Helping Students Find the Help They Need
Occasionally, your students will be deficient in one area of learning or another. Often they are math-phobic. Other times you find that they are nearly illiterate. Through their lives, people have let them down, by not insisting that they learn the three 'R's'. While you can not fix their problems in 10 weeks, when the focus is on something else, you CAN direct them to others who can help. Here's a list of problems, and locations on campus that specialize in solving them:
Problem Symptom(s)Resources
Writing IlliteracyThe student hands in paragraphs in which sentences are incomplete, thoughts are not developed, or organization is seriously flawed.The English Department Writing Center provides 1 on 1 peer tutoring for students

In the case of student athletes, there is a special center.
Math IlliteracyThe student can neither add nor subtract, multiply nor divide. You think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. Punching the 'log' button on their calculator, or solving for x in 'x+10=15' gives them hives.The Math Department offers this center, but it seems not to want to help out random walk-ins. Students might be able to sneak in a question, but they'd have to be pretty brave about it. Here are some websites that might help your students:
Math Anxiety
Math learning styles
Basic Math Tutorials
English IlliteracyThis is most noticeable/prevalent in foreign students, who are just struggling with the language. Most of them are already plugged in to the ESL program, but the English Department has a few sites in which they might be interested.

The ELP Center also has a list of links, which are more focused on particular problems.
Learning DisabilitiesThe most familiar of these is dyslexia, which often has a symptom of students writing letters or numbers backwards, or switching letters when they write. Most students will already know if they have a disability, and are already taking steps to manage it.For more information about disabilities and how to handle them, see the DO-IT program.