Instructor: Manumaua (Fata) Simanu-Klutz
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Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 16 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: Regardless of language or background, the effort there is to make them understand Wendt's writings. When I deliver the sense of place, then I make it interdisciplinary... so that they all have access, whether it's world history or Samoan history... So then it's not about Samoan students but all the students.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 15 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: During the Reagan period, they did a study of nations at risk. The study showed that students were just not writing; that they had very poor writing skills. Plane loads of teachers were going down to New Zealand, to see how New Zealand was doing the writing and reading.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 14 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: The immersion schools were coming into focus, charter schools were coming into focus... a practice that Native Hawaiians supported; there, [students are] getting their sense of place. I didn't hear Hawaiian on this campus when I came in the '80s. By the turn of the century, it was just exciting to hear Hawaiian on this campus.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 13 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: [Expressivist writing] is about your daily life. It's about your life experiences, different roles, so it's not necessarily about yourself, the person, but it's about what you do growing up, or interacting in the village, and those are comfortable enough for that language to emerge, or for [students] to express that in their writing. And I really believe, you start with where you are, and what you know, in order for you to be able to develop your language skills. And I think this is where our students have encountered many problems: that they are being taught content 'of another place,' if you will.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 12 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: I've been a student at Mānoa for the last twenty years: my BA and MA were in education, and I added an MA in Pacific Island Studies, in preparation for a PhD in History... So I've gotten on the Faculty Senate, and I'm on a committee on Academic Policy and Planning, I want to add a Pacific voice not only for the Samoan students but also for the Pacific, Hawaiʻi, local Asians. In fact, the whole Hawaiʻi population needs that sense of place... for learning purposes, they need that sense of place, they need that context, where they're coming from... I was trying to make [world history] relevant [for a Chinese-background student] by asking 'what do you think was going on in China while this was happening in Europe?'... Pacific literature would not be here without looking at World History, because Pacific literature is a response to Euro-American literature and their representations of the Pacific islands... So when you talk about place, whose place do we bring in? And I think for whatever course you are teaching... an interdisciplinary approach is more sensible.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 11 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: Most students are non-literature majors, almost all Samoan, almost all of them are from American Samoa, many speaking English as a second language. I'd like to have better diversity and perhaps next time will do a better job of advertizing the course ...These are students who have not had in-depth experience in literature ... Many of them have never heard of Albert Wendt or read any of his books ... So once they start reading, they begin to see the place—the place that they also belong to ... Most of them are migrants, if you will, many travel back and forth between Hawaii and Samoa. So they have a very good sense of Hawaii. Most are juniors and seniors, finding courses to complete their degrees ... So many come with pre-conceived notions that "just because I'm Samoan," things were going to be easier. But since the books are in English, we have to make sure that we are conversing in English ... writing for them is a struggle, the post 'Nation at Risk.'Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 10 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: [If the course were taught in Samoan] I think I might do a more performance approach, playing on the fact that Samoan students love to perform... For the last thirty years, the law was that English was the language of instruction, with Samoan as the language to clarify, so these students have been fed a diet of English only. Other problems have led students to believe that Samoan is not an academic language, which is not true at all, because we have writers who are writing in Samoan. So the Samoan program at UH has a role to play in shifting that mentality.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 9 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: In his writing, [Albert Wendt] uses Samoan without definitions or explanations, and his thing is, they've been reading English without translations, so we'll do the same: we'll throw in the Samoan language and it is up to the non-native speaker to go find out.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 8 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: It's the human thing, to have that sense of place. That shapes behavior, from the Samoan perspective. That piece of land, in the physical sense, is very important. You can go anywhere, but know that there is that place that you call home. In literary explorations, place is what grounds the characters, or lack thereof affects them in more negative ways. That grounding for me, makes place very very critical in literary discussions.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 7 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: As a writing teacher, I'm very biased toward writing as a measure of performance in learning. Our people often resort to our orality as an excuse for not writing, but I say to them that writing is probably the safest way you can express yourself, because you can rant initially, and then go back and tidy it up. Once it's out of your mouth, you can't get it back.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 6 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: [Students] come to see their role in our humanity, and just understanding more about themselves and things that they did not know to formulate questions for. I can see the hunger in understanding their own place, which is often not included in the curriculum or in the different disciplines that they learn in while in Samoa. That's because of the kinds of policies they have in place in Samoa, which is still very de-contextualized: it's textbooks, it's stories from the mainland; understanding their own place means both place of origin and their place as a student and as a human].Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 5 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: We're looking at a whole range of majors here. We're also looking at students who are not used to expressing themselves. Once we begin to see the Pacific through Albert Wendt's eyes, that prior experience [informs writing]. They bring in their own experience, their understanding of Samoa, to bear on their reading. Their first language is critical. A lot of them are comfortable using both languages. It's not English I'm teaching here, it's literature.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 4 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: I not only deal with the content, why are the characters behaving in this manner, but also... bringing in the historical aspect, and the cultural aspect, and when that happens, then the content makes sense.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 3 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: [Albert Wendt] is quite intertextual in many ways, from bringing in the Bible, and bringing in the myths, and bringing in Shakespeare. In his early writings, he's addressing in the context of colonialism and the representations by outsiders.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 2 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: [I was inspired by] the vision of people like [Albert] Wendt, in giving voice to the islanders, to add their own representations to the mix. Because we grew up learning literature without a great sense of place, in all my writing assignments [students] must have the author in mind: what was happening at that time in Samoa and wherever the book is set? Then I fill in that background, so all my courses are interdisciplinary in nature: geography, history, and that history for me is so critical.Item type: Item , Instructor interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Indo-Pacific Languages, clip 1 of 16(2015) Place-based WAC/WID Hui; Simanu-Klutz, Fata; Henry, Jim; Bost, DawneBrief excerpt from interview: When I hear the word 'place' with reference to teaching, I think of 'situational,' 'contextual,' to think of place that encompasses the whole Pacific. The whole ocean becomes that context, invoking a Pacific voice.