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Cases for Discussion

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Case One: Karen and Tom

Karen is petit, young and teaching her second class of college composition at a local community college while writing her dissertation. Her class last semester went well, yet she still often feels like an imposter playing the role of teacher. Last semester, all of her older students were women who were so terrified of being in school themselves they did not notice Karen’s jitters. When they realized Karen would be gentle and could help them with their writing, they became her most committed and adoring students. This semester things are different because of Tom. Tom is a tall man with graying hair who comes to Karen’s night class straight from work, wearing a suit and invariably checking his Blackberry while waiting for class to start. When he first came into her classroom, Karen’s heart beat a little faster because she thought he was an administrator checking on her. When she realized he was a student, she felt even more awkward and nervous, in no small measure because Tom looks like her ex-boyfriend’s very intimidating dad. Tom tends to be quiet in class, but answers when called upon and often leads when working in small groups. It is clear to Karen that Tom has the respect of the other students simply by virtue of his age, stature and suit. When he asks questions in class, Tom usually asks about what needs to be done (How many pages? How many sources?). When he hands in his first paper, he tells Karen he has never been good at grammar. In looking at the paper, she notices that he does have a tendency to write in sentence fragments, has some run-on sentences, and overuses colons and semi-colons. However, she also notices some much bigger issues. While Tom makes a number of interesting and sometimes provocative claims, he rarely connects, develops or supports them. His paragraphs tend to be quite short and the entire paper is no more than a page and a half, although the assignment was for a four-page, academic essay. In commenting on this first draft, Karen largely ignores the grammar issues and instead writes a note at the bottom of the paper encouraging Tom to develop and support his ideas further. As Karen hands back papers, she overhears Tom commenting to those around him about how academics always want you to prove the obvious. In the next class, as Karen starts to puts students in peer review groups, Tom questions the value of peer groups, saying “Look, you are the expert aren’t you? We don’t know how to do this. That’s why we’re here. Why don’t you just tell us what to do?” Karen notices a few other students nodding.

Discussion of Case One: Karen and Tom

I sympathize with Karen. When I started teaching, my students and my colleagues often made me cognizant of my youthful appearance. I took some advice and started dressing the part; I wore ironed shirts and ties. I acted the part of a professional until I felt like one. Tom’s provocative demands that Karen is the expert and should be doing all the reviewing reminds me of some problems I have run into. Students often seem too reliant on instructors when they are producing papers. They seem to view the instructor as their sole editor. When a similar situation comes up, I explain that I am helping students acquire skills and peer review helps strengthen the skills I am teaching.--Nicholas Hayes

I too sympathize with Karen. I have experienced similar discomfort when working with students older than myself. I agree with Nicholas’s comment about students needing to realize that the writing classroom is collaborative rather than prescriptive or workplace-like; projects are not tasks to be ticked off of a list but creations in process that need input from the group in order to fully form. If I were in Karen’s situation, I would incorporate small activities that stress collaboration and interdependence among students in order to produce pieces of writing. — Kristin FitzPatrick

Like Nicholas, I look a fair bit younger than I really am (and I’m not all that old to begin with), and I’ve found that this can result in adult learners — especially those with a few years on me — struggling to take me, and the course, seriously. I think Kristin’s idea of short, collaborative activities is the way to go, but I’ll admit to being a little concerned about the resulting dynamics in those groups. A personality like Tom’s might dominate a group of students who are already reticent to begin with. It might be a pat answer, but someone like Tom — an older, perhaps accomplished professional — is probably just as uncomfortable as the other women in the group, but his discomfort is manifested differently. I’d probably be keeping an ear & eye open, just to make sure that the group discussion remains constructive & democratic.

Case Two: Rita

Rita is an outgoing woman in her thirties. In addition to going to school, she is a single parent of two daughters (18 and 16). She is one of two older students in your class. Before the first class had started, she had confessed to everyone that she was nervous, learned most of the names and backgrounds of her fellow students and effectively made the need for an “ice breaker” unnecessary. Rita continued to be a great help in your class, asking questions the other students should, but do not bother, to ask; giving students a hard time if they miss or are late for class; and encouraging the younger students to stay in school. However, her writing is as baggy and bulging as the bag in which she crams all of her school work. She did reasonably well on a narrative essay assignment, struggled with a comparison and contrast paper and became increasingly nervous as the class started work on a research paper. For her paper, she is supposed to investigate the science behind an issue and then make an informed public policy argument. She threw herself into researching her topic, stem cells, and brought stacks of articles and books to class. However, after having attended every class, she missed the class when her first draft was due. She came late for the next class, was uncharacteristically quiet and rushed out before you have a chance to talk to her. Then, she disappeared. She came to your office two weeks later and a week before course grades were due, looking exhausted and near tears. She told you that she had to work additional hours to prepare for an upcoming event at work, that her mother, who lives with her, had to be hospitalized and that her younger daughter has just been suspended from school. She is afraid that once again she will end up dropping out of school and is terribly down on herself. When you ask about her paper, you learn that she has collected loads of information, but has not started writing. She reports that she is afraid of plagiarizing because she has read so much information that she is not sure where the ideas she has gotten from sources stop and her ideas start. You also learn that she picked this topic because her father had Parkinson’s. You only learn this by accident since her notes are all paraphrases or summaries of her sources. In a number of cases, they are not very good paraphrases and summaries because many of her sources are highly technical medical articles that she is clearly having a hard time following.

Discussion of Case Two: Rita

Oh, dear. I know Rita well. I can recognize the maven (the den mother/class policeman/teacher’s helper) fairly easily, but I can’t always pick up the signs of the crisis addict until it’s too late. I have noticed, however, that the mavens have in common with the crisis addicts an inability to draw boundaries and organize themselves. I have a student like her at the moment—passionately involved in in-class discussion, quite succesful with impromptu presentations, but utterly unable to follow a written assignment through to completion. She is considering dropping now (week 5) because she’s “overwhelmed” and “not coping.” The only solution with Rita, I think, is to help her create a manageable infrastructure with plenty of support: frequent but mandatory check-ins with her instructor and/or the Writing Centre, small projects with specific but unavoidable deadlines, and an absolutely clear and inflexible time-line. Try to create with her the routine she is unable to create for herself. Reduce her sense of the drama of her situation as much as possible. If she can’t catch up at this stage of the quarter, she must apply for an incomplete and take the course again. —Peter Forster

I have encountered similar situations in my courses. I have come to understand that most adult students are dedicated and motivated and they are frequently juggling many other responsibilities. When a student, who has previously been responsible and enthusiastic, disappears I don’t wait for him/her to come back to class. If I have not heard from that student before, or shortly after, the first missed class, I get in touch with him/her by sending an inquisitive email. The tone might be something like this: “missed you in class….what’s going on? how can I help?”. When the student and I are back in communication I will help the student identify roadblocks and barriers (whether they are personal life, professional life and/or course related). Then we will formulate a plan for him/her to get caught up and complete assignments. I have found (generally speaking) adult students rarely want to drop a class but they may not know what avenues are available to them for help. Peggy

I have taught several Ritas in my life with similar life pressures. I think that I would counsel her to not give up—which she is in danger of doing, one more failure. Perhaps she should take just a few of her sources and work off those, freewriting about them and then picking out sentences that she can quote and cite later on. She might even do a mini research paper just to get the feel of it, using quotations to get her started. Using quotations properly in a short paper—two or three pages—might help in demystifying the “research” part. I might give her some guidance by looking over the kinds of sources she has left and breaking those down into more manageable parts. Then the same routine—brainstorming about some aspect of Parkinson’s, for example, current drug treatment of the disease. She could make her paper more personal by telling her father’s story and perhaps interspersing some of the quotations and ideas from her research, for example, the symptoms and progress of the disease. In the class she could become the resident expert on the disease and be a source of information for her family. She might also refer to Muhammad’s Ali’s struggle withj the disease. His high profile and tragic condition might make her paper more interesting. Jack O’Keefe

As an introductory note, I have experienced similar situations in the past, but often the students are not forthcoming with their personal problems and instead just stop attending class, thus making the decision on their own. I would be happy for a student to have the courage to seek help from me as an instructor before they decide to give up, but sometimes this doesn’t happen. Of course, you have to respect their decision as adult learners. In any case, my response might be to first ask Rita how this home situation has affected her other classes, and if she has spoken to other instructors yet (to see if she has received encouragement or other feedback from other university representatives). This will help me gauge whether or not she has additional academic workloads to worry about, aiding me in giving her realistic extended deadlines if necessary. Regardless of her response, I would provide her with information on university counseling services. At the same time, I would remind her of her strengths as a student (e.g., her narrative writing skills, her ability to help others, and her positive contributions to class discussions) and would ask her to think about the option of taking an incomplete for the course. In other words, I might offer to extend the deadline for the final project, provided that she meets with me at a specified time in the future to review and tackle the difficulties she is having with the research project. In fact, I wouldn’t ask her to make a decision right away, but to get back to me within 2 days on her decision to stay in class… If she chooses to stay in school and meet extended deadlines, I would subsequently meet with her to discuss her writing anxiety and roadblocks. Specifically, since she seems to have difficulty choosing accessible texts, I would offer strategies for choosing sources, prewriting, and time management. Ideally, we would agree on manageable deadlines, and she would check in with me regularly until the project is complete. —Diane W.

Since she already has some experience with Parkinson’s, it seems probable that she already has some ideas of what kind of public policy she would like to see implemented. I might chat with her about this and try and get her to talk out and record a rough outline. From there, she could start thinking about the kind of information she would need to support this argument, and then I would try to help Rita look for sources that are less technical. Since stem-cell research is a hotly-contested issue, there’s bound to be a wealth of information available in more populist and accessible journals. The danger, of course, is that poor Rita will feel like she’s been tossed back to square one with her paper. Still, she’ll only be banging her head against a brick wall if she sticks with the convoluted information that she’s already gathered. –Joe Hemmerling

Rita seems to have a real problem. It is a difficult one to solve as she waited until the course was almost completed. If I were the instructor, I would give Rita a chance to complete the work and give her additional instructions so that her second attempt is successful. Rita needs to organize the material she already has. I would teach her how to web, use note cards, or outline her material. I would look and make sure she had a developed 3 part thesis statement, as she seems to need the structure, and then use that as a basis for the visual organizer she needs to complete this assignment. It would be up to her to do so, and she would probably need an extension as far as a turn in date is concerned but I would give her this opportunity to be successful in my class. — Tranita Jackson

I have had many students like Rita in my classes over the years. I have found that it helps to identify each student’s writing weaknesses early on in the quarter through a low stress assignment, such as a short personal narrative, and then group them with students who have different needs. Even though she did “reasonably well” on her narrative assignment, it seems likely that there were clues that she would soon begin to struggle In Rita’s case, for example, some of the younger students that she was helping to motivate in the beginning may have been able to help her with some of the basic skills that she is lacking. With Rita, it seems that the only solution, at this point in the quarter, would be to encourage her to take an Incomplete and to retake my course, so that I could address her issues from the beginning and play to her strengths AND weaknesses. In addition, I would try very hard to get her into a peer editing group that would stretch beyond the duration of the class (usually about 1/2 the students in my writing classes do this) and refer her to the Writing Center. I would encourage her to attend the last session and perhaps share her research with her peer editing group and look at the final papers that her classmates turn in. I would give her a lot of positive feedback on what she had accomplished in the class and encourage her to look at her developing writing skills as a “work in progress.” Carol Hease

Staying sensitive but realistic is the key to dealing with adult students who find themselves in this type of situation. Some students do not have the courage to explain their situation before things start getting behind, so I start my course by making a deal: If students tell me about issues before they get out of hand, I’ll be more likely to cater to their needs. I also warn them that incomplete grades are dangerous and can lead to more problems in the end, so communicating with me and staying motivated throughout the course are the key to overcoming obstacles. Here’s how I would handle Rita’s situation: Since grades are almost due, I would not want to burden Rita with squeezing a 5-week project into one week, especially if she has a significant amount of additional research to do on top of dealing with her family issues, etc. Her understanding of the course material may be the key to the rest of her success in college. I would tell Rita that I would give her an INC under the conditions that she complete the missed assignments/classes in a reasonable amount of time. She would have to come up with a “recovery” plan (when she will complete her research, her outline, her first draft, and her second draft) and schedule a series of appointments with me (online or in-person). Even though it means more of a time commitment for me, I don’t think I could let her slide. Also, putting the onus on Rita to figure out her recovery plan will help her time/stress management skills if something similar should ever happen in the future. –Katie Wozniak

Case Three: Derrick

On the first night of class, Derrick sits in the middle of the front row in starched jeans and a crisp, button-down shirt. He listens attentively and takes notes as you go over the syllabus. During introductions, you learn that he has worked for years in event planning, spending some of that time in Italy, and now leads classes in conversational Italian for traditional-aged undergraduates at your school. After having taken classes off and on over the years, he is now focused on completing his degree and hopes to eventually become a professor. When you tell students that you are going to have them begin a short paper in class on this first night, you see Derrick tense up. You start with a free writing exercise. Derrick finds it virtually impossible to just write. He keeps stopping to make corrections or collect his ideas. As a result, he produces about a sentence while others have a paragraph to a page at the end of the free-writing time. Next, you ask students to pick an idea from their freewriting, develop an outline and begin to write a first draft of their paper. You watch as Derrick quite literally gets a migraine as a result of the tension this exercise causes in him. To little avail, you encourage him to relax and just write a rough first draft. In fact, the more you try to help him, the more tense he gets. When Derrick hands in his paper the following week, you can tell that he has, as he tells you, spent hours on it. However, it is almost incomprehensible. The sentences are long, convoluted and wordy, the language is overly abstract, and the paragraphs seem to have been worked and reworked in isolation from each other.

Discussion of Case Three: Derrick

Some people, and maybe Derrick is one of them, are paralyzed by the thought of that much “freedom.” Staring at a blank sheet of paper with the instruction to write about absolutely anything can be off-putting to a student who might be thinking to himself, “I don’t know that much to actually write about, and I’m not sure that I really want to be writing about anything, in the first place.” One of the things we know about Derrick is that he’s somewhat of an expert on Italy & the Italian language. Certainly, he’s a relative expert, as I know little about the former, and nothing about the latter. I’d invite him to use his expertise as an event planner to draft an itinerary for somebody going to Italy for a week. What are 3 absolute must-not-miss activities/places for somebody like me, who’s never been? How would these activities and/or places be described in a travel brochure? My idea is that, by playing to his strengths & interests, I can ratchet his anxiety down a few notches, and it’ll be a little easier to get him to focus more on content than form. With this success under his belt, it’s my hope that the next writing exercise will be a little less traumatic. — John Curtin

Case Four: Yvette

Yvette is a strikingly good-looking and carefully groomed woman in her late twenties. You learn that she was raised by her grandmother in one of the roughest neighborhoods in your city. Starting in sales, she has worked her way into management at a large company. She is ambitious and needs to complete her degree so she can continue to rise in her company. At the end of the first class, she asks to speak to you privately. During this conference, she tells you that she has learned that she is not a strong writer and that she has come to realize that her grammar and high school educations were vastly inferior to those her current academic and professional peers. She is concerned that her writing problems will “expose” her at work. She tells you that she has worked her way from the most remedial class at the local community college to your English 101 course. She asks that you point out any problems you see in her writing and suggest books for her to read. You are prepared for the worst when you sit down to read her first paper, but instead find a perfectly good, college-level essay. When you tell her this, she seems to think you are pacifying her. On the other hand, she becomes tense and defensive when she sees comments on her papers, asking you to explain and justify each comment. In peer group work, she is crisp and efficient, leaving no error unmarked and having a talent for getting to the heart of a paper’s weakness, skills that begin to breed resentment in the other students. In fact, your classroom is beginning to feel a little like a high school with some of the otherwise charming and old-enough-that-they-should-know-better women in your class making catty remarks about Yvette not quite under their breath.

Discussion of Case Four: Yvette

I cannot count the number of SNL [De Paul University’s School for New Learning] students who have had circumstances similar to Yvette’s. It continues to amaze me that many SNL students have risen to extremely high level positions even though they are lacking the “paper” credentials of a college degree. I have had more than one student tell me that he or she lived in fear of being “outed” by overly-competitive colleagues who might be trying to gain a competitive edge in the workplace. It is interesting that at the same time, Yvette feels both pacified and defensive about the teacher’s comments. It would seem that her insecurities about her background and prior academic experiences may be the cause of her insecurities even though her writing is quite good. Yvette needs to be made aware of the fact that other students in class are also defensive about their own writing skills, which may not be as good as Yvette’s skills. When the other students react negatively to Yvette’s comments it may be because she is giving feedback in a “business-like” format—very direct and perhaps lacking in positive, constructive comments. Perhaps the instructor could do more work with the whole class on the purpose of peer editing and the way in which editing comments should be taken by individual students. If the teacher does not take some time out of instruction to address the group dynamics issues, the entire class atmosphere may be ruined…Bill Muller

An unfortunate consequence of the traditional classroom environment is that it breeds a certain competitiveness that fuels tension. It is in these charged environments, that student insecurities are revealed. A sort of “rugged individualism” takes over where students see each other as “enemies.” Yvette’s situation is no different: she and her sneering classmates are insecure about their scholarly aptitude. It manifests in Yvette’s attitude, her feeling that she is “lacking” in her ability. The other students see her outward confidence and feel threatened. In this instance, it is up to the instructor to reinforce the idea that every student in the classroom has something worthy to contribute to the class – whether they are a day laborer or record company president. The teacher must also help the classroom realize that they all play a role in each other’s academic success. The instructor must come up with activities that encourage students to take a personal stake in their learning. Students can develop their own thesis statements for research papers that they develop on their own, with instructor support of course. In this way, the class can see that their voice is validated. To reinforce the idea that a writing class is a collaborative environment, the teacher can have a series of peer reviews where students edit each other’s papers. I believe these steps could help students see what the classroom could be: a nurturing environment where each student feels secure and supported. - Tacuma Roeback

Case Five: . . .