Class Tonight

I have been mulling over what I said in class tonight. I wanted to suck the words back into my mouth after they came out, not because they were not what I meant but because of the potential for them to be taken out of context. I did not refer to the student writer as possibly learning disabled as a put-down. I meant it genuinely.

I received a paper from a student recently that reminded me a lot of the second essay we reviewed in the "12 teachers" assignment. The difference between my prompts and the one we reviewed was that my prompts are fully detailed, 1-2 pages of explanation with a step-by-step plan. In addition to the prompts I give, I also write my own essays for each assignment, including outlines. Additionally, the class does a great deal of "invention" for each essay, planning as individuals, in groups, and with me. I collect 3-4 drafts along with the final one, and I mandate that students who were absent for peer or instructor review sessions have the SI or a Writing Center tutor review their papers. I even trick the students with an "Okay, final paper due next class," just to make sure that there is a draft that I will definitely see before the next class meeting when the real final draft is due.

However, there is no fail-proof method; there will always be a few students who poo-poo the process and hand in the final draft with no previous drafts because they have not participated in any of the review sessions. I even warn ahead of the time that unreviewed papers will be scrutinized more closely since, if there was a glaring global note that I missed, I will not fault the student for this error. I also have a policy that late papers are accepted, but they are not eligible for grade revisions, and I re-grade every rewrite and replace grades with the highest ones for every paper, not just one or two. From this context, this framework, and from my training as a former Special Education teacher with LAUSD, I consider that someone who has participated in revisions and still struggles with the basic assignment requirements may have a learning disability. In the case of the aforementioned student, I learned, after working with her for six weeks, that this is the issue.

Unlike the K-12, students are under no mandate to identify as LD in a college setting, and many of them do not. The safety of the limited enrollment K-12 class is completely removed, and LD/SDC (Special Day Class) students find themselves in community college classes of 50 writing students.  Three semesters ago, in week 5 or 6 of teaching a basic skills class, I received notices from DSPS, and I learned that there were 8 LD students in my class of 47. I struggled to meet their needs, as well as the needs of my ELL students, along with a boisterous group of rowdy, immature students, fresh from Hamilton. That class was a serious challenge for me in spite of all my training.

Point is: I meant no harm in my statement. The sooner I identify an LD student, the sooner I can help the student, and I prefer not to finally figure out an LD diagnosis after reading the last essay (but this occurs sometimes, too). One clue, I have learned, is recognizing a student's difficulty with following the guidelines of the assignment and the instructions given.

Community college students demand and deserve our sensitivity, and I want to be clear that I was not calling the student an "idiot," but I recognized that the student may have a cognitive processing deficit that deserves my attention, empathy, and skill. My goal is to serve all of my students to the best of my ability; that is what gives me the peace of mind--the feeling that I successfully completed a day of service to a higher purpose, to the good of humanity--I need in order to shut my eyes and sleep comfortably at night.