It rained terribly for about ten minutes last night, and this morning looks overcast. It's "group picture" day here at Kellogg, which solves my daily "what should I wear" dilemma. Today: it's jeans and the Kellogg t-shirt.
The Kellogg t-shirt is one of the more tastefully designed free garments I've been given by an institution. It's a cardinal red with the Kellogg logo (that flame thing) and the words Kellogg Institute 2010 centered in the upper part of the front. nothing on back.
I brought a small umbrella, so I'm good for the walk down toward the Central Dining Eatery District. I know I said I was going with straight coffee from here on out, but I might order a latte or a breve or something. I'd hate to see my first coffee inadvertently turn into such a high stakes assessment tool.
And speaking of, that's what's on tap for all of today: assessment. Good speaker, good topic, should be a good day, yeah?
Joseph, thanks for the posts. We're all enjoying them. In fact,we may have to include "blogging" in your job description.
ReplyDeleteThe right to fail question struck a dissonant chord with me today. A newly admitted fourth level EAP student was adamant that the second language program would be a waste of time for her. “Only” her writing was holding her back. The staff discussed the situation with the appropriate Edison authorities, and in the end, she was given the option of signing a waiver to take CPT. Here are my questions. Is a discussion on the pros and cons of EAP vs. DLA enough information for the student to make an informed decision? What are the multiple variables that should be considered when a making a placement decision? Does the college use the same decision variables as the student does? If this is too involved, maybe someone can recommend a book on the subject.
Hi Ann - thanks for writing. Well, I believe that Ed would say that a student in that situation is incapable of informed consent. And I think that's probably pretty true - even if everything is explained to the student, he or she still isn't making a truly informed decision. FTIC (first time in college) students can't make an informed decision. That's like me saying I'm going to make an informed decision about how I'll handle competing in my first Indy 500. The Indy 500 people probably have some sort of responsibility to prevent me from getting on that track (my analogy - clumsy, but it works I think). After a semester or two, a student can start making informed decisions, but until that time, they're just guessing. Sometimes correctly, sometimes not, but it doesn't make sense to say that they're making some sort of rational calculated decision in which they've weighed the pros and cons and looked at all the angles.
ReplyDeleteAll that being said, EAP seems to be a different animal. My short answer - if the student had never been to college before, I'd probably want to say "no," but if they had attended college before elsewhere here or abroad), I might lean toward caving. This is actually a really good example of when additional assessment would help. Did you go to school before? When was your last English class? How do you get to school? How many hours per week are you willing to commit in the lab?