Jackie, a student with documented ADHD, struggled in her freshman composition class, which was held in a computer lab. Taught during the summer, the class met everyday for two hours. Because of this time length, we covered many different concepts in one class period. For Jackie, it was difficult to shift from one activity to the next: free writing on the computer, class discussion, teacher instruction, small group activities, partner editing, etc. A common characteristic of ADHD is hyper-attentiveness, or the inability to disconnect from one concept and move to another. The variety of activities and the pace of the class did not allow her to focus on each element as much as she would have liked. Sometimes this difficulty was created by Jackie. When she first came into the classroom, she would immediately check her e-mail. Then when class began, she would struggle to disconnect from focusing on home and friends.
On the other hand, Jackie also had difficulty focusing for long periods of time on one task such as concentrated writing, focused revision, or Internet research. She also struggled with connecting concepts between the activities. Sometimes she would get "lost" as she scrolled to different parts of her paper. The shift from typing to using the mouse would "disconnect" her from the writing activity, and she couldn't remember where she was pasting a new section. If the task required fast forwarding to the next step in the writing process, or continuing the process over several class periods, Jackie felt so overwhelmed that she gave up. The computer lab environment magnified her difficulty concentrating. The computers ringed the walls of the room so that students naturally faced away from the teacher. The noise level in the lab - the hum of the computers, people walking up to the printers, one-on-one student/teacher conferencing - created even more distractions.
Jackie’s struggles didn’t end in the computer classroom itself but carried into her preparation outside of class. Class members were invited to participate in an online discussion board that served as a vehicle for peer feedback and editing. Jackie wanted to share her insights on the posted questions. Somehow sharing ideas from behind the computer screen felt less intimating than raising her hand in class. Plus, in this setting she had plenty of time to consider the question and formulate her response. However, Jackie had a low tolerance level for frustration, and the normal frustrations of the technology were more than she could bear. The university was establishing a new server, and the online discussion board continually "crashed" as a result. Distracted by her frustration with the computer, Jackie began to care less about sharing ideas online. As a result, the homework seemed like a lot of busy-work
Jackie never approached me about her learning disorder, which is often typical as most SLD students are anxious just to fit in. While I knew she was struggling, I didn't correctly interpret her "symptoms," until I received documentation from the support services department. Unfortunately, this was four weeks into the term - half way through the course.
At first both Jackie and I were tempted to write-off the class, blaming each other or the situation. However, after a lengthy discussion, we evaluated Jackie’s strength’s and weaknesses and compared these to the requirements of the classroom tasks.
First we assessed Jackie's strengths. She was excited about her current writing topic - ADHD (many SLD student will choose to research their disorder, and this can be an important indicator for the teacher that there is a disorder). Jackie liked the students in the class and wanted to share her ideas. Then we outlined some accommodations for building on these strengths. Jackie conceded that she did need to learn Internet research because it allowed her to answer her own questions about her disorder. I allowed her to reshape the assignment from an argumentative research paper to an informative/personal essay. To assist her concentration in researching, Jackie would write down one question a day that she needed to find the answer to. Whenever she got distracted, clicking on irrelevant links, she would refer back to her question.
Because Jackie did want to share her ideas with the class, she was willing to work on these accommodations. First, she agreed not to do her discussion board from home. The online program didn't work well off campus, but accessed on campus, it generally worked. This minimized her frustration at the computer always crashing. I extended the deadline for her online postings, so that she would have a little more time to formulate ideas. Also, we agreed that she would not come into class and work on e-mail. Instead, when she got to class, she would freewrite on the day's discussion question, which I would give to her before class began.
Jackie focused on these accommodations for one week. While she still struggled to stay focused in other areas of the class, her research improved. Similarly, she offered one comment in a small group discussion, which was a first for her.
The next week we met to outline further accommodations. To help her make greater connections between various concepts/activities in class, Jackie agreed to prepare carefully so that it would be easier for her to make connections between the readings and class discussions. She agreed to take a few minutes after class to review the concepts. She planned a master calendar with the long-range due dates and mid-range due dates. Jackie planned study sessions of a reasonable length, more sessions with less amount of time over several days instead of putting it all off until the last minute (adapted from Vogel).
I outlined some accommodations that I would make to minimize the lab environmental distractions:
These accommodations met Jackie’s neurological learning needs because they provided clarification, utilized assistive technology and support service, and focused on VAKT learning. The accommodations cover the full range of the learning process: inputting, processing, outputting. I was also pleased to see that many of these accommodations improved the course for the entire class. Other students struggled with similar distractions although not to the extent that Jackie did. Thus Jackie’s need drew my attention to their problems as well.