How do I deal with a student who is overachieving?
I'm not a new professor by a long shot, but this one has me stumped, so I'm hoping for some input from students and other faculty.
There is a young woman in my class who has a bad academic reputation at my university among both faculty and other students. Colleagues expressed sympathy to me when they discovered she was in my class this semester. I had to shift her into another group when several of her classmates refused to work with her based upon past experience. I made some lame excuse about changing my mind about the numbers of students I wanted in each group, but I could see from her expression that she caught on.
But here's the thing: So far, in my class, she has done extremely well. She has participated regularly in class discussions. I just graded the midterms and hers is one of the better ones. She frequently jumps forward to help me with the stubborn classroom technology. Based on her performance in my class, the reaction she is getting from others doesn't make any sense at all. I'm not sure if she is sucking up (but she doesn't do that to my colleagues) or if she is looking for sympathy from me. I'm a little baffled, but what is obvious to me is that if she wants to, she is capable of doing really well.
Obviously, I will praise her for the things she is doing well, and equally obviously, nothing I have heard about her from others will enter into my evaluation of her work for my class. I'm wondering, though, if I shouldn't talk to her about this disparity between what I've observed and what I've heard. I don't want to upset her by bringing up things she probably doesn't realize that I know about her, but at the same time, I'm thinking that if she DOES trust me more than she does others, I could potentially turn her life around, and I'd hate to let that opportunity pass. If it makes a difference, I should add that I'm probably old enough to be her grandmother. Any suggestions?