retaining first-generation minority students at the university level san juan college by larry...
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Retaining First-Generation Minority Students at the University LevelSan Juan College
By Larry Torres
Do minority students think differently from mainstream
students?
Stretch Your Perspective!
Impediments
Two conflicting signals
Sometimes it’s a matter of reading between the lines…
Slight Variations: Rocks That Pray
From Amphibian…
To Mammal
Slight Variations: The Frog
Misperceptions of subject matter are often a product of cultural differences
in interpretation.To illustrate this point your will now
be shown series of words. As fast as you can, say the
color of the word
instead of the word itself…
Read THE COLOR as fast as you can
• YELLOW BLUE ORANGE
• BLACK RED GREEN
• PURPLE YELLOW RED
• ORANGE GREEN BLACK
• BLUE RED PURPLE
• GREEN BLUE ORANGE
Reasons for the difficulty:
The right side of your brain tries to say the COLOR
but
The left side of your brain insists on saying the WORD
itself
Students whose first language is NOT English are often caught in this same situation.
What defines the “Chicano?”
• 1.) Chico/chiquito=little ones or minority?• 2.) Méjico-Americanos=Mexican Americans?• 3.) Chinese + Mexicans = Chicanos?• 4.) from the word “Chicanery” means
swindlers and thieves?
Actually…
• It comes from the word “Meshica=Aztecs.• Meshicano by extension=sons of the
Meshica/Aztecs
Can You Hear What I’m Seeing?
• Ran Dumb Max Suck Highness• Lease Hummer Reap Wrest Lee• Thud How Less Cow Poise• Bills Spare Reed Oh Boy!• Law Sand Jealous
Can You STILL Hear What I Am Seeing?
• Haste Rubber Reap Eye• Pose Dulls Her Fizz• Knead Tomb Oath Hug Harass• Ale Of Huff Air• We Knit Train Zip Oars• Ape Arrow Uncle As His
You CAN Hear what I am Seeing!
• Chew Rule Solemn• Some Arrow Limp Hicks• Koala Deep Rod Ducks• Kit Tread He Fort Hey Cough• Dawn Dude Rugs• Ape Hack Awful Eyes
Heaven is a place with…
• An American house,
• Chinese food,
• British police,
• German car,
• French art
Hell is a place with…
• A Japanese house,
• Chinese police,
• British food,
• German art,
• French car.
Etic
Emic
Another element
that can color perception
includes religious
upbringing.
The Etic tends to see
the immediate.
The Emic tends
to read the deeper
significance.
Is this Guadalupe or Juan Diego dropping roses?
Historical Trauma:• A communal or tribal consciousness of its
past
• An on-going awareness of “cultural difference”
• A sense of unworthiness or of inequality
• A personal sense of not belonging
• A perceived memory of better times and places
The Native Experience
The Irish Experience
The Hispano Experience
The Anglo American Experience
Institutional Knowledge
Tribal Knowledge
Textbook culture
• Government approved
• Government sponsored
• Organized by levels
• Outlined on syllabi
• Usually instructor centered or led
• Encourages students to be passive
Home Culture
• A wider agenda far beyond the classroom walls
• Active participation
• The student sees himself as teacher
• Based on experience and tribal memory
Institutional Attitude: We don’t know who discovered water but
we’re pretty sure it wasn’t a fish.
Institutional Attitude: Shakespeare can’t teach a course on Shakespeare because he doesn’t have a degree in Shakespeare.
Small Agenda, Large Agenda
What is “The Southwest?”
The term “Southwest” is an ethnocentric one; what is south and west to the
Anglo-American was for a long time, the north of the Hispano-American
and center to the natives. On the south now, the international boundary severs
some of the Indians and Hispanos from their cultural kin and older connection farther south.
-D.W. Meinig The Multicultural Southwest
English written in Spanish pronunciation
• Uans apan a taim der uas a litl boi ju laikt to si pipl panic.
• Juenever ji cud, he ud crai: “Jelp! Jelp! Ulf! Ulf!
• Da pipl ud cam raning tu juer da boi uas and ji ud fal on da flor and laf jimself sili.
• Uan dei jauever, a ril ulf did cam over tu juer da boi was…
Institutional VS Tribal Knowledge has been parodied in the media
Look for
Commonalities
Ownership
• By giving ownership you also endow the recipient with responsibility, conscious awareness and participation.
• This can only be achieved through regular class attendance or field study.
• There is now a classroom full of teachers led by one facilitator.
Palindromes: words or sentences that can be read the same forwards or backwards.
• Snub Sununu’s Buns!
• Snub Sununu’s Buns!
• Slap nuts, stun pals!
• Slap nuts, stun pals!
• Eros? Sidney, my end is sore!
• Eros? Si dne y,m y end is sore!
Do palindromes work in Spanish?
• Yo hago yoga hoy.• Yo h ago y oga h oy.• Anita lava la tina.• Anit a l ava l a tina.• Échele leche.• Échel e leche.• Amad a la dama.• Amad a l a dama.
Metathesis:The transposition of letters or numbers
• Spaghetti=pasghetti
• Magazine=mazagine
• Breakfast=breafkast
• Ask=aks
• Hamburger=hangerber
• Pizza-Hut=Hutta-Piz
• Nuclear=nucelar
CommonTranspositions in Spanish
• Piedra=pierda• Catálogo=catágalo• Estómago=estógamo• Gabriel=Grabiel• Derritir=reditir• Pared=pader• Telaraña=taralaña• Ciudad=cuidad
There are experts everywhere but people who can actually teach are
few and far between.
Ownership
• We must look into pairing theory with practice,
• We must look into mentorship and internship programs,
• We must involve the whole family of the first-generation minority student,
• We must make it REAL and PRACTICAL• We must pair English programs with vo-
tech classes
Encourage colleges and universities to sponsor and support work-study
coop programs
Bridge Institutional with Tribal learning styles; create a sense of
SYMBIOSIS
At School
Farm Animals
Fruits and Vegetables
American Sign Language
Dictionary On-LineASL Browser
A-B-C Theatre
Practice Cultural Sensitivity
Appropriateness in Reading: Two doctors opened an office in a small town and put up a sign reading Dr. Smith and Dr.
Jones:
“Psychiatry and Proctology.”
The town council was not too happy with that sign, so the doctors changed it to
“Hysterias and Posteriors.”
This was not acceptable either, so in an effort to satisfy the council,
they changed the sign to
“Schzoids and Hemorrhoids.”
No go! Next they tried
“Catatonics and High Colonics.”
Thumbs down again.
How about
Minds and Behinds?”
Unacceptable again.
So they tried:
“Analysis and Anal Cysts”,
“Nuts and Butts”,
“Freaks and Cheeks”, and
“Loons and Moons.”
And finally they came up with something acceptable to the
council:
“Odds and Ends.”
Teaching the minority
student is all about relativity.
Even within the same Solar System, not all planets look the same.
Some are bigger than others…
But even they are nothing compared to the Sun
And the Sun is not even the biggest of stars…
All relationships are about relativity.
Concepts are easier to grasp if they are personalized and made practical
to both the instructor and to the student
If you yelled for 8 years,
7 months and 6 days
you would have produced
enough sound energy
to heat one cup of coffee.
(Hardly seems worth it!)
If you farted consistently for
6 years and 9 months,
enough gas is produced to
create the energy of an
atomic bomb.
(Now, that’s more like it!)
A pig’s orgasm last
30 minutes.
(In my next life I want to be a pig!)
A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.
(Creepy!)
(I’m still not over that pig!)
Banging your head against the wall uses 150 calories an hour.
(Don’t try this at home; maybe at work!)
Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
(I still want to be a pig in my next life…quality over quantity.)
Butterflies taste with their feet.
(Something I always wanted to do.)
A cat’s urine glows under a black light.
(I wonder who was paid to figure that out?)
An ostrich’s eye is
bigger than its brain.
(I know some people like that.)
Starfish have no brains.
(I know some people who are like that too.)
Polar bears are left-handed.
(I wonder, if they switched, would they live 9 years longer?)
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
(What about that pig?)
Mammals’ blood is red.Insects’ blood is yellow.Lobsters’ blood is blue.
(I must have lobster blood!)
The poisonous copperhead snake smells like fresh-cut cucumbers.
(You don’t want to get close enough to find out.)
Camel milk does not curdle.
(Too bad you can’t say the same thing about their breath!)
Near misses in speech, whether written or oral, are called
MALAPROPS.• My wife had our towels mamogrammed!
• Before we meet at WalWart, let’s circumcise our watches!
• The view of the Grand Canyon is simply perspiring!
• The priest sprinkled incest over everyone!
• It’s time to cut the imbecilical cord!
Beware of Boredom!!!
• Listen for the stress on the word.• Listen for the stress on the word.• Listen for the stress on the word.• Listen for the stress on the word.• Listen for the stress on the word.• Listen for the stress on the word.• Listen for the stress on the word.
• Do you like green eggs and ham?
• Do you like green eggs and ham?
• Do you like green eggs and ham?
• Do you like green eggs and ham?
• Do you like green eggs and ham?
• Do you like green eggs and ham?
• Do you like green eggs and ham?
The Human Animal is far from being a
done deal; He is
NOT YET a finished
product!
-Larry Torres