Green River Community College Spring 2009 Span 103 (5 days a week)
Profesora: Marisela Fleites-Lear, PhD.
Office: HS, office 49 Phone: extension 4409 email:
Office hours: Mondays- Thursdays from 12:00 to 12:50 pm plus appointments.
Website: http://www.instruction.greenriver.edu/spanish/index.htm
Course description:
l SPAN 103 (5 credits)
l The first year of the beginning Spanish language sequence consists of 101, 102, and 103. SPAN-103 is the third quarter of the sequence. The basic tenants of communications including reading, writing, speaking, and listening are developed in a dynamic second language acquisition environment enhanced by technology. Grammar is used as a communication tool to express meaning as students take part in small group discussions, cultural investigation, and presentation. Authentic materials will be focused on in the class as well as assessment. Students should expect to be immersed in the language. English will be used at a minimum.
l Prerequisite (s): Spanish 102 or two years of high school Spanish with a “B” or higher. Satisfies a humanities/fine arts/English requirement for AA degree.
· Overview:
Welcome! We are about to continue a great adventure together: learning another language is one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences we can have, one that will benefit our awareness of others, that will enrich our life and that will provide us with a very useful skill. Since language does not exist in a vacuum, our adventure will lead us into learning not only vocabulary and grammar, but the multiple cultures in which this language vibrates and exists: Language is a set of human tools (sounds, symbols, words, corporal movements) to communicate meanings, and meanings exist in and for specific socio-cultural contexts. That is why the textbook our department has chosen devotes each chapter to a different Hispanic country, providing us with readings, pictures, website links, and maps. These will not only serve us as a guide in this immersion in the Hispanic world, but also will help us understanding the amazing diversity found in these countries and the rich history that leads to that diversity. The textbook and workbook also include a very useful set of CDs in which native speakers allow us to listen and get used to the different accents and idiomatic expressions common in these countries.
In Spanish 103 we will learn vocabulary related to sports, people’s personalities, situations of emergency, safety issues and accident prevention as well as the grammatical structures to narrate past experiences, to talk about what you will and would do, to give advice and instructions, to express fear, joy, sadness, pity, surprise and joy, amongst other things. We will study these subjects while we learn about Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Perú, Panamá and Cuba. One essential element of these diverse cultures is their different music styles. Music plays an important role in the Hispanic world and is an important tool of communication and human expression. Hence, each class will start by listening to music from the country we are studying, and talking about their instruments and popular music styles.
When appropriate, we will watch short videos that will provide visual images for our journey through these countries. We will also search the web to read from newspapers of these countries. Our textbook is enhanced with a section called “Viajemos por el ciberespacio a…” (Let’s travel in cyberspace to…) which provides internet sites that have been developed and are maintained in these countries. In the calendar of our course and in our website, I include other links that provide not only grammar and vocabulary exercises, but also cultural information. Finally, I will place on reserve in the library several films for you to watch. You can earn extra-credit by watching these films and writing short paragraphs in Spanish about them (up to 50 points).
· My Spanish Lab:
New to this quarter is the availability of My Spanish Lab as a web based tool to help you practice the complex grammatical structures we will study in this quarter.
Instructions to log onto My Spanish Lab:
1. Go to www.firstdaysofclass.com
2. Click "technology getting started"
3. Under "Humanities and Social Sciences" click the "World Languages" link 4. Click MySpanishLab 5. Under "first day of class handout" click the "How to register" word document
Students will be logging into MySpanishLab at www.myspanishlab.com
· Campus Wide Learning Outcomes:
GRCC has identified four college-wide learning outcomes that form the foundation of our educational emphasis. They are:
1) Written Communication (COM).
2) Critical Thinking (CRT).
3) Responsibility (RSP).
4) Quantitative and symbolic reasoning (QSR)
Our course will address most of these campus wide learning outcomes as specified below in parenthesis in our course learning objectives.
· Course Learning Objectives:
Spanish 103 is guided by the following learning objectives:
1- Students will examine cultural perspectives and values in ways that reinforce or challenge their own views within a multicultural world. This will be done not only through readings about the different Hispanic countries, customs, social problems, power structures and relations with the US, but also through discussions of films and special topics in class and in conversations hours (CRT)
2- Students will demonstrate a sense of personal responsibility by following the guidelines stated in this syllabus and being held accountable for this (RSP).
3- Student will understand and apply the basic principles and conventions of effective oral and written communication in Spanish according to the requirements of this introductory level. This will be demonstrated through the different written and oral assignments in the quarter. Instructor will explain in class rubrics for good oral and written communications that students should follow in their activities. Please find those rubrics at the end of this syllabus as well as a handout on Spanish sentence structure (COM).
4- Students will enhance their critical thinking abilities by examining the following elements of thought not only in the reading materials but also in the answers provided by other classmates in class conversations and discussions: points of view, purpose, question at issue, implications and consequences, assumptions, concepts, conclusion and solutions. In our class, we will understand critical thinking as a mode of thinking about any subject, content or problem in which the thinker improves the quality of her/his thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them (CRT).
· Instructional Methods:
In teaching language, a method refers to a systematic set of teaching practices based on a particular theory of language and language learning. We will be using a combination of several methods:
1- The natural approach to language instruction, meaning that the class will be taught all in Spanish and all communication in the classroom (with minor exceptions) will take place in Spanish. This is possible by the use of cognates (words that have the same meaning and sound similar both in English and Spanish) and by your teacher functioning as an actor and using props to convey meaning. Students will find this surprisingly easy, once you get used to it. Students can guess the meanings if they allow themselves to be immersed in the language.
2- The instructor also will use the “Total physical response” method that connects certain physical activities with sentences and expressions. The student needs to be willing to perform certain tasks following commands.
3- The instructor will use also the method of “Teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling”, for which oral and written short stories will be used to enhance students’ comprehension of vocabulary and grammar, using questions to lead students in personalizing the stories.
4- The instructor will use also “Audio-lingualism” by modeling sentences and providing opportunities for practicing patterns.
In summary, the class will not be based on mechanical repetition or drills but on activities to develop communicative proficiency, with special focus on the message contained in sentences and discourse. We will play a lot of games in class such as “charades” (acting out a phrase or words), “Pictionary”, Human Bingo, “Hangman” (los ahorcados), etc. We will create also “real life situations” for which students will produce and act out “skits” to use the vocabulary and the structures learned in class related to the content area studied at the time (you will “go” to the market, to a dorm, to rent a house, to a clothing store, etc.). All of these will require constant interaction among students and with the instructor as well as a thorough preparation for each class.
The success of these methods depends to a great degree on students’ completion of homework, because students are responsible for studying in advance the new grammatical content and vocabulary from the textbook. Class time will be devoted to practicing the material with the methods described above. The instructor will work more as a facilitator to promote students’ participation and interaction. Although Spanish should be used in the classroom, English is permitted before and after class or during office hours, and in class when there is no other way of getting the points across.
· Textbooks & Supplemental materials:
1) Required books: From the Dímelo Tú series:
1.1- Textbook: Rodríguez, F., Samaniego, F., et al. Dímelo tú. Boston: Thomson
Heinle Corporation, 2006. (5th edition: ISBN: 1-4130-0637-X)
1.2- Workbook: Cuaderno de Actividades y Manual de laboratorio. Boston:
Thomson Heinle Corporation, 2006. (5th edition: ISBN: 1-4130-1183-7)
1.3- Audio program: Lab Audio CDs (1-4130-1184-5)
1.4- Workbook/Lab Manual Answer Key with Audio Script. Boston:
Thomson Heinle Corporation, 2006. (5th edition: ISBN: 1-4130-1185-3)
1.5- Textbook website: http://dimelotu.heinle.com
1.6- My Spanish Lab
2- Recommended supplementary materials:
2.1- Larousse Pocket Dictionary Spanish-English
2.2- Spinelli, Emily. English Grammar for Students of Spanish. The Olivia and
Hill Press, 1990.
2.3- Atajo 4.0 CD-ROM: Writing Assistant for Spanish (ISBN: 1-4130-0060-6)
· Technology:
Students will need access to a computer to complete course work. The textbook comes with a series of supplements that require a computer like to use the CD-ROM Atajo as a writing assistant, to access the textbook website for exercises and cultural information, as well as the Spanish department’s website, and the links provided by instructor in the course catalog. All written assignments to turn in should be typed using double space as format (so that instructor can write corrections).
· Assessment:
The instructor will use several assessment tools which will be reflected in the grading policies for the course. Each day in class the instructor will use “embedded assessments”, that is, the instructor will be evaluating each student’s achievement of the course objectives in regular classroom-based activities in which students participate normally. Your participation grade comes not only from your daily attendance and homework completion, but also from your constructive oral participation in class activities and your readiness to work in class. The instructor will evaluate particularly your effort to speak only in Spanish during class. This will allow the instructor to adjust instruction to address in a timely manner any information gaps or communication problems. Other methods include:
1- A comprehensive exam for each chapter: Students must prove they have mastered the vocabulary and grammar included in each chapter. Each exam will include the writing of a small essay using the content studied. It will also include questions related to the information learned about the country studied in the chapter. These exams will be taken in the Testing Center on the assigned days (see calendar).
2- ¡Escríbelo!: For each chapter, students will complete and turn in the final draft of the writing assignment included in the workbook for each chapter (double spaced and typed) or another assigned by the instructor. This will help you review the vocabulary and structures learned for each chapter. Since this is worth 30 points, it should be as complete as possible (At least 15 sentences!)
3- Completion of group skits (obritas): We will form groups that will work preparing skits with “real life situations” to present to the class using the vocabulary of the lesson. Each group will be given time in class to prepare and the instructor will choose what group will present the skit to the class. Each member of the group should contribute as equal partners to the work of the group and should be allocated an equal amount of words and “lines” in the skit production. The instructor will evaluate each member separately, taking into consideration performance and the perceived quality of each member’s contribution to the group.
4- Composición (final essay): The purpose of writing an essay at the end of the quarter is to bring together and apply all the knowledge of Spanish students have acquired in class and to use it to express themselves in Spanish. To make the most of the lessons in the textbook, use only the vocabulary and the grammar learned. For the purpose of maximum practice, if you don't know how to say what you want to say, paraphrase it using the grammatical constructions of the lessons: “If you can't say it in Spanish, don't say it at this time.”
Your knowledge of the structure of English composition will serve you well in your Spanish class. That is, you need to THINK about what you want to say and about how to organize your thoughts logically and clearly. Your composition or essay should include a topic statement, supporting evidence given in logically related sentences with transitions from sentence to sentence, and a closing statement or conclusion (follow the rubric for writing essays included in this syllabus). It should always have a suggestive title (please, be aware that in Spanish the only word that starts with a capital letter in the title is the first word; the rest do not use capital letters). You need to document any sources you use with a “Bibliografía” at the end of your essay. Please, use the MLA format.
The composition should be typed and double-spaced. The letter size to be used is #12 (‘Times New Roman”), normal margins. The length will be a minimum of 30 lines (not sentences, but written full lines, that is, a line with 5 words will not be considered a line). Please, don’t forget to write your name and the time of your class in your essay for proper identification.
Theme: My visit to… You will research a place in a Hispanic country that interests you. You will write an essay as if you had visited this place. You will describe your real or imaginary “experience” there, including information about the history and the culture of this place. At the end it will look like a travel log, that will give the reader meaningful insight into this place.