This article summarizes some of the areas in which I have encouraged students to become stakeholders. This article is not meant to reflect current research in second language acquisition strategies but is simply meant as a practical list of suggestions that might be of use to other ESL instructors. Grading An area of primary concern to students, this is also an area where students can see themselves as active builders of their own grades instead of passive recipients of the instructor s whims. I approach grading from a bottom up perspective. All students start out equally and whatever grade they receive at the end of the course depends on both their ability and their effort.
Points are cumulative throughout the semester.
I divide an equal amount of points for the midterm and final, another smaller equal amount for a series of quizzes, and another range for any oral reports or papers or other required projects. Students are given the leeway of missing three classes for the semester, with the knowledge that each missed class after that deducts one point from their overall number of points. Because I require no excuses for missed classes, this puts the responsibility of attending and participating directly on the student. In addition to self responsibility, this cumulative method of grading also allows students to monitor their own progress as the semester goes on and by the time they reach the final exam, everyone knows exactly where they stand with regards to their grades. An often discussed and much used method of vocabulary enrichment, the use of vocabulary notebooks is widespread in ESL classrooms.