McLeod-Porter & Costello & Oberdan & Hughes  Mom Goes to School: meeting the Needs of Non-traditional Students

25/S                           8:15 AM                                                     Rockefeller

 

Type_Presentation:         90 Minute Concurrent session

PresentationTitle:         Mom Goes to School:  Meeting the Needs of Non-traditional Students

ProgramStrand_Primary:     Developmental/Basic Writing

ProgramStrand_Secondary:   Freshman Year Experience

 

Presentation_description:

This presentation presents an ethnographic look at three older women who have enrolled in degree programs as first-year students at McNeese State University.  Tutors have discovered that these students require a special kind of tutoring -- one that involves confidence-building as a prerequisite to actual content tutoring.  Awareness of this need is valuable for tutors, faculty, and administrators.

 

Session_summary:

 

Mom Goes to School:  Meeting the Needs of the Non-Traditional Student

 

Over the last 20 years, the percentage of older students on campuses has increased dramatically. From one-third to one-half of all college students are classified as nontraditional, and more than fifty percent of all graduate students are over thirty years of age.  Many of these nontraditional learners come into the classroom not only with deficient academic skills, but also without the requisite confidence to pursue and complete a degree.  A large percentage of these students seek tutorial assistance on campus to aid them in remediating their academic skills; however, tutoring centers often discover that before gains can be made in improving academic performance, the nontraditional students have to muster self-confidence and believe that they can perform satisfactorily in the classroom alongside students who have not taken a lengthy hiatus between high school and college.

 

This ethnographic case study looks at three women who have enrolled at McNeese State University as first-year students during the Fall 2007 semester.  All first-generation college students, none of the three has enjoyed academic success previously; however, faced with financial exigencies, all have determined to retrain themselves so that they can compete effectively with other college graduates in the workplace.

The purpose of this presentation is to examine strategies that have aided in building confidence in these students as they work toward completing their remedial (developmental) English courses.  The strategies that have evolved from working with and interviewing these students can be refined to meet the needs of a diverse community of learners.

James Benshoff and Henry Lewis argue that nontraditional students are Òcausing institutions of higher learning to re-think the focus of academic and student affairs programs.Ó  They further note that the Ò willingness of institutions to modify existing programs and develop new services geared to adult populations will have a positive impact on their ability to attract, serve, and satisfy the educational needs of adult students.Ó

By careful study of individual student needs, it is possible to determine tutorial strategies that facilitate their success.  Students who leave the tutoring center – or in our case the Writing Center – feeling as if they have successfully completed an assignment that a semester earlier earned a failing mark are empowered and enabled to take on more intellectually challenging tasks. 

 

After presenting a brief review of literature, the presenters will share oral interviews and ethnographic notes taken from interviews with the informants.  Presenters will also engage participants in discussion of similar experiences.  Handouts include writing samples from the three subjects, illustrating their improvement over time.

 

The presenters include:  Dr. Delma McLeod-Porter, Director of the Write to Excellence Center at McNeese State University.  Prior to assuming the directorÕs position, McLeod-Porter was the Director of Freshman-Sophomore English and Coordinator of Developmental Writing for sixteen years.  She is a Board Member of the Literacy Council of Southwest Louisiana and has tutored non-readers for more than twenty years as a literacy volunteer.  Dr. Rita Costello, Director of Freshman-Sophomore English is a faculty member in the Department of English and Foreign Languages at McNeese State University.  She graduated with a BFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University, with a MFA from Wichita State University; and PhD from University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Also presenting are two graduate-student tutors in the Write to Excellence Center:  Angelina Oberdan is the Coordinator of the Write to Excellence Center at McNeese State University where she is working towards an MFA in Poetry and a MA in English. She graduated from Clemson University with a BA in English and has published and presented in the Pedagogy Forum at AWP conferences for the past three consecutive years. Mary Hughes is a first-year graduate student working on her MA and MFA in poetry at McNeese State University. She graduated from Central Michigan University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and a Bachelor of Science in History. 

 

PresenterBio:

Dr. Delma McLeod-Porter, Director of the Write to Excellence Center at McNeese State University.  Prior to assuming the directorÕs position, McLeod-Porter was the Director of Freshman-Sophomore English and Coordinator of Developmental Writing for sixteen years.  She is a Board Member of the Literacy Council of Southwest Louisiana and has tutored non-readers for more than twenty years as a literacy volunteer.

 

Presenter2_Bio:

Dr. Rita Costello, Director of Freshman-Sophomore English is a faculty member in the Department of English and Foreign Languages at McNeese State University.  She graduated with a BFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University, with a MFA from Wichita State University; and PhD from University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

 

Presenter3_Bio:

Angelina Oberdan is the Coordinator of the Write to Excellence Center at McNeese State University where she is working towards an MFA in Poetry and a MA in English. She graduated from Clemson University with a BA in English and has published and presented in the Pedagogy Forum at AWP conferences for the past three consecutive years.

 

Presenter4_Bio:

Mary Hughes is a first-year graduate student working on her MA and MFA in poetry at McNeese State University. She graduated from Central Michigan University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and a Bachelor of Science in History.