Participation, a commonly graded component of composition classrooms, is rarely the focus of current research studies. While some discussions have addressed grading practices or ways to increase participation, student and instructor voices have yet to be included in studies of classroom participation in composition courses. Yet these voices are necessary to discover how students and instructors define participation, as well as to determine their beliefs about, and justifications for, grading this activity. A study suggests that students place less value on participation. One response reveals that there seems to be a wide discrepancy between instructor and student beliefs about what qualifies as participation in the classroom. In this article, the author reports findings that reveal not only troubling definitions of participation but also nebulous grading practices of this classroom component. (Contains 3 tables and 3 notes.)