<p>dad4son - frazzled1's comment about the student writing center (most major universities have them) and meeting with the TA are excellent.</p>
<p>Your relationship with your son is also to be commended - your son disclosed the F grade to you!</p>
<p>The TA commented that your son's paper completely disregarded the assigned topic which most likely earned it an automatic F. And realizing that your son is a freshman and it is one of his first assigments the TA has given your son a very generous amount of time (today is Wednesday and your son has until Monday) to redo the assignment.</p>
<p>As far as what to say and what to do - you need to encourage your son to look at his priorities. If he needs to maintain a 3.5 GPA to keep his scholarship there are certain steps he needs to take. The first is to take advantage of the redo option. The second is to decide if the trip home will meet his priority of keeping his scholarship.</p>
<p>It's not easy going from being a big fish in a small pond (small rural school) to a little fish in a big pond (flagship State U). The TA could care less what awards your son earned before coming to university because there are hundreds of high achieving students at this flagship State U. This TA can be your son's best friend or worst enemy in the classroom. The hyperventilating at your house will just make things worse for your son especially if you believe your son is right and the TA is wrong.</p>
<p>Agree with the above posts. You should not chastise him but point out to him that the paper did not fulfill the requirement and he really does have to write on the assigned topic (CGM's comments on comedy vs. drama is exactly on target).
Tell him to contact the TA and say that he appreciates the chance to resubmit and ask to meet. If the paper was good despite not being on target, he may not need to go to a writing center. He just has to write about the topic! If, however, there were other problems, he should definitely go to the writing center. It is not unusual for high achieving students to be crushed by their first grades. And it is far better that it happens early than late, when it counts for a whole lot more!
So be gentle, be supportive, but tell him to get on with the rewrite!</p>
<p>Given the ADHD issue, S should talk to the TA to make sure he really understands the topic and what was expected - he might want to let the TA know about the ADHD as well. This could improve the relationship with the TA who would hopefully see that S hadn't just blown off the assignment but is a hard worker. On the bright side, it did sound like he could have gotten at least a C if he had understood and followed the assignment.</p>
<p>It sounds like everyone has given good advice here. I, too, think the writing center is the way to go, along with frequent visits to whomever is grading his paper BEFORE the next one is due.</p>
<p>I remember getting a D- on my first Econ paper as a 17 year old from a rural h.s., first month in college. I thought my world had ended! A D-!!!! When I approached my instructor (not a TA), he said, "well, maybe you shouldn't be in college. And, really, Economics is not a good subject for girls." That made me mad and I wound up with a B in his class. I wrote him a flaming eval.</p>
<p>On a different matter, I hate TA's teaching! When my neice calculated the cost of her freshman English class at Geo Washington U., the year cost about $4500, just for that class. To be taught by a grad student (who probably made minimum wage, if that) was just over the top.</p>
<p>Good luck to your DS. I hope he can overcome this setback. Keep us posted.</p>
<p>Wrath and Homer is a great first assignment. After all, the subtitle of the Illiad is "The Wrath of Achilles." There is a lot he could do with that: draw parallels and/or contrasts between Achilles's anger and that of the one or more of the gods - compare motivations and results, etc. Or contrast the wrath of Achilles with the cleverness of Odysseus or with the noble stoicism of Hector, etc. etc.</p>
<p>Great advice from everyone on this. Coincidentally, last night D emailed her first paper from her Ethics class for us to read over before she hands it in. Her dad is a reporter and she really respects his comments/edits when he proofreads her papers. It appeared pretty well-written to me - I just hope she followed the topic and directions!</p>
<p>Jonathan Shay has just been awarded a MacArthur "genius" grant. He is a psychiatrist, working in the outpatient clinic of the Boston VA hospital and specializes in trauma. He is most famous for writing * Achilles in Vietnam* and more recently, * Odysseus in America*. As Coureur writes, Achilles and wrath are a natural pair. Besides the topics Coureur suggests, your S might write about whether Achilles' wrath caused him to go over the top in his dealing with Hector; contrast his reaction to the loss of Briseis and the death of Patroclus.</p>
<p>My S, also a very good h.s. Eng. student got C's on his first couple of papers for Freshman English. I don't think he took the first one too seriously but after the second one realized it was going to take more work than he ever had to generate for an A in h.s.<br>
He made B's after that and ended up with a B for the class(lowest Eng. grades ever but better than the C's) and was relieved.</p>
<p>Sounds like your S just missed the boat on the subject matter. Maybe it will be his wake-up call. If he does better on the next few the grades will average out. My S has to keep a 3.2 for his scholarship so the C's were looking scary to him too.</p>
<p>As an additional note, DS had that rude awakening on his first paper. The univeristy used a different writing standard than his HS had used. He thought it was stupid so wrote using the HS standard. Got the D as a result. Went and invested in the right book and did fine after that.</p>
<p>Actually I would feel MUCH better knowing that my son's paper did not reflect that prompt at all. At least there is an explanation and a solution. What would really suck is if he received an F and had no idea where he went wrong. Whenever my sons were disappointed in their performance, whether in academics, sports, music, I'd always paint it as a positive if they KNEW what went wrong- at least they can correct it and go on! Basically, I'd look at a paper prompt as a one question take-home test. In your son's case, he may have written a wonderful paper, but he got the answer wrong. Solution- make sure your answer is correct first, then write the essay.</p>
<p>Right now my freshman student is struggling with the challenge of chemistry- having to work problems on tests quickly, running out of time, not being able to check work, making stupid mistakes out of nervousness. The tests will have three problems which are quite complicated and no partial credit is given if your final answer is wrong. Now there is a problem that is hard to find a solution for...work faster? Make even more stupid mistakes? Work slower? Run out of time before the test is completed?</p>
<p>"Right now my freshman student is struggling with the challenge of chemistry- having to work problems on tests quickly, running out of time, not being able to check work, making stupid mistakes out of nervousness. "</p>
<p>My freshman dropped chem today. Just can't figure out how to solve the problems if no one will tell her.</p>
<p>"Yikes! What college is this and what course is this where no one will help your daughter understand the material?"</p>
<p>She's at a tiny school in PA, so I don't want to name it. I don't think it's the school, it's the professor. She didn't have AP chem in high school and he's working under the impression that they all did. But I don't want to hijack this thread, so . . .</p>
<p>With a scholarship on the line, I can understand your son's devastation. However, he made that bed of arrogance. Hubris allowed him to blow off the question at hand and now he's learned that Freshman Hubris is NOT appreciated at college. </p>
<p>that's okay. He should quickly outline another paper which answers the question, take the outline to the TA for a quick review and then re-write the paper. He should also apologize for his hubris.</p>
<p>Your son sounds ike a ownderful boy--but he is a boy. Boys tend to learn what they cannot do by smacking into walls--or tipping their boats into the drink. Help him re-right his boat, but don't diminish this wonderful lesson. If it stings enough, he won't make that mistake again.</p>
<p>Look at it this way, he could have learned it at exams. That is when most boys learn their Freshman lessons. Consider it a blessing that his TA caught him early in the game.</p>
<p>There are certain rules to follow in writing a paper for a first course in humanities. The grader is not looking for creativity but rather in the form and style of the writer. Afterall, these courses are designed to ensure the acquisition of basic writing skills. </p>
<p>Foremost among the seven deadly sins of first year writing is to stray off topics. The second deadly sin is not to give the right clues that you have actually read the assignment or had profited by class attendance. </p>
<p>In the Homeric world, "Wrath" and "Honor" are indispensibly tied together for being human, as distinct from gods who have wrath but care not one bit for honor. Because these concepts are not equivalent to ours, an expository assay needs to return to the Homeric text to identify and to clarify the terms, and by so doing, the grader will see that you have read the text.</p>
<p>I am sure that he will improve once he gets the mechanics down. Is he at U of M or MSU?</p>
<p>Study groups are a great idea. If your students have problem sets they cannot solve on their own, encourage them to join study groups. If they don't know anyone in the class, they should ask the prof to facilitate the forming of study groups.</p>
<p>"The TA is not on a power trip. S/he is being sarcastic, to be sure, but also trying to be supportive. TAs do NOT have to offer students a chance to resubmit (other students might think it is unfair they don't get a chance to raise their grades, too)."</p>
<p>All of the above is true. The TA, who is busy with her own graduate studies, didn't have to offer your S the chance to rewrite, which means more work for her.</p>
<p>She also was very clear about what was wrong with your S's paper.</p>
<p>Since your S is a very high scoring student who came from a rural school, I imagine he is used to doing very well on assignments without putting much effort into them, and even perhaps by creatively writing what he wanted to write, not exactly what the teacher asked for. This won't work in college.</p>
<p>I would not forbid my kid from coming home for the weekend. I think that when students are in college, they are old enough to make those decisions themselves. I would, though, ask him what he plans to do to produce an excellent rewrite, and if he didn't think of it, I would suggest that he use the writing center, and talk with the TA in person. If he chose to rewrite the paper at home or at school would be up to him. I would not micromanage thiws, and I would try very hard to not edit the paper for him.</p>
<p>Presumably it's also clear to him now that when it comes to getting advice about his papers, his roommate is not a good person to turn to even if that roommate is well meaning.</p>
<p>I doubt that your S has a major writing deficiency if he was a presidential scholar nominee. I think what happened is that he didn't give the prof what she asked for.</p>
<p>In regard to the GPA issue, it may be worth finding out if your S's college has the option to switch to Pass/Fail for this course. It's too early to take this option, but if your S can't pull this grade out but needs to keep the class in order to have enough credit hours to be full time, for example, it would be good for you (not him, yet) to know if there is a safety position that will preserve his GPA. </p>
<p>Some schools will allow the switch to P/F for a class here and there, with no impact on GPA. Usually the switch is irreversible, so if the student suddenly turns his D into an A, he can't change his mind about the P/F choice.</p>
<p>Might be good for you to know the policy about P/F and share it with your S if things don't get on the right track.</p>
<p>I wouldn't forbid him from coming home, but I would be worried if he did without having a plan for getting the paper done right- seeing writing center, talking to TA, going over material, etc</p>
<p>You can't ban him, but as he has shared this with you , you can share that you hope he thinks about priorities</p>