An Alternative Freshman English Program for Minority Students

In response to complaints from minority students at the University of California at Santa Barbara concerning the freshman English requirement, special sections which attempted to meet the needs and interests of Educational Opportunities Program students were instituted in the winter of 1969. The cla...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:College composition and communication 1972-12, Vol.23 (5), p.365-370
Main Author: Thornton, Toni Clark
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
College freshmen
College students
Control groups
Educational innovation
Grade point average
Literary criticism
Minority group students
Teachers
Universities
Written composition
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Summary:In response to complaints from minority students at the University of California at Santa Barbara concerning the freshman English requirement, special sections which attempted to meet the needs and interests of Educational Opportunities Program students were instituted in the winter of 1969. The classroom situation was very informal, and the discussions explored the validity and relation of the literature to the students' experiences, using their perceptions, feelings, and experiences as resource materials. The instructor suggested connections of the works read to the larger literary tradition, and the relevance of this was discussed. There was a great effort to break down the traditional barriers between instructor and student in order to allow the class to function as a group of resource persons, with no one person having "the answer" or holding the power. The program has proven quite successful as evaluation at several levels has shown.
ISSN:0010-096X
DOI:10.2307/356612