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I have a student who...Fall
2004 Did you accidentally delete a message you wished
you would have saved? Scroll down to read the Fall 2004 series. I have a
student who needs strategies to become more successful in
college. Recommend one of the following Student Success
Workshops, sponsored by Learning Support Services and the
Student Resource Center. For full descriptions, visit the
website at
http://edgenet.edgewood.edu/LSS/workshops.htm.
Fliers with workshop listings are available in
the SRC (DeRicci 206). How to be an
Effective Note taker Conquer your Math
Anxiety Getting to Know
Tutoring Test-taking
Skills and Strategies Crisis Management
vs. Time Management Stressed for
Tests Public Speaking
without Fear Overcoming
Writer’s Block Get back on the
Academic Wagon I have
a student who may not understand my classroom rules. Although we would assume these to be "common
sense," if we don't specifically state our classroom
expectations we cannot expect students to follow them. If you
haven't already done so, now is an excellent time to clarify
what your classroom etiquette entails. Stop problems before they start with a quick and
easy classroom discussion! Some things to discuss: Behavioral expectations
Academic expectations
I have a student with a
disability (I think). There are typically three situations in which
this statement arises The student self identifies him or herself and
presents documentation. Students with documented disabilities
have self identified themselves to Edgewood College and are
receiving coordinated services through Learning Support
Services. Typical services provided to students include: paid
peer note taking, alternative testing (i.e. extended time, quiet
testing environment, materials in alternate formats),
interpreters, Real Time Captioning, books on tape, and materials
in other formats. The Disabilities Services Coordinator,
Elizabeth Watson, may or may not provide additional information
to the faculty and staff that would be beneficial to the
student’s academic welfare. Please remember any documentation or information
provided to you from the student or LSS is confidential, and
cannot be shared with other faculty, staff, or students. A student requests accommodations, but does not
have Edgewood documentation. Please refer any students to
Elizabeth Watson or Lynn Gilpin in Learning Support Services.
They can clarify Edgewood policies and procedures to the student
and start the process of an accommodation request. I have a student who does not seem to "get it,"
and I think there might be a learning disability. Please talk
with the student and inquire if the student has received
academic supports in the past. If you or the student is not
comfortable with the discussion, refer them to Elizabeth Watson.
Edgewood College cannot require any student to participate
with LSS. You are free to contact Elizabeth Watson at
anytime to discuss a student. However, it is important for you
to understand that there is a limit on the information that can
be shared. Disability documentation is confidential and can only
be shared with other faculty or staff members if the student has
signed a release form. If you wish to know more about how a
student best learns or the disability itself, your best venue
for information is the student. He or she is generally the
expert on what works best (or worst) for him or herself. We can discuss any requested accommodation by a
student, how to best work with students with disabilities, and
how to integrate alternative teaching strategies for students
into your lessons. If you have any more questions,
please contact
Elizabeth Watson in Learning Support Services at 663-2281.
You can also refer to the Learning Support Services website for
more information at
http://edgenet.edgewood.edu/LSS/Faculty_Resources/disabilities.htm I have a
student whose name appears on my Early Alert Rosters. If you have freshmen in your class, you have
received an "Early Alert" roster. On these rosters, we
have listed all freshmen enrolled in each of your classes--it
does not mean that these students are "at-risk." This
feedback process is a retention tool designed by the Early Alert
Committee to track the success of our first year students. It is very important that we receive these
rosters back in a timely manner, whether or not you have
negative feedback on a student. Positive feedback is just
as valuable as negative feedback in determining a student's
status. A view of the whole program for each student is the
most helpful. Even if you don't have any absences or late work
to report, please return your completed rosters by Friday,
October 8 to the Student Resource Center (Der 206). It is important to remember that students with
sophomore, junior, or senior standing will NOT appear on these
rosters. Since feedback early and often is important for
ALL students regardless of standing, try one of these other
methods for upperclassmen. Academic Alert Notices. Is attendance
becoming a problem? Did the first exam not go well for a
student? Fill out an Academic Alert Notice (AAN)
online. A copy of the AAN is sent to the student, the Academic
Dean's office, and the student's advisor, alerting them to the
student's behavior. You can find online AANs at
https://edgenet.edgewood.edu/lss/Faculty_Resources/academic_alert_notices.htm.
Communicate with the student. Talk with
the student directly, make a note on a returned assignment, or
send an email. All of these things can communicate your
concern with the student directly, allowing him or her to take
action. Feedback is crucial to the development of these
learners; foster the process as much as possible. Remember, feedback does not have to be negative,
or occur only when something "bad" has happened. Feedback
can (and should) exist when things are going well. Do you
see marked improvement in student work? Has classroom
participation been particularly valuable? Let them know! Returning assignments. While we all know
that a grade is not the final measure of a student's learning or
understanding, it is a way to let students know how they are
doing in a course. By handing back assignments in a
reasonable amount of time, revisions can be made, allowing the
student to learn more from the experience and seek help before
it's too late. Remember, students will often not seek help
until they are told (or shown) they need it! Early Alert Committee. If you are having
concerns about a student, contact someone on the Early Alert
Committee to point you in the right direction. For more
information about the Early Alert Committee, review the booklet
you received at the beginning of the semester, or go to
http://edgenet.edgewood.edu/LSS/Faculty_Resources/early_alert.htm.
Student Feedback Requests. These forms,
introduced last semester, originate from the student.
If you do receive one, please complete it promptly. You
might suggest a meeting with the student to go over your
responses. For more information, check out
http://edgenet.edgewood.edu/LSS/Faculty_Resources/student_feedback_request.htm.
I have a
student who may have cheated (or plagiarized). Go directly to Carol Cohen, Associate Academic
Dean. (Do not pass Go; do not collect 200 dollars) Why? Are there circumstances where instructors can
deal with cheating or plagiarism on their own? What is Cheating or Plagiarism? What are the specific sanctions for cheating or
plagiarism? What are faculty responsibilities (or rights)
when cheating or plagiarism is suspected? I have a
student who might cheat or plagiarize. When given the opportunity, students will cheat. Although this perspective sounds harsh, it has
been proven time and time again. Cheating is not limited
to class, socioeconomic group, higher achievers or lower
achievers—cheating happens. Everywhere. There are
specific measures you can take, however, to prevent cheating or
plagiarism in your classroom. We also know that students
whose instructors are frank about honesty and plagiarism and who
know that instructors will not tolerate cheating are less likely
to cheat. Talk to the students. Talk to your classes
about honesty and ways to document appropriately when writing.
When assigning homework, be specific. State your specific
guidelines (group work?), designating what students can and
can’t do, and resources they can and cannot use (i.e. other
students, faculty members, math lab, or writing center).
If you are assigning a take home portion to an exam, let the
writing center or math lab know so they know not to assist
students. Without seeing a copy of a take home quiz or exam,
math lab workers may not know the difference between problems
copied off of a take home exam paper and problems the student is
working on for further enrichment… Plagiarism. How do you know if a paper has
been plagiarized? While there are a number of places to
buy papers online (check out
http://schoolsucks.com/ or
http://www.ezwrite.com/), most students who plagiarize cut
and paste from one or more websites (regardless of whether those
websites are accurate or even legitimate sources). Most
instructors have a good nose for plagiarism: they can
recognize passages that don’t “sound” like the student’s writing
or are inconsistent with the rest of the paper. A paper
that has odd or no documentation of sources should also arouse
suspicion. As always, if you have questions, contact
Carol Cohen. Assign smaller deadlines for papers. By
looking at proposals, outlines, bibliographies, and drafts of
students’ papers before the final copy, you can make sure
students are on the right track and check their progress
throughout the semester. This prevents some plagiarism, as
the papers are broken into manageable pieces and more
opportunities are afforded for the instructor to catch
suspicious pieces. Also, by assigning papers specific to
the course, students are not as able to use papers from a “paper
mill.” Example: Instead of assigning an 8 page paper on
the Civil War, specifically state on which aspect of the Civil
War you would like them to focus specifically structured to the
themes of the class. Collaborative work. Be specific about how you
want students to complete the assignment (is working in a group
ok?) and what you expect students to learn by doing the
assignment. Remind students that submitting someone else’s
work as their own constitutes cheating, and both students
(copier and copied) can be sanctioned. The Millennial generation
students we are beginning to see are more accustomed to working
in group and team environments, and may not understand why
collaborating with other students is unacceptable. Clear
expectations up front can clear up misunderstandings and may
stop some cheating before it begins. Dean Pribbenow from Human Issues passed along a
wonderful article, which is definitely worth the read. You
can find it by clicking
here. I have a
student who may show some signs of alcohol abuse or dependency… (Plus! Halloween safety
tips for the college student
below!) Students drinking in risky ways are neither new
nor uncommon. About half of Edgewood students binge drank in the
previous two weeks. Within the last year, more than a quarter of
students have had some kind of legal problem related to their
drinking (underage, public intoxication or DUI), and more than a
third have experienced some kind of significant personal problem
related to their drinking: resulting in fights, sexual
assaults, serious injury and even death, not to mention lowered
academic performance and missed opportunity for other
extra-curricular activity. On the positive side (the mug half empty side),
it’s important to keep in mind that about half of Edgewood
students did not binge drink in the past two weeks and
about 68% drink five drinks per week or less (a relatively low
risk amount). Common sense signs of possible alcohol abuse
that you may observe in class: --Inadequate coursework What to do if you suspect problem drinking: If you have reason to believe a student may be
drinking in a risky way, some response from you as a faculty
member can be very important. Studies show that faculty have
significant influence on the attitudes of students on many
issues, including risky drinking. You might consider pulling an individual student
aside after class to describe what you have seen and ask if
drinking plays some role in the poor performance or classroom
behavior. Whether the student confirms or denies the notion that
drinking is a concern, it can be useful to follow up with your
beliefs about drinking in your own words. Sharing what you have
seen happen to other students as a result of risky drinking or
sharing something of your personal experience of how drinking
may have effected your life can be a helpful way to start the
conversation. You can encourage students to moderate their
drinking by suggesting that most can get what they want from
alcohol by consuming low amounts (Blood Alcohol Contents of less
than .05; about three or four drinks for most males, 2 to 3 for
most females). If you know about their academic or vocational
goals, you can suggest that even very periodic risky drinking
has significant costs against those goals. No matter what you
say or how you say it, the most important thing is that you
raise the issue. If you believe a student’s drinking is a more
serious than periodic risky drinking (from reports of a friend
or the smell of alcohol in class, for example), some
intervention on your part is even more critical. Again, a
non-judgmental description of the behavior you have observed or
learned about with the added suggestion that the student take
some action (like seeing a counselor) couched in an expression
of your genuine concern can be very influential in getting the
student to make an adjustment. Research has shown that even
brief interventions by faculty can have positive impacts on
subsequent serious drinking behavior. What can I do if I have a group of students in
one of my classes that likes to highlight and relive their
drinking exploits somehow in class? Silence on the topic condones the drinking
behavior. It is important to raise concern about the risks
related to risky drinking behavior when students bring it up in
a public way in your classroom. It is not your job to launch
into an alcohol prevention presentation (although that would be
great), but simply raising the possibility of a connection
between students’ work in your class and their drinking patterns
can be enough to eliminate the assumption that you condone
excess drinking. Or, some other message offered in the mode of a
gentle chiding could help avoid alienating the student from your
class or from your concerns about alcohol. Also, remember that approximately 1/2 to 1/3 of
your students are low risk drinkers or abstainers already. Those
students are alienated by silence around risky drinking and they
need our support to maintain their “lower-risk ways.” Finally, as we approach
one of the riskiest party weekends of the year, there are a few
related announcements for your students suggested below:
I have a
student who needs to drop my class. The deadline is If there is no chance the student will be able
to pass your course at this point, you may wish to gently
recommend withdrawal. Refer your student to his or her
advisor. Remember, students may not realize how poorly
they are doing in your classes or may still believe that success
is possible. Unless you bring the situation to their
attention, you cannot assume that they understand.
If you are hesitant about speaking directly with
the student, send an Academic Alert Notice. Remember,
these notices can be used for any issue occurring in the
classroom (poor exams, attendance issues, late homework, etc),
and are also sent to the student’s advisor and the academic
dean’s office. You can fill them out online by going to
http://edgenet.edgewood.edu/LSS/Faculty_Resources/aan.htm
and clicking “Online Academic Alert Notice.” If you have advisees who still need to drop
classes OR students who have no chance of passing your class,
you may want to remind them of the drop date. November 10 is also the last day to request an
academic peer educator (tutor) for classes. If you have a
student who is still struggling in your course and could benefit
from tutoring, please send them to Sara Anderson for tutoring
information as soon as possible. Students can also request
assistance on-line through the LSS website. The
Math Lab and Writing Center
will be open until the end of the semester. Go to
http://edgenet.edgewood.edu/LSS for more
information. If you have students who are lagging this
semester, seem disorganized, grades are slipping, or just need a
boost of enthusiasm for the semester send them to the LSS
workshop Get Back on the Academic Wagon: When: Next Wednesday, November
10 I have a
student who has a family member in Iraq. Many reports are surfacing of students with some
relative in the Armed Services in Iraq or Afghanistan. The list
below offers some suggestions for raising awareness of the
possible needs of these students. ·
Their primary need is to not be alone with the issue. Walk
with them, and check in with them about their loved one. ·
Some students with a parent in Iraq may have extra family
responsibilities (caring for younger siblings, maintaining
household bills, etc.) that distract them from their academic
work. This may call for added flexibility or extensions
for due dates. It may be appropriate to ask the student if such
consideration would be helpful, since they may not think to ask
for it themselves. ·
Since the war is extremely politicized it is important to set
politics aside in addressing their concerns; the focus should be
on the student’s loss/worries etc. Of course, this does not
mean to squelch opposition to the war, but rather to separate it
from the student’s concerns—students will easily be further
isolated in the face of strident, anti-war passion when it is
directed to their situation or their loved one. ·
If worry is interfering with academic work and other
responsibilities, encourage the student to seek support.
Some options include Campus Ministry, Personal Counseling (free
to Edgewood College students—go to the student resource center
for more information), home clergy, family, and friends. Remind
them that there are good ways to cope with these worries and
taking action to develop a plan for this will help them through
this situation. ·
Some students may not fully understand the conflict—setting the
context, in as objective fashion as possible, can be helpful to
them in developing their way to cope. ·
If your student is falling behind in classes due to their
concerns, direct them to Learning Support Services.
Someone there can help your student develop a plan to get
academics back on track. ·
You may recommend that a student take advantage of various
resources that offer support to family members: Wisconsin
National Guard-Truax Field, The American Red Cross, or local or
regional recognition ceremonies. ·
It is also important to support our students who are being
called to service overseas. Many students in the National
Guard or Army Reserves are now going to (or coming from) Iraq
and Afghanistan. If you have students in this situation,
make sure they go to the Academic Dean’s office. There,
they can get the information they need about term withdrawal and
how it would affect their academic status. I have a student who seems very
stressed about finals. We only have two weeks left! This is the
perfect time to remind your students to begin reviewing (if they
haven’t already) and finishing those final projects. This
is also the first “final’s week” experienced by our first year
students, and some may not know what to expect. The
following tips can help you ease their anxiety and make their
first exam week more bearable. Give them concrete information. How would you
suggest studying for your final? What is the format? How long
will they have to complete it? Is it cumulative or a final
chapter exam? If it is a final paper, can they utilize the
writing center? Try to be positive when talking about the
final—these students have already put themselves under an
extreme amount of stress. Study tips. On which portions of their
notes/books should they concentrate? Refer students to the
syllabus to examine course goals, if you do not want to tell
them directly what to study. Group Work. Remind students the value of group
work! Reviewing material in groups has been shown to be a very
useful way to study for final exams. General Health. Getting the right amount of
sleep, eating regular meals, and not pumping their bodies full
of caffeine will be better for them during test time than
pulling all-nighters in an effort to cram. Refer students to Jan
Zimmerman in campus health for any questions. Cramming. If students have not yet begun
studying and are now in "cramming" mode, there are some general
tips to aid them. For a cumulative final, have them start
finding principle themes, sub-topics and other major
illustrations of material. Then, they need to decide on which
supporting information to concentrate. They will have an easier
time remembering a narrow range of material in depth rather than
a smattering of random facts. Skimming text (not rereading) or
going through notes is much more effective and a better use of
time than rereading every chapter. Refer students to resources. Send students to
the SRC to make an appointment with someone from Learning
Support Services or Personal Counseling. They may also
find useful handouts through the LSS website.
http://edgenet.edgewood.edu/LSS/study_skills/Handouts.htm Plan for it. If you've noticed times in the
semester when you know students will not be very motivated
(before winter break for example), plan for it. It is much
easier to teach students who are willing to learn! If you begin
cramming things into the last few weeks because the class fell
behind in the syllabus, it will create more stress for the
student (and you!) and contribute to the lack of motivation. Ask
fellow instructors how they combat this particular issue. |
Fall 2004 |
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Please email Sara Anderson at
slanderson@edgewood.edu with any questions about this site. Copyright © 2002 Sara Anderson and Edgewood College. All rights reserved. Last modified date: |
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