kate
January 30, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Hmm, though I have absolutely no experience at all in this, my first thought as well was that he could have some sort of learning disability. I would agree that a meeting with him is in order– there’s obviously so much wrong here that it’s hard to know where to even begin on this paper. It might be revealing to ask his opinion of what he wrote, how he experiences the act of writing (not in those words, perhaps) and his past experiences of writing and what others have said to him about it. It’s true that the work obviously is not up to the standards of the class, but the fact that he turned something in when other classmates did not (and that he participates in class) means that he might be open to guidance (even if that guidance involves a lot of personal tutoring at the writing center or elsewhere.)
I also wondered if he might have written the paper under the influence of, well, substances, but since you say that in class he is often hard to understand as well, that seems less likely.
In any case, I still think he deserves to be explicitly told what an acceptable paper would look like and why his is not it– at least an overview, and then you could refer him to (or suggest that he find) someone who can work intensively with him on it, if he wants to pass the class.
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Auntie
January 28, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Shouldn’t it read “Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the city and county have hotlines available TO people in desperate straights…”?
First the man shoveling and now all this “strait” talk. You’re killing me here!
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