by Katy Knapp
Daily Lobo
Juan Guerra never went to school with white kids before eighth grade.
He was raised in South Texas near the Mexican border.
"Those kinds of experiences have led me to the idea that we lose a lot when we don't interact with different kinds of folks," he said.
Guerra, an English professor from the University of Washington, has been on the forefront of Writing Across Communities, an initiative the UNM English Department has been implementing.
A colloquium was held Monday in the SUB to bring faculty, staff and students together to discuss ways to incorporate students' voices and opinions into UNM English classes.
The idea to bring the program to UNM began in fall 2004, said Professor Michelle Kells, chairwoman of the program.
"We had a series of conversations that first started with the Department of English and other departments, and now we've involved the whole University and members of the community," Kells said.
The idea is to bring diverse ideas and a students' background into writing and to involve all members of the community.
According the program's Web site, the first step is getting to know students' backgrounds and writing styles.
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Guerra introduced a term called "transcultural repositioning," which he said refers to problems faced by students who come from marginalized communities.
"They constantly have to negotiate their relationship with different writing situations," he said. "Transcultural repositioning simply suggests that students need to be aware of the fact that each situation represents a new set of expectations, and there is no such thing as generic writing."
Guerra said there was a time in academia when it was believed students needed to be taught how to write in a formulaic fashion.
"What we've discovered over the past 20 years is students need to be able to write under any conditions, any circumstances to any audience," he said.
Kells said Writing Across Communities is in place at UNM but isn't a finished project.
"It's happening right now," she said. "It's not an end product. What we are talking about is an ongoing process. It's going to be remade every time a new group of students come in, new faculty come in or the community changes."
Kells said not all students have had access to the academic language used in writing and sharing ideas at the University.
"It can be exclusive if you haven't been introduced to it," Kells said.
Attendants formed groups of about 10 to discuss what they learned during the colloquium.
Student Pilar Villegas told her group it could be difficult to combine a student's personal voice in his or her work when teaching basic writing skills.
"I want them to develop their voice, but I also want people to be able to relate," she said.
They were asked to explain how students learn to write and whose responsibility it is to teach good writing.
Janet Yagoda Shagam, a microbiologist who teaches part-time in the English Department, said she did badly in college English.
"Even my brainstorming was criticized," she said. "But what helped me learn writing was teaching writing."
As far as who's responsible, Villegas said it's a combination of students, teachers and parents who need to teach good writing skills.
Stephanie Snyder, an English composition teacher and anthropology student, agreed and said she grew up in an environment conducive to reading and writing.
"I was reading from day one," she said. "My house was full of books."
