Some Teaching Suggestions for Hispanic American Students

One of the hardest issues that many Hispanic-American students deal with in terms of education is the English language. Many Hispanic-American learners do not have the advantage of English being their first language as many of their classmates do. Because of this language barrier, many Hispanic American students struggle to learn new concepts because they are all taught in the English language rather than their home language. To help these students be successful in education, teachers can implement a variety of teaching strategies that will be beneficial to the Hispanic American ethnic group.

One of the teaching strategies that teachers can implement whenever possible is to make sure minority students are included and accepted in every activity the class participates in. This includes having a classroom environment that celebrates students from a variety of cultures. It includes having a variety of perspectives when discussing various topics. It is developing an atmosphere where students work together and differences are explored and celebrated.

Another more technical teaching strategy that teachers can use is applying as much visual and hands on activities when possible. When a concept is accompanied by a visual, Hispanic American learners have an easier time understanding because the language or writing by itself may be too challenging to grasp all at once being that English is their second language. Hands on activities are also a good teaching strategy because it keeps students engaged and again, gives Hispanic American students another way to reach understanding other than only a verbal explanation. Hispanic American students can begin to understand through an explanation, but then they can confirm understanding through hands on learning.

Another way to make sure Hispanic American students are understanding is for teachers, when they are teaching a lesson and come across new vocabulary or vocabulary that they feel may be hard for a English language learner to understand, to clarify those words with either a visual or an explanation that makes the meaning of the word clear.   

Most importantly, teachers should get to know all of their students on a personal level. For Hispanic American learners, it is vitally important for them to have a teacher that genuinely cares and is willing to help them succeed academically if it means after school tutoring or simply re-clarifying concepts in class that seem to confuse.   

Description of Learners from the Hispanic American Culture

When one refers to a Hispanic-American learner, they are referring to a large, diverse group. Hispanic students differ from one another in where they were born, their primarily language, prior education experience, how much English they may know, and many other factors. Hispanic students may be from Mexico, Central America, South America, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and many other locations. Thus each learner from the Hispanic-American culture is different from the other and each person is a unique creation of God with the ability to learn.  

Of all the different cultural groups, the Hispanic culture has been the fastest growing population in the US education system. Their enrollment numbers have increased over 100% in the past decade. Although this is a very positive event, statistics show that the Hispanic-American learner is falling behind in comparison to other cultural groups. For example, Hispanic-American scores on the NAEP were significantly lower than white students, drop out rates are higher in the Hispanic-American culture, and the percentage of Hispanic-American learners who graduate from college is far less than the white students.

Educators have been trying to get to the root of these negative statistics concerning the Hispanic-American culture. They have found that the percentage of poverty in Hispanic Americans is quite high in comparison to the white populations. Poverty in Hispanic families restricts educational opportunities because of cost. Hispanic students often reside in neighborhoods of poverty where the education system of that area tends to be underfunded, poorly maintained, have a large number of uncertified teachers, and not have access to the technology that is needed to meet the students learning needs. These factors alone have a huge impact on students’ success and achievement. In addition to these factors, many Hispanic-American students have to deal with learning the English language on top of their education and many teachers are not adequately equipped to help these students learn English.    

A common misconception concerning Hispanic-American students is that they are not as smart as their white peers and their chances at success are lower because of this. This view is extremely wrong and false. Each student learns in a different way and studies have shown that education is geared towards meeting the needs of the typical white student rather than the Hispanic-American learner who has English as their second language. If teachers were able to better meet the needs of Hispanic-American students, and if the educational experiences of each student were up to par and not affected by poverty, then the gap between Hispanic-American learners and other cultural groups would diminish.

I obtained much of this information from: http://www.cal.org/crede/pdfs/epr8.pdf

Documentary from the Hispanic American Culture

CHICANO! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement.
NLCC Educational Media, 1996.

Music from the Hispanic-American culture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv5zKd1rqcM

This is a YouTube video that plays the song "Macarena" by Los del Rio. The lyrics in Spanish are also shown in the video.

Music from the Hispanic-American culture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_SS-TyXhhU
The above link goes to a YouTube video that plays the song "La Bamba" by Los Lobos

Art of the Hispanic American Culture

"Dead of Paradise"
by Sergio Gomez

Art of the Hispanic American Culture

"Ni Una Mas!" (Not One More!)

by Judithe Hernandez