"CW: Writing Support" Case
Case Description
Chuck is a freshman at Very Large State University (VLSU). He is a highly recruited new member of VLSU's top-ranked football team as well. He is enrolled in the required first-year (freshman composition) writing course in the Spring term, in part because his coaches and advisors thought it would be best if he concentrated on this required course during the season that he is not more focused on playing football. Chuck struggles to write anything, although he participates readily in class discussion, never misses class, and seems to be completing all the readings. He failed to produce a first draft of his first essay for his peer group workshop, he did not attend that workshop session, and he also has not yet turned in the "final draft" of that first essay to his instructor. He also has not produced or shared any writing for the weekly responses posted on the class web-based discussion site. It is now Week 5 of the term; Chuck has not (apparently) produced any writing for the course, and there is no grade yet for any of his written work.
The class has embarked on the second unit and second essay of the term, and Chuck has not submitted any "preliminary notes" to his peer group or instructor for this second essay either. Thus, the instructor has asked Chuck to meet with her for an individual conference during her office hours. At this meeting, she interviews Chuck to determine his own assessment of his writing strengths and weaknesses and to help her determine if there might be any factors associated with learning disabilities that are affecting Chuck's ability to produce written text. After this interview, she believes that Chuck does exhibit a fairly high degree of fear over writing and he has, in the past, experienced significant difficulty with written expression. Chuck explains, for example, that it has always taken him a very long time to produce even a little amount of writing and that he does, in general, tend to avoid writing.
Near the end of this conference, Chuck also asks if there is a chance that he could work with the instructor more one-on-one in order to produce perhaps only 2 or 3 final written papers since he believes that he is so far behind already, and he also knows how long it takes him to produce—let alone finish—any piece of writing.
What should the professor do?
