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

[Michael Forzano]

Hi Tyler,

I'm not clear how you let two months go buy without checking on the
status of your test being brailled. In general, professors have many
students and are extremely busy. If you don't hear anything for a
period of time, more than likely what you asked for isn't being
done/worked on.

Also, there are a lot of other ways you could have handled the lack of
a textbook. You could have hired a reader or used another edition or a
different precalc book available on Learning Ally. I know this is not
optimal, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do in order to
make the best of a situation. Did you attend the lectures while you
were waiting for the book to arrive? This shouldn't require the book
and would allow you to at least get some idea of the material.

One of my blind friends did fine in precalc knowing that he wouldn't
get a braille book at all (and calc 1 and 2 as well, for that matter).
He had a reader, he had someone type out some of the questions for him
to work on. It's really not impossible. I actually think you made
things harder for yourself by taking the extension. I agree that an
all-or-nothing test isn't fair, but you got yourself into this
situation. The head of the math department doesn't know you or how you
did in the class, so what choice do they have?

You mentioned that your understanding was that you got an A on some of
the exams. Did you follow up with the professor to get an actual
grade? Unless the grade is recorded somewhere, it means nothing.

At this point, you should stay on top of the head of the department
regarding the progress of brailling the test. If you don't hear back,
email again. Though good luck, as this is a special situation that is
likely pretty low on their priority list.

Mike

On 8/13/14, Littlefield, Tyler via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 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.
>
>
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