RE: An LD Student Who Needs a "Scribe"

[Chris Hamel <Chamel@U.Arizona.EDU>]

i'm worried about the level of frustration i hear behind some of the 
responses to this issue...  it's frustrating as someone who is a writing 
specialist for students with ld to hear the sarcasm and hesitation that 
greets a student's need for a scribe.  i'm not upset with any of the 
respondees to this -- don't get me wrong, please.  i'm grateful for folks 
like shannin who are honest about their feelings on this issue.  what 
concerns me is that there is still _cause_ for these sorts of reactions...

some students do indeed need scribes, and will need them all their lives. 
 somehow we all, as educators, need to come to some sort of peace with the 
fact that a significant population of our writing students will never be 
able to write "on their own".  this says nothing about these students' 
abilities to function in the world, nor about their intelligences -- it is 
all about how they learn.  i train writing tutors to work with students 
with ld, and the one thing these tutors do not do is to make papers pretty 
for students with ld.  if they take dictation, they do straight dictation. 
 period.  and if the student has a severe grammar/language mechanics 
disability, all editing work is done interactively with the student.  but 
some students will NEVER be able to see and/or correct their own 
grammatical problems -- orally or otherwise.  i'm working right now with 
one student who can recite grammar rules until the cows come home, but 
can't, despite high motivation and a lot of work, fix her own work.

i'm working hard right now to open dialogue between writing instructors and 
writing centers and the writing tutors i have here.  there seems to be much 
need for conversation on this issue, if the kinds of miscommunication 
suzanne describes are still happening.

what are writing centers if not places to meet writers where they are and 
help them become better writers?  ld writers, esl writers, visual writers, 
auditory writers, kinesthetic writers...  i'm not saying the burden should 
be on any writing center to be _sole provider_ of accommodations for 
students with special needs, but i'm not at all sure it's wrong for a 
writing center to do some of those accommodations...

paz -- chris


"...Let me take you there and show you a living story..."
		Genesis, "A Trick of the Tail"


Chris Hamel, MA
Writing Specialist, SALT Center
University of Arizona
(520) 621-6641
chamel@u.arizona.edu