Weekly Assignments--In addition to the assignments that are specific to your chapters listed at the end of the chapters tabs, every week you will have two assignments to complete. These assignments are not meant to take up too much of your time, rather they are meant to get you to think about Spanish and start using Spanish in a more regular way.
1) Twitter--Each week you will send a tweet with our class' tag #ycsumspa102 in which you talk about a grammar point that was the most confusing or most difficult for you. This tweet can be done in English. Here's an example of what you might tweet:
Hola #ycsumspa102 the toughest topic this week was 6.1.1 saber vs. conocer . I realize that they both mean "to know" but I'm still having trouble using them correctly.
If you do not include our class' tag, we will not be able to find your tweet, so make sure that in the body of the tweet somewhere you include this tag. If you don't already have a Twitter account, you can sign up here: https://twitter.com/ If, for some reason, you feel that you can't use Twitter, please let me know and we will discuss your situation.
2) Voxopop--You've likely been involved in discussion boards before on Blackboard. Well, VoxoPop is an audio discussion board. It allows us to have discussions about topics we are studying in Spanish using a microphone that's connected to a computer. Each week you will look for the current chapter under the "Discussion Zones" heading on the left hand side. You will then see my recording in which I give you a prompt to respond to. Respond to it! Try to reach 45 seconds to 1 minute of continuous speech. Then, once other classmates have given their answers, record another comment on what at least one class member has posted. Although two comments are required for each chapter each week, you can record many more if you wish. Make sure that you state your Spanish name before you make your recording as it is not always clear who has posted, just by looking. In week one, make a comment in the "General Discussion" talk zone. -- In the first week of class I will send an invite for you to join our SPA 102 talk group in Voxopop. Look for my email!!
Project--Storybird--Past Tense--This is a project that focuses on getting you to narrate in the past tense. Sign up at storybird.com and create a book. The service lets you select art illustrations and you put them together in a way that makes sense for your story. Then, you add the text. In this case, you will add text in Spanish using both the preterite and the imperfect past tenses. This book is due at the end of the semester. It must be at least five pages long, but it might be much longer. I have created an example for you (see below). This example is much longer than what you need to create, but it's so much fun, I got carried away. I hope you do too. Once you complete your book, "share" it with me by sending me a link to it through email. Good luck!