The point of helping dyslexic students develop their grammar skills is to
ensure that they are more able to present their ideas in a written format.
For most, if not all of the dyslexic students that I see, the most
frustrating thing that they have to deal with is expressing their ideas in
writing. Quite often it is attempting this and failing that causes most
students to withdraw from their course.
Whereas alternative forms of assessment will help elevate this problem in
the short-term, most students I see would actually like to improve their
writing skills to an extent where they are receiving parity with other
students and not being marked differently "because they are dyslexic".
I had a student come to me today to tell me their final degree grade. He
received a 2:2, which I thought he would be disappointed with. However, he
was actually over the moon, because he had got a first for his dissertation,
something he never in his whole life thought he could achieve.
The motivational factor of overcoming something that has proven to be a
major obstacle for most of their life seems, to me and most students I work
with, to far outweigh the extra time they spend accessing support.
Mark Boyce
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Hill [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 09 June 2003 13:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Sympathetic marking
Hi
I'm sometimes amazed at how eager people are to impose a remedial
support model on adults affected by dyslexia. Dyslexia IS a disability.
There is no evidence that I'm aware of that demonstrates that adult
dyslexia is remediable. Dyslexia is not a temporary 'glitch'. It's not
a consequence of sloppy work and is (probably) not a result of inaquate
teaching at school which can somehow be adressed at HE level.
Students with dyslexia attend university to study the course of their
choice, not to improve their literacy skills. I know that such
students' literacy skills probably will improve during the 3 or 4 years
at uni, but how many of them can afford to spend hours every week
engaged in 'naughty corner' grammar and spelling correction excercises?
How many of those with severe literacy difficulties would benefit - even
slightly - from such activity. None, I suspect. Most would simply drop
out.
Having to focus so determinedly on the mechanics of transcription can
intefere significantly with the content of the material as it is
composed. Even if work is proofread thoroughly, students work is
unlikely to reflect their full ability. So, just how does proofreading
give them an unfair advantage? How do you approach the work of student
who has written a 3000 word essay and who has a 10% (or even a 20%)
error rate?
The sort of strategies advocated by the 'remediators' seem simply to
deny the existence of the student's dyslexia.
Deaf and VI students face communication barriers. Support at uni aims
to support those students in finding ways around those barriers. Why
should support for dyslexic students be regarded differently?
Regards
Peter Hill
Skinner J.P. wrote:
> Keith
>
> I feel very strongly that dyslexia tutors should not proof read
> students' work or alter students' work in any way at all. It is fine
> to provide editing skills that will enable students to correct their
> own work, but not to correct it for them. That would be giving the
> students an unfair advantage, in my opinion. On an individual basis
> we do talk through coursework with students and point out any errors
> of grammar and sentence structure, and explain why it is wrong - we
> do not offer alternatives. Perhaps that is the same thing and it is
> the term 'proof reading' which is being interpreted differently! I
> perhaps read more into the term than you do - proof reading could be
> seen as just pointing out mistakes and not correcting them.
>
> Janet ---------------------- Janet Skinner Co-ordinator of Dyslexia
> Services University of Southampton 9 University Crescent
> [log in to unmask] 023 80595 562 (internal 25562) Dyslexia Services
> Reception 023 8059 2759 (internal 22759) [log in to unmask]
>
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