how could they even begin to want to pay attention and participate???

I have a paper version of my Interpersonal Communication rubric here. If you are lucky enough to get to use paper (and you don’t mind touching said papers), download and copy away! 

I’m trying to be as paperless as possible this year (we’re f2f at my school but also have remote students and I don’t want to touch said papers) so I updated the rubric to a Google Form.

We tried it out in class yesterday and it was very quick and easy. Printing the Google Sheets and entering the grades was pretty effortless. Of course, you don’t have to take a grade at all. You can use this simply to provide an opportunity for reflection. However, I find that assigning some kind of points forces students to take both the rubric and participation in general much more seriously.

I always tell my students to be honest. I also tell them that I know there are going to be some who undervalue themselves and score harshly. I will change those grades to match what I observe in class. There will also be those who overvalue their participation and will be far too generous in their scoring. I will definitely change those scores to reflect my observations. There is no hiding. We also take enough grades that one low score won’t destroy their grade and one high score won’t artificially inflate it. 

Make a copy of this Interpersonal Communication Rubric here. Feel free to edit – it’s YOUR copy.