revised
for Spring 2012
wip
My Very Dear Friends,
This
guide is designed to answer questions you may have about Spanish 204
procedures. Our policies are somewhat different from those used in Spanish 101,
102, 105 and 203. Please read over the following material and familiarize
yourself with the approach used in Spanish 204 before the first day of class.
For more information, visit the course Sakai home page at http://sakai.unc.edu/ If you are not enrolled
in the Spanish 204 site by December 14, contact me: Bill Maisch mailto:maisch@unc.edu
SPRING 2012 IN SPAN 204?
We will be
using our wonderful new textbook, Anda Intermedio (and Letras
literary supplement), for the second semester in the spring and I will be again
counting on the excellent work and support of co-coordinator Hélène de Fays who
will continue to have complete responsibility for the syllabus and all
exams. Alicia Ingram Shade will
continue with her outstanding support in handling pedagogy, including class
video evaluation schedules, and our assignments in MySpanishLab; if you are new
to 204 or MSL, please see Alicia for direction in these areas.
THE BEST PART OF IT BEING OUR SECOND YEAR IN ANDA INTERMEDIO IS THAT WE HAVE MANY EXCELLENT RESOURCES FROM LAST YEAR!!
These
resources are available to you on-line at Sakai’s “Recursos Profesores” site of
which you are a member. Find them in
chapter folders under recursos/resources in the "New Rescourses Anda." Please plan to upload your own
contributions to this site throughout the spring so that we can continue to
have more and better resources available to those who teach the course in the
future.
UPDATE: I hope we can continue our tradition of
showing a required movie for all Spanish 204 students in early February. This semester we would like to again show
the recent Argentine film Nueve reinas, which was very popular with students
and instructors last spring. Please
contact us if you have suggestions or would like to help. Corina will be in
charge. I would especially be
interested in any suggestions for a film from Spain.
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF TEACHING SPANISH 204 WITH ANDA INTERMEDIO
This will be our second year
with Anda Intermedio, and we are excited about this opportunity to do it
better having learned so much more about the text last year than we knew when we
started. Our students gave very high
marks to MySpanishLab (MSL) on our mid-semester evaluations and reported very
few technological problems. Much of the
credit for this goes to Alicia who gave a lot of thought to the
assignments. She is again preparing
those assignments with some revisions as per instructor suggestions for the
spring. Those who have not used MSL are in for a very pleasant surprise. Alicia has prepared all of the suggested
homework assignments in MSL in two templates, one for MWF classes and another
for classes meeting on T/R. Your
section will be created from the appropriate template, and comes pre-loaded
with Alicia's suggested assignments. I strongly encourage you to use these
suggested assignments, which will mean that the work of assigning was already
done for you when your section was created.
SPANISH 204
REQUIRED Voicethread DISCUSSION FORUMS: Spring 2012 - second semester with
voicethread
All sections used
Voicethread in fall to do their discussion forums. Most found Voicethread easier to use than discussion forums
available to us on MSL, Bb and Sakai.
This semester we will continue to require weekly student contributions
in Spanish to Voicethread. An account
is available to you and to each of your students at http://voicethread.unc.edu Voicethread is extremely intuitive and easy
to use, students can make written OR spoken comments. I think that both you and your students will find it an excellent
and compelling alternative to the traditional discussion boards. We will demonstrate how to get started with
Voicethread at our opening meeting. I
expect that most of you will probably be able to teach yourselves before then
since it is so very easy to use.
Our exciting
new project "Sevilla Correspondents" continues in four sections.
Hélène, who taught one section in the fall with a correspondent, is coordinating three correspondents, in three different sections of 204 this semester. In addition to one of her own 204 classes, there will be correspondents working in the spring with Luis Marcelino and Alicia. We have great hopes of expanding even further in the fall 2012 and being able to offer correspondents to all 204 instructors who would like to work with the project.
How to plan classes
Class time is primarily for speaking and listening practice. Students should be speaking as much as they are listening. They should be listening to each other as much as they are listening to you. Each student should be speaking in multi-sentence utterances every day in class, not just during group work and formal presentations, but also spontaneously as an individual to the whole group. It is essential from the very first day of class (when you may have students introduce themselves and each other to the class) that you establish that Spanish 204 is a class where students do most of the talking and your role is that of facilitator. While it is desirable to review some of the text exercises on structural points, the students get on-line feedback on their MSL computer-graded homework activities, and it is not appropriate to go over these activities in class.
What to assign for homework & how to grade it (please read with great care)
Your section in MSL comes preloaded with our recommended homework assignments for your students. Alicia has picked the very best activities for each lesson, and I have checked over them. We also tried to be very careful not to give you too much work that has to be instructor graded as many of us are teaching more than ever this semester. You may modify these assignments, but should remember that it is required in SPAN 204 that students do some open-ended (and unfortunately instructor graded) writing in each chapter. If you wish, you may modify the homework assignments in your own section of MSL and also assign graded homeworks outside of MSL, but you may not give students a homework grade in 204 that is based wholly on computer gradable exercises. Unless you have students that are better than any I have ever seen, your grading of the required open-ended writing homeworks will probably mean that no student gets a final homework grade of 100%!
Compositions and class presentations
Students will do both compositions out of class. Their course contract suggests that the first will be library or Internet research and the second independent research. You should tell your students that composition topics are their choice but should concern Hispanic culture as studied in the text, and their 5 minute+/- class presentation must be on the same topic. Composition due dates have been planned to give you enough time to return their graded compositions before their presentations. PLEASE BE SURE THAT YOUR STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THE INFORMAITON ON HONOR VIOLATIONS AND COMPOSITIONS THAT CAN BE FOUND ON THEIR ON-LINE COURSE CONTRACT
On their final evaluations, students in most sections have consistently reported that class presentations were among the course's highlights. There are still six dedicated days on the (MWF) syllabus for class presentations allowing for two five-seven minute presentations for each student during the semester. Be sure to stress the importance of students holding their presentations to the five-seven minute limit.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES AS INSTRUCTOR
Follow the syllabus, course contract, and course policies. Although you have quite a bit of freedom to teach the course from day to day as you see fit, you are expected to closely follow the scope of the syllabus and the spirit of the course policies so that all the Spanish 204 students are treated in a similar manner.
Tend to your voicethread discussion group regularly (at least once every couple of days).
Attend all course meetings (please arrive on time and prepared to contribute). Please note that we have only THREE mid-semester general meetings, and your attendance at those three meetings is essential; write the dates on your agenda now!!!
Please send me your teaching schedule
information for the substitute list as soon as possible (you can do this now by
printing and filling out the blank substitute form available at our Sakai
recursos site -- there's a quick link from the recursos introduction page). You need only tell us when you are teaching
and planning to have your office hours.
N.B. Instructors meet as necessary with your exam committee partners at your mutual convenience (check your assignments below). / Exam 1 report via Sakai announcement email (notify all) by Jan. 12.
1. Monday, Dec. 12 at 11:15 in room DE 101: Semester-start issues; MSL; film; grading compositions,
presentations, exams and assignments and Voicethread.
2. Thursday, Jan. 19 at 4:00 in room TBA: Exam 1
– Martha Ruiz-García (Chair) & Martín Sueldo - written exam comments DUE to committee
before or at the start of the meeting;
3. Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 4:00 in room TBA: Exam 2 – Luis Marcelino Gómez (Chair) & Heather
Knorr - written exam comments DUE
before meeting to committee (Chair) / mid-semester evaluations, Sakai, MSL
& recursos; getting information to your students on fall Spanish course
registration and Honors 255 (Bill); and, exam 2 (Hélène) // Notes to Sakai
recursos.
4. Monday, Apr. 2 at 4:00 in
room TBA: Final Exam Corina Dueñas (Chair),
Sangsuk Kim & Ruy Burgos & other final assignments and procedures
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
AS INSTRUCTOR (continued)
Complete assignments for exams, and turn in grades punctually
Arrange for
your own substitutes except in a dire emergency. I will prepare a substitute schedule updated
on 204_professor_recursos @ Sakai. Please be sure to keep a printed
copy of the schedule at home.
One of the ways that make it
possible to not have many meetings in Spanish 204 is to rely heavily on
email. PLEASE check your e-mail & mailbox every
day before teaching for the day. We will do our best to send
you important memos well in advance, but sometimes this is not possible. We may
need to rely on the email system to get important information to you concerning
teaching activities for that very day.
Carefully proofread and comment exams when you receive the draft; you will generally have
a few days. Exam proofs will be sent to
you via email several days before your comments are due. PLEASE be very careful with exam proofs
(i.e. not to leave them where students might "find" them). You may make your comments due at the exam
meeting either via email or hard copy turned in to the exam committee before
the start of the meeting.
Contact me if you have
questions. Please check with me if you have any questions or doubts about
anything regarding Spanish 204. The best method to contact me is e-mail: mailto:maisch@email.unc.edu
N.B. Graduate Teaching
Fellows: You should know at the start of the semester that as course
coordinator I must keep careful record of how well you meet the “business”
responsibilities above, and at the end of the semester report my confidential
evaluation of you to the Director of the Spanish Language Program who in turn
will use this information in making teaching assignments for upcoming
semesters.
Class visits:
I will be visiting the
classes of all new Teaching Fellows, and asking all “old” GTFs and lecturers to have a class video-taped by flrc -
Alicia will coordinate this for us) OR, if you prefer, you may have your class
visited by a peer. I will also make available the evaluation sheet
that we use; read it and ask questions if there is anything that you do not
understand.
COMMITTEE & OTHER
ASSIGNMENTS FOR SPRING 2012
Please refer to the Exam Guidelines in this guide
before planning and working on a common exam with your committee.
Exam Committees:
Exam 1: Martha Ruiz-García (Chair) & Martín Sueldo (draft due to all
instructors by Jan 16)
Exam 2: Luis Marcelino
Gómez (Chair) & Heather Knorr (draft due to all instructors by Feb 25)
Final Exam: Corina Dueñas
(Chair), Sangsuk Kim & Ruy Burgos (draft due to all instructors by Mar 29)
The Exam
Committee Chair is be responsible for the quality of the content, point count,
final formatting and consistency of the draft and final copy of the exam as well
as the Study Guide to be published at the Course web page.
Film: Hélène with Corina (Consultant)
OPIc/Sevilla for SAO: Bill with Corina/Rebecca G (Consultants), and
"former" TAs and "friends of Sevilla" (Greg S, Anca K,
Rebecca G, ?) - it's a much smaller group of students in spring for pre-program
exams for Sevilla Fall
SPAN 204 APPLES: Jen Wooten (Jen's teaching a totally different Service-Learning
version of 204, including different syllabus and exams, and is not available to
work on exams, meetings, and should be the last person you ask to substitute)
Co-Coordinator for
Syllabus and Exam: Hélène de
Fays
Co-Coordinator for MSL
and Pedagogy: Alicia Ingram
Shade
Seville Correspondents: Hélène, Coordinator; Alicia; and, Luis Marcelino
Final exam make-up
proctor: Bill
n.b. All SPAN 204
instructors, lecturers and GTFs: if
your assignment is not already listed above, please contact Bill as soon as
possible.
Spanish 204 at UNC
THE NATURE OF THE COURSE
The following is the revised course description of Spanish 204
Spanish 204 is a
fourth-semester (intermediate) Spanish language course designed to foster both
linguistic and cultural competency. The course approach is both
student-centered and content-based, incorporating development of basic language
skills for communication and the study of linguistic structures into the frame
of a course designed to develop student awareness of the Hispanic World.
Speaking
Spanish 204 classes are planned to allow ample opportunities for students to continue developing their speaking skill. Speaking activities are communicative as well as cooperative (pair and group work), and emphasize learning in context. They also foster critical thinking skills and the development of some basic speaking strategies such as circumlocution and rehearsed speech. By the end of the course students should be able to ask and answer questions in present, past, and future; state the main ideas and issues related to the Hispanic World studied in class, express and support opinions (from others and from themselves) expressed in or inferred from the material studied in class. In class, individual students should be speaking to the whole group in two and three sentence utterances daily.
Reading
The reading skill is
developed in Spanish 204 primarily through text readings that deal with
Hispanic culture including: profiles of Hispanics, Hispanic history, and
authentic literary and journalistic selections deemed appropriate for learners
of a second language. The course also increases student awareness of basic
reading strategies such as skimming for the gist and guessing meaning in
context. By the end of the course, students will be able to demonstrate that
they understand the main facts and opinions stated in the text materials.
Students will also be able to demonstrate that they can draw inferences from
readings at a similar level of difficulty to those done in the text throughout
the semester.
Writing
Writing is developed in
Spanish 204 primarily by guiding the students through writing as a process.
Students will be able to produce a reasonably grammatical and cohesive five or
six paragraph composition on a topic familiar to them, organizing their
thoughts and expressing them in a reasonably flowing style, using appropriate
conjunctions and other transitional devices. The composition is expected to
have the ideas and evidence clearly and succinctly presented; to have few, if
any, mistakes that obscure comprehension; and, it should read easily.
Students in SPanish 204 are
given additional "non-threatening" practice in writing by being
required to make weekly contributions in Spanish to an electronic class
discussion group for their section.
Listening Comprehension
Spanish 204 course
instructors and the audio-video components of the course text provide students
with multiple levels of authentic comprehensible input. By the end of the
course students will understand almost all, if not every word, of reasonably
authentic Spanish spoken at almost normal speed but slightly monitored (such as
that of TV newscast announcers); they will be able to understand enough to get
the gist of professional standard Spanish spoken at near-normal native pace;
and, they will be able to get the general idea of authentic native speech (such
as friends speaking in the street).
MATERIALS AND RESOURCES FOR INSTRUCTORS
The Foreign Language
Media Resources Center (Dey 104) offers a number of teaching aids for
classroom use: overhead projectors, CD and tape players, slide projectors, TV
monitors/VCRs, etc. In addition, they have audiocassettes, videos, and other
teaching aids.
Films in Spanish are also
available from the Institute for Latin American Studies and the University's
Non-Print Collection (in the House Undergraduate Library).
The Center For Teaching
& Learning provides instructional support material to all instructors
You may also sign up to have
someone from CTL come and videotape your class. If you decide to do this, it is
a good idea to make the appointment early and to check back with CTL a day or
two before the appointed day to make sure that they do in fact have someone
lined up to videotape your class. In
recent years, FLRC in DE has acquired flip-cams and also have assistants
available to video your classes. FLRC
also makes available to you and your students an excellent set of tutorial
tapes to introduce students and instructors to using MSL as well as other IT
requirements of the course. These are
available on line at flrcvideos.
MATERIALS AND RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS
Encourage your students to
use the following resources. If possible, spend a class period in the computer
lab in order to introduce your students to the computer programs available.
The FLRC listening & computer lab in Dey 109 provides stations with PCs, tape players and headsets where students may log on to MSL and listen to the audio and other materials that accompany the textbook. Even though the the audio are included in the MSL for each student and MSL and a personal laptop are required of all students, students may still choose to go to the lab to listen and work on their MSL assignments if they do not have a suitable place to work on their own laptop or are experiencing temporary difficulties with their own laptops. Schedule of listening lab:
8 am - 10 pm Monday -Thursday
8 am - 5 pm Friday
7 pm - 10 pm Sunday
In addition, another
valuable resource is the tutoring sessions that meet in Dey Hall twice a
week. Soon after each semester begins, the student tutoring program puts out a
flyer that announces the days and times for these sessions. When this
information is available, please share it with your students.
Course Organization
Please refer to the syllabus
and course contract on line at your Sakai instructor resources site. Remind
your students that the syllabus is a legal, binding agreement/contract. You
will hold them responsible for following the terms listed. The policy governing
each component of Spanish 204 is spelled out in detail in the pages that
follow.
GRADING COMPOSITIONS
An appropriate grading rubric for Spanish 204 compositions:
Los criterios para evaluar las composiciones
A (+ 100, A 95, -
90) Excelente: el contenido es profundo / creativo, la organización es
lógica e incluye transiciones, la gramática es avanzada y se usa bien
vocabulario (cotidiano y/o académico) avanzado (para el nivel). (¡Felicidades!)
B (+ 88, B 83, -
80) Bueno: el contenido es bastante profundo / creativo, la organización
es lógica, se usa bien la gramática y el vocabulario estudiado en clase bien. (Repasa las correcciones de Profe y no
repitas los errores en la segunda composición.)
C (+ 78, C 73, -
70) Aceptable: el contenido es lo esperado (expected), la organización es más o menos lógica, hay algunos
errores de gramática y el vocabulario de clase es usado más o menos bien. El
lector tiene algunas preguntas sobre el texto (¿Qué? ¿Cómo? ¿Por
qué?) o le cuesta un poco en entender el texto. (Ven a ver a Profe.)
D (+ 68, D 63, -
60) Inaceptable: el contenido es escaso (lacking), hay problemas en la organización, errores frecuentes de
la gramática y problemas de vocabulario estudiado / frecuencia de vocabulario
muy básico. Le cuesta el lector mucho entender el texto.
F (50) Incomprensible por problemas graves
de contenido, organización, gramática y vocabulario. (Ven a ver a Profe inmediatamente)
Abreviaturas sugeridas para la redacción de trabajos escritos:
Ortografía ort
falta el acento o acento mal puesto ac
Puntuación
puntuación
equivocada, necesidad de puntuación P
Gramática
artículo equivocado Art
falta de concordancia (e.g., sustantivo-adjetivo) Con
pronombre equivocado, omitido o No necesario Pron
uso equivocado de ser-estar s/e
forma equivocada del verbo Vf
tiempo verbal equivocado Vt
modo verbal equivocado Vm
se requiere (o no) la "a" personal a-p
orden de palabras equivocado OP
fragmento frag
forma plural incorrecta pl
preposición equivocada, omitida o no necesaria prep
uso
equivocado de por-para p/p
Dicción/estilística
palabra o construcción inglesa ing
palabra
no apropriada o equivocada voc
Misceláneo
omitir o pensar en omitir x
insertar ^
significado obscuro ?
lógica defectuosa log
¡excelente!
*
Voicethread
Instructors are encouraged to create voicethreads that pose "questions" to which your students may reply orally or in writing. Topics are at the discretion of each instructor, but we recommend Hispanic art, the US as well as issues of historical and political debate, in order to stimulate and guide student input. Yes, you will have to spend time learning to administer voicethread, but I know will be less time with greater reward than what was necessary to do a proper job with our earlier discussion forums.
Quizzes
As you have read on the back of the syllabus, our policy on quizzes gives each instructor a lot of freedom to decide what to quiz, what kinds of quizzes to give and when. There are a few general guidelines that you should keep in mind when you make up your quizzes.
Give quizzes
frequently (I would recommend not fewer than 6 during the semester, but many may wish
to give shorter quizzes far more frequently). Instructors
who are new to Spanish 204: I would like to see a copy of the first couple of
quizzes that you are planning to give well before you need to have them run.
Make the quizzes no longer
than 15 minutes.
If you are not quizzing on line, consider having your students use their own paper and using transparencies or putting the information they need for the quiz on the board.
Vary the type of material
tested.
Many instructors like to
drop the lowest quiz grade. I usually do this in my own class. I do not,
however, feel that it is appropriate to drop more than one quiz, nor is it appropriate to have fewer than six quiz grades for
each student by the end of the semester.
Please remember to share your quizzes with other instructors by uploading them
to the 204 Recursos Instructores
There will be two hour exams
(aka midterm exams, exámenes parciales) and a final exam // all instructors of
SPAN 204 that do not have coordinating responsibilities or another major responsibility
listed above will work with a committee with one or two others on one of the
exams
Exam guidelines -- A guide to exam preparation in SPAN 204 (the 13 commandments)
All hour exams in Spanish
204 must have a listening comprehension part that will be given the class day
before or the day after the written exam in MWF classes,
1. Be sure exam has a single, strong, logical, and interesting overall
context.
2. PLEASE avoid as much as possible fill-in-the-blank and matching vocabulary
and structure (grammar) exercises. Remember that real language is always
used in meaningful contexts. In intermediate language courses students
should be asked to deal only with real and meaningful language. When
there is a focus on structure or vocabulary, try to ALSO synthesize culture and
language so that students are making meaningful utterances of more than just a
word or two. Always head the section of the exam according to the
context NOT the linguistic focus of the section (In other words, head the
section "Día de Acción de Gracias en Nueva York" NOT
"vocabulario" or "gramática" or "pretérito o
imperfecto.")
3. Every part of the exam (including those that focus on names, dates, history,
facts) must also be about language. In other words, please do not
ask students to do exercises that are mere matching or fill-in or
multiple-choice that involve names, dates, years, etc.
4. Including the place for student answers to the
listening comprehension, the HOUR-exams (aka 2 mid-terms, exámenes
parciales) MUST fit on 4 pp so they can be run on two sheets of
paper front and back; finals can be up to 6 pp total to run on three sheets
front and back. We cannot exceed
these limits as doing so would violate Departmental norms for the conservation
of paper.
5. It's good to include graphics that help students instantiate context as long
as they are not too large and do not have large black areas.
6. There must be a running footer on each page that has exam name, course
name and page number, for example examen 2, Español 204, p 1 of 4, 2 of 4, etc.
7. All 204 exams must have a significant essay-writing activity, to be added during exam by each individual instructor.
At least two choices should be given from which students will pick one. The
final exam should have a reading that is appropriately long and difficult. Remember
that students have three hours for a final exam. If class is primarily for
speaking and listening, exams are primarily for reading and writing, and a
problem that I continue to see with some Intermediate final exams is that the
level of work in writing and reading is way below what the students
should be capable of in Intermediate Spanish. I think that this is partly
because we are accustomed to planning hour-exams that students have to take in
50 minutes; we forget that as the final exam is three hours, a story of several
pages (10 pt if necessary, with glossed vocabulary) AT the level of the
reading they do in the text throughout the course would be more appropriate
than the two and three paragraph watered-down readings we have been using on
some final exams.
8. Remember that it is NOT necessary that every set of thematic vocabulary and
point of structure (grammar) in the text be tested on the exam. Not only
is it unnecessary, but it is simply not possible given the constraints of time
and resources. Neither is it
"unfair" to students who may have studied something that is not on
the exam. Life is often about
"studying for something that's not on the exam." ;-)
9. Be sure that spaces are
large enough for student responses. Also remember that students must be
able to take the written part of the exam in a 50 minute class. And I would add that ever year our students
seem to need more time on exams.
10. Be sure that instructions to students are clear; models should be given
for every activity.
11. Put point values for sections and individual questions on the exam.
12. Double check to see that the points add up to 100, 200 for final exams.
13. Don't forget to do a study guide for the course
site. Do it as an html document (web page) and when it's been
double checked for vocabulary and culture against the final version of the exam
and the text, email it to Spanish 204 Webmaster (Bill) to publish.
Participation /
Attendance Grade
The participation /
attendance grade is worth 10% of the final grade. This grade incorporates
attendance and participation. In the past some instructors have been reluctant
to assign anything less than 100% as the class participation grade to the majority
of their students, i.e. those who did not have excessive absences and seemed
cooperative and engaged in class. Please resist this temptation. The following
suggestions may help you to view this part of the overall grade more
objectively.
For participation: give a
10 to the student that volunteered as much as possible without dominating the class; spoke Spanish at every chance; group work excellent. Performance above expected level.
9 to the student that volunteered very frequently; excellent group work; tried his/her best to say it in Spanish; performance at expected level.
8 to the student that volunteered frequently; good group work and in-class use of Spanish. Performance at expected level.
7 to the student that rarely volunteered; spoke only when called on; used English; yawned audibly. Performance slightly below expected level
6 to the student that was present in class but unwilling or unprepared to participate; hardly spoke Spanish; lack of attention.
5 or less to the student that was uncooperative and/or insisted on speaking English.
Remind via email any student
who starts to miss a lot of class of the course policy regarding excessive
absence on the course contract. ONE of the ten percentage points for
participation will be deducted for each excessive (more than 3 in MWF, 2 in TR
classes) unexcused absence. An unexcused absence is one about which the student
either says nothing to you or offers an excuse that you think is not valid.
University policy demands that you excuse athletic teams on the road and
religious observance; common sense demands that you excuse serious illness and
death in the family; as for other excuses they are left to your
discretion. I do not feel that oversleeping and working on papers for other
courses are valid excuses for missing class. If you like, you can ask for my
opinion on whether or not an excuse seems valid.
Policy on excessive lateness to class
Or on-line course contract
has a policy on excessive lateness that states: “Lateness to class: Also note
that if you are late to class three times (twice in TR), it will count as an
unexcused absence (and six times = 2 unexcused absences, etc). If you have
extenuating circumstances that may make you late to class frequently, you need
to inform your instructor as soon as possible.” This has been added for
your convenience if you have a student who is habitually late to class without
a valid excuse. It has been worded so that you do not HAVE to penalize
students who have a valid excuse for lateness such as having a class right
before yours in a far distant location.
More about Homeworks (???)
This semester your MSL section will have one open-ended
writing activity for each text chapter.
If you unassign any of these in your section, be sure that you replace
it with your own open-ended writing, graded homework; at the end of the
semester your grade sheet should not show a lot of 100% homework
averages. In addition to these
required homeworks, each course instructor may make his or her own homework
assignments. I think it is essential to
see a sample of your students' writing as a homework before the first
out-of-class composition in order to clarify your expectations, get a sense of
the class's abilities, and identify any students who may have serious
difficulties with writing. You should announce to your students ahead of time
when a homework will be graded. No number of graded homeworks is specified
on the course contract but I strongly recommend that you have no fewer than
seven during the semester.
Presentation or Informe
On
the days (MWF) dedicated to presentations 5-8 students will each give a
5-minute presentation related to their research paper
"compositions." In order to prepare
the students as to your expectations for the presentation, share with them the
following guidelines. It's a good idea to insist that students meet with you in
the office prior to their presentation so that you can help them avoid
grammatical errors in their text and help guide them toward a presentation that
will be worthwhile for the whole class. These questions can serve as a check
list for students as they prepare their presentations:
1. Topic for discussion
a. Is it a succinct presentation of their composition?
b. Is it relevant, interesting, and/or thought-provoking?
2. Quality of presentation
a. Are you well-informed about your topic?
b. Do you present the materials freely, not relying on copious notes?
c. Can you help classmates who cannot understand or follow discussion?
d. Can you effectively encourage discussion (are you trying a variety of techniques to motivate your classmates to participate?)
3. Use of the language
a. Is your Spanish grammatically correct?
b. Is your Spanish well-pronounced?
c. Are you presenting new
terms and concepts to your classmates before beginning discussion?
NOTE: I had the best presentations ever last
spring semester in my 204 class. I told
students, and I suggest you do the same, that "ANYONE who
"appeared" to be READING his/her presentation or even
"part" of his/her presentation, could NOT expect to make a higher
grade than a D (60%)." I then used
FLRC videos to show them a few from the semester before: some good, some OK,
some outstanding, NONE READ. It
worked! I cannot recommend this too
highly. I have the flrc compete set
from spring to validate my claim. One
student made a C- last semester, he was not well prepared but he stood out in
the middle of the classroom with absolutely nothing in his hands or on the
screen and spoke spontaneously as best he could.
The following is the grading rubric for presentations:
Español 204 - informe n. ________________________________
1) Fluency and pace; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 _______
2) Accuracy and richness
of detail of cultural content; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10_______
3) Comprehensibility; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10_______
4) Grammatical accuracy; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10_______
5) Pronunciation. 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10_______
Total = _______ x 2 = ______% = _____
Section 2: Meeting Course Objectives in Spanish 204
After the fourth semester of Spanish at UNC, students will be able to go far beyond using Spanish in "survival" situations (ordering food, giving directions, etc.). Share these objectives with students as part of the course introduction. They will be able to:
1. state (orally and in writing) the main facts and opinions from an oral or written passage or video selection;
2. draw some inferences from an oral, written, or video selection;
3. state (orally and in writing) facts about any Hispanic country studied (location, capital, government, economic activities, political and social issues, world-renown figures and their noteworthy contributions to society);
4. state cultural similarities and differences among different Hispanic groups, and between the student's cultural background and other cultural practices in the Hispanic world; and,
5. state and support their opinions
about the issues presented in class.
The role of grammar in and out of class
I am still enthusiastic about the concept of a communicative language course, one in which the major responsibility for grammar review lies beyond the classroom. Remember that all First-Year student sections will not have had 203 here and need extra orientation.
Make it very clear to your
students on the first day of class that there are comprehensive grammar
explanations in the textbook and in MSL and that you expect each student to
spend time carefully reading, studying, the explanations and doing the
exercises. It is the responsibility of each student to do the grammar
assignments carefully and to ask questions in class if something is not clear.
PLEASE avoid giving in to your students if they constantly try to get you to give lengthy grammar explanations in class.
Be aware of the fact that
your Spanish 204 section(s) will have students that come from very different
backgrounds. Some come from programs that emphasized grammar and reviewed it
frequently in class. Others may be shaky on very basic grammar points. It is up
to you to be sensitive to the needs of your students. It's very possible that it
will be necessary for you to assign additional grammar exercises. If you
notice, for example, that most of your students constantly misuse personal
pronouns. BE
sure on the first couple of days that ALL your students KNOW about the glossary
AND tutorials AND e-text as well as extra practice, such as the vocabulary
e-flash cards & vocabulary football games, etc, available to them at
MSL!!! My students seldom have their
textbooks open in class, but all are aware of all the helpful and wonderful
things available to them both in the text and at MSL and the e-text. If you do not make sure that your students
are aware of these resources and remind them frequently throughout the
semester, they are likely to complain on their course evaluations that they
paid for something they did not use.
The four basic skills and class time
Reading and writing
Reading and writing are major components in Spanish 204. We ask that the students read a lot of material on their own outside of class so that they are then able to work with the reading in class with their peers.
At the beginning of the semester you will want to introduce reading strategies to your students. Stress the importance of pre-reading activities. Before they dive into the actual text, they should stop to do things such as look at the title, look at the pictures/drawings, and read information about the author, if it is provided. They can also skim the text looking for key words and ideas. These are all tools that will help students gain confidence and understand the reading.
English
speakers face many challenges when they sit down to write a composition in
Spanish. The following is a useful tool that may avoid some of the most common
mistakes that we see. Please feel free to share it with your students:
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TROUBLE SHOOTING (suggestions)
Prepositions with Verbs
Remember:
The use of prepositions differs considerably in Spanish and English. Some verbs
that do take prepositions in English do not in Spanish, e.g., mirar (to
look at) pedir (to ask for). Conversely, certain verbs
that do not require prepositions in English do in Spanish: asistir a (to
attend), entrar en (to enter).
Articles
1. Subjects in Spanish almost always take a definite article, especially to begin a sentence.
2. otro = other, another; thus, the indefinite article (un/una) never precedes otro;
3.
Many words of Greek origin ending in -ma, -pa, and -ta are
masculine despite the final a. Common examples: el problema, el clima,
el mapa, el poema, el poeta, el programa, el sistema,
el telegrama, and el tema. Other very common words with
irregularities in gender are el día and la mano.
False Cognates
False cognates such as realizar, embarazada, sensible, asistir, éxito, actualmente and aplicación have to be memorized.
A Personal
Whenever
the direct object is a person, a thing, or a place you wish to personify, it
must be preceded by the a personal. Exceptions: after the verb tener:
"Tengo dos hermanos" and when the person is hypothetical: "Busco
un estudiante que lo sepa todo."
Speaking
Most Spanish 204 students have the ability and the confidence to participate in classroom discussions. Your job as an instructor is to serve as the moderator. Your functions as a moderator will vary depending on the personalities of your students. Tailor it to fit the situation you find. You may have a student who is shy and needs encouragement to participate and another student that has a difficult time explaining his/her opinion so that other students understand and yet another student who wants to talk all the time. The whole group may have a tendency to wander away from the topic. You are there to facilitate the discussion by doing your best to make sure that every student has and takes advantage of the opportunity to participate.
Although we do not have a
pronunciation testing instrument in Spanish 204, pronunciation is still
important. Remember that some of your students are considering majoring or
minoring in Spanish. Do not hesitate to correct their pronunciation. You don't
necessarily have to correct every singe pronunciation error that you hear. If
one student has trouble with several sounds, bring them to the student's
attention one at a time so that he/she does not feel persecuted. Stress to your
students on the first day in a friendly way that you consider correct
pronunciation a very important part of class participation. Reassure them that
you are there to help them with pronunciation and that no offense should be
taken if you correct them in class.
Please note that it is always better to correct a student's
pronunciation during your circulation when they are working in small groups or
pairs.
Listening comprehension
In the classroom, students are constantly sharpening their listening comprehension skills with various levels of culturally authentic comprehensible input. Because we conduct our classes in Spanish, they must focus on what they hear in order to participate and learn. In addition to classroom time.
There are several things that instructors can do to assist their students in this process. You can usually gauge the need to repeat or rephrase a statement by the look on the students' faces. If the majority look confused, explain yourself again, using slightly different words.
If you are giving directions for small group work, consider modeling with one student what it is you expect them to do. This will give the students the time they need to process all of the information they have received.
Remember that it is important for students to learn to accept various levels of authentic input. You, as instructor, must not let students demand that you consistently speak so slowly and deliberately that they can always understand all, or even most, of what you say. If you do not regularly speak at near normal pace and to expose them to other culturally authentic input, you will find that your students will inevitably complain that they cannot "understand a single word of" authentic input.