GRADING FOR ATTENDANCE AT LECTURES

As a professor I'm actually mandated by campus safety procedures to take attendance each lecture, in case there is some emergency (fire, earthquake etc.) and emergency responders need to know who was in the building. I know that a number of your other professors don't do this, but I do.

That aside, teaching occurs in the active give and take of a classroom situation -- if it did not, we'd all stay home and read books. So I consider lecture attendance an important part of your class participation. I can also guarantee (from past experience) that you will not do well on your papers and final if you don't attend lectures.

The way that I keep attendance is by having you sign in on an attendance sheet; there will also be in class discussions where you turn in your group answers with your name on it.

Overall, I use lecture attendance if your grade is borderline. For example, if you are a borderline B+, and your attendance is good, I'll push you up to an A-; if it is bad, I'll leave you at the lower grade.