I once had this amazing student. He was bright, funny, highly intelligent, and musically gifted. I swear he was smarter than me and had a larger vocabulary than me. If I’m wrong about those observations, I can say with no uncertainty, he was funnier than me!
This student, who I’ll call John, was a tenth grader that read at a post-secondary grade level. He would read anything you put in front of him, any genre, any format. John particularly enjoyed novels from the Harlem Renaissance even though he had little to no understanding of the culture or the times. But John couldn’t write. He had a writing disability that translated into some fine motor issues, difficulty with transcribing his thoughts, and even problems with constructing paragraphs. You could watch time pass as he attempted to respond to writing prompts and essay questions. Ten minutes would go by and he had written his name, illegibly.
John was highly verbal and very articulate so I figured a transcription software program [an assistive technology (AT) device when used by someone with a disability] would be just the thing to get him again interested in school and maybe move on to college after graduation. He was initially excited by the prospect, he enjoyed training the program, and, as most teens do, he enjoyed stringing together cuss words and other profanities to watch Dragon (Dragon Naturally Speaking or DNS) record them effortlessly.
He used the program for an assignment. One assignment. Only one assignment. An assignment he never even turned in! I was crushed. I kept asking him to use it. I kept calling him out of his advisory classes to come and use Dragon for his work but he didn’t. So I got John a laptop with the program and talked with his mom. He still didn’t use it. I asked him why he wouldn’t use it, why he wouldn’t do his work. John never did answer me. It just seemed as if he’d lost all interest, in much the same way that he had with his written work. Now, reflecting on it all, maybe it was an overriding fear of failure. After all, you can’t fail if you don’t try.
If I had to do it all again, I would implement Keller’s ARCS model to motivate John to use Dragon and find the academic success he was worthy of.
A- Attention
I did have John’s attention. His curiosity was instantly peaked and I didn’t quell it by disallowing him to explore the program using academically inappropriate language.
I could have upped the ante and sustained his attention by showing him how the program could do more than just transcribe his speech into a word processing program. He may have been more motivated to know he could write emails using Dragon.
R- Relevance
John saw the relevance of the program. He did use it to complete a writing assignment. If John had turned the assignment into his teacher, he may have considered the program to be more relevant.
If given a chance for a do over, I would (as previously stated) show him the other capabilities of the program. I would also have John call over to the local colleges’ disability centers and have him inquire into which translation programs they used. Or better yet, have him send emails to them using Dragon.
C- Confidence
I want to blame this on John…had he turned in his assignment then he would have gained some confidence…
But I’m a teacher so I have to take some responsibility for this. His first written assignment crafted using Dragon should have been for me. I should have given John his first assignment, sat there with him as he completed it, and been there as he emailed it to me. Then I could have been the one to assign him his first grade on a written assignment. I could have then graded him on a rubric and provided him with a copy of previous work so he could see the difference. I’m certain the comparison alone would have given John enough confidence to continue using the program.
S- Satisfaction
As a teacher, I want to think that John being able to see what he is truly capable of would provide him the satisfaction necessary to continue using the program. If that weren’t enough for him, I would hope that his academic progress would provide the satisfaction. Other than that, I’m not really sure what it is I could do. I open this up to you for commentary.