[nabs-l] fun with math class: looking for advice

Thu Aug 14 03:51:43 UTC 2014

Hi Tyler, this is Helga! I just wanted to tell you that I took pre-calculus 
class last year on the Fall semester, and I really didn't have all the 
chapters either! For my class, I only use 8 chapters since the professor 
only use these ones! I recommend you to take the class again! but not 
thisthis Fall semester since yu wil be upload with a lot of courses! I think 
you should take it next year on the Spring Semester, and only take that 
class in order for you to study very well! And actually, my coleege has my 
pre calculus books in Braille, if you need them I can probably ask my 
adviser to talk to your college adviser  in order to send the books over 
there! to your college! By the way, what college are you attending and in 
what State? Just wondring! Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks and God bless! 
:)
P.S. If you want to talk regarding this matter off list, you can do that 
since I don't want to clutter the list! My contact information is located 
below in my email signature. Thanks again!

Helga Schreiber

Fundraiser Coordinator for Phi Theta Kappa, Alpha Delta Iota chapter
Member of National Federation of the Blind and Florida Association of Blind 
Students
Member of The International Networkers Team (INT)
Independent Entrepreneur of the Company 4Life Research

Phone: (561) 706-5950
Email: helga.schreiber26 at gmail.com
Skype: helga.schreiber26
4Life Website: http://helgaschreiber.my4life.com/1/default.aspx
INT Website: http://int4life.com/

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever 
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
-----Original Message----- 
From: Littlefield, Tyler via nabs-l
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 10:42 AM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: [nabs-l] fun with math class: looking for advice

Hello all:

Last year in the fall semester, i entered Wentworth and started with
precalc. The books unfortunately did not arrive in time, so I was forced
to basically sit around until they showed up. When they finally did, I
started work, but it turned out that it would need to be extended. The
first idea would be that it would be extended over Christmas break, but
it turns out we still didn't have all of the books until some time in
February, so it had to wait until then.

After a lot of back and forth with a professor who was less than
helpful, we finally settled on me just teaching myself the last bit of
content. It is worth noting here that I had taken two tests and the
general idea was that I'd gotten an a' on both of them. I finally
finished a few hundred math problems at the end of this semester and
sent the whole pile of work off to the professor. I also took the math
final yet again, to insure that that grade was accounted for. More than
a month and a half later, I finally received a grade and it turns out it
was a d'. Here is the letter I wrote to appeal that grade:
math grade

Prof. *removed*:

I am writing in order to appeal my grade for math 250 with Prof. Levy
which I took in the fall semester and received a grade for recently. My
grade was
a D+, which I do not feel is deserved.

As you may already know, I requested an I' in the course and wanted to
finish it up on my own because multiple chapters of the book that we
were using
did not come in time for me to complete the course. I was given time
over Christmas break, during which I realized that I still did not have
the correct
chapters; these books did not actually arrive until at least February.

During this time, I was basically left to teach myself trig; I had a
tutor who is a friend who I asked numerous questions as well as someone
I worked with
at Wentworth. I invested tremendous time and effort into this class in
order to teach myself the materials that I would be required to know for
the final.

I am appealing this grade for a few different reasons. While I do
understand that I did decide to take this course on and finish it
myself, I believe I
had the right to expect at least some equal treatment as my peers. I
never received any feedback on the homework, though I submitted some in
the fall and
some around the beginning of the spring semester. I also never received
feedback for any tests with the exception of the first test, where I met
with Prof.
Levy in order to go over a couple of graphing questions. I also took the
final at the end of the fall semester as I was told to and never
received any
feedback on that final as well. I was not ever at any point given a
chance to review for the final that I took at the end of the spring
semester, which
essentially left me responsible for knowing the entirety of the course,
parts of which I have not seen since that class. Finally, there was one
other test,
which I was not even able to take because it was not provided in an
accessible form; I am totally unaware of what actually happened with
that grade or
whether or not it was even counted at all. I was, in short totally and
completely left to my devices and was unaware of the grade I received
until I finally
requested it from Bridget while we were meeting.

I am also troubled by Prof. Levy's utter lack of response. It took more
than a month after the completion of the semester for a grade to be
posted; it
was only in response to an email I had sent, inquiring about my grade
that I received notice that he had handed it to you; my request to Prof.
Levy directly
for my grade was unanswered.

I believe that I went above and beyond in this class in order to teach
myself the materials that I needed to know; not only did I study by
myself and use
every resource possible, but I had no formal instruction. I did not, at
any time during this class have any feedback as to my progress; I was
left unaware
of my grade, even on tests that had been taken in the fall semester and
was not told what I could do differently or better, or where I even went
wrong
in my work. It is now more than a month and a half after the end of the
semester and I am finally receiving a much lower grade than I believe I
deserve,
with no explanation or no solutions to being able to fix it. I was
essentially left to hand in a bundle of work and cross my fingers that
everything went as I hoped and that my work paid off.

Any help you could offer in a solution to this problem would be greatly
appreciated. I am troubled at the fact that I received such a low grade
and would
like to find a way to fix it.

Thank you for your time,

Tyler Littlefield

That letter was sent to the head of the math department here; her
response was that the professor had left and there was no way to dispute
my grade. As a result, I would have to take an all-or-nothing test,
which would demonstrate my knowledge of the contents of the course in
question. I wasn't overly thrilled about the idea, but I decided to go
forward with it anyway because I really do not want a d' on my
transcript for grad school. So, she set a time for a few days in advance
and expected me to be there. When I asked if the test would be brailled,
she said that we would take it orally: she would read me the questions
and I would answer them, then read it back. I told her I could read her
my solutions, but I wanted the test in braille. She settled on recording
the test so that I could replay it back and I pushed back yet again,
telling her that I am required to have the test in braille by law.

At this point, she basically said that it was to much time and she
wanted to get this over with. I took a trip to the president's office,
explained the issue and she emailed me the next day, informing me that
they had decided to braille the test and she was sorry she hadn't let me
know of that.

This email was sent on June 12. On aug 11 (two days ago), I was informed
that she hadn't even as of yet converted the test to a document, much
less had the test sent off. As many of you may be aware, the brailling
process takes quite a lot of time to braille. The idea was that I would
take this in the summer, but now I'm going to be taking a test for a
class that should have been done almost a year ago in the middle of the
semester, with 16, possibly 20 credits of workload on top of that. This
is problematic because though I reviewed two months ago, I need time to
review closer to the time of the test, as some of this material has not
been of use in calculous.

I contacted the provost's office and was refered to a deen, who I was
told would get in touch with me. Less than two hours later, the head of
the math department contacted me by phone to set up a meeting and as of
yet, I have not heard back from that office.

At this point, I really am unsure what to do. I want to take care of
this grade, but if they haven't even bothered to braille the test, I'm
going to be forced to cram and hope I can do well. If anyone has any
advice or ideas, I'd really appreciate it; I am really sorry for the
overly long email.
Thanks,

-- 
Take care,
Ty
http://tds-solutions.net
He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that 
dares not reason is a slave.

_______________________________________________
nabs-l mailing list
nabs-l at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
nabs-l:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/helga.schreiber26%40gmail.com 