Assignments

Picture of vibrant multicolor woven textiles from a market in Guatemala.

Student Participation

Active participation is an essential part of a language class. Consequently, it is not an optional or graded activity. You are expected to regularly offer to participate without being called on, and you will be called on randomly. You should be prepared to participate in both instances. If you do, you're on the right track.

Students who do not participate in a class meeting, or who spend class on their phones or social media, will be marked as absent for that class. If you're concerned about this, let's talk about how we can cultivate a classroom experience that fosters your participation.

Students are allowed 3 unexcused absences per semester, any absences beyond this will result in a one letter grade reduction in the final grade per absence.

Note that religious, medical, and military absences can be excused, but we need to talk about them when they happen, or ideally before they do, so that we can plan accordingly.

Photo of an art museum exhibit; there are many possible opportunities for participation extra credit.

Participation Extra Credit

If students find that they have missed more class than they would have liked, there are some opportunities to offset up to two absences by attending external events related to the Spanish-speaking world. These are announced throughout the semester.

You can claim your participation extra credit in one of two ways:

1. If the professor was at the event, say hi and send an email within a week of the event to ask for the credit.

2. If the professor was not at the event, send an email within a week of the event to ask for the credit, but in this case, you must describe the event and provide a few sentences about what you learned.

Note that this is the only type of extra credit available for this course.

Weekly Homework

Homework will be graded for completion every week. Please upload your answers into Canvas by the end of the day on Friday. You can upload them as word documents, scans of the book, or whatever format you prefer. Just make sure that I can see that you’ve done them and that they are legible.

While I’ll only mark it every Friday, we will be discussing it as the week advances, so you will get the most out of it if you complete it in advance of the date on which it is assigned. Nevertheless, I know that sometimes things come up, so I've worked in some flexibility for you. For additional accommodations, please reach out.

I will assign the homework in class and via Canvas, and there may be more or less each week depending on how class progresses.

A passing grade on this assignment meets the following objective:

Student demonstrates they have completed the assignment by uploading the week’s work online by Friday. (This gives you some flexibility as to when you complete the work.)

Discussion Boards

In addition to the required introduction forum post, there are six assigned discussion boards over the course of the semester. These are designed to get you writing about a wide range of topics related to the themes and grammar points discussed in class.

Discussion board posts are marked for completion, but we will discuss common grammatical errors in class.

A passing grade on this assignment meets all the following objectives:

Post is written in Spanish
Student submits assignment on Canvas by the due date.
Post includes the grammatical structures as outlined in the assignment.
Post discusses the topic or issue assigned, using appropriate vocabulary and demonstrating a clear opinion about the topic.
Posts are 250-350 words in length.

Personal Glossary

Language can be used to express any idea imaginable. As advanced students in Spanish, you will want to express ideas that you’re not sure how to express with the vocabulary learned in class. During the course of the semester, you should keep a list of terms that you’ve encountered that reflect your interests, your communities, and your values. I will periodically ask you to submit this glossary via Canvas so that I can check your progress. The number of entries it should contain is based on the bundle you’re aiming for.

This glossary can take whatever form you like (ex. Flash cards, Word document, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). Please number your entries.

Each entry must contain all the following elements:

Word in Spanish
Definition in Spanish
Translation into English
One sentence with the word in context

Recorded Interview

Students must conduct one recorded interview over the course of the semester with a fluent speaker of Spanish. These should be less of a “grilling” and more of a dynamic conversation between both participants.

This should NOT be your high school Spanish teacher or another student in this class, but it can be professors or students in other classes. If you don’t know many Spanish speakers reach out to International Student Services, local service organizations like La Conexión or the Sofia Quintero Arts and Cultural Center, attend a Multilingual Social Night, or connect to some online. As Spanish learners it’s important to begin to connect to the local Spanish-speaking community to use the language outside the classroom.

These interviews are not marked for perfection. I’d rather you make mistakes and have an informal organic conversation than script everything and sound like a native speaker. Remember, the goal of this class is to help you to feel more comfortable in natural settings.

A passing grade on these assignments meets all the following objectives:

Interview is conducted in Spanish
Student submits assignment on Canvas by the due date
Conversation flows naturally and is not scripted
Interview is 6-10 minutes in length each

Presentation

Near the middle of the semester, students will present a final presentation on an aspect of Hispanic culture. In advance of this, you will submit a proposal (abstract) and short bibliography for approval, so start thinking now about what you're interested in talking about.

The goal of this presentation is to get you excited about an aspect of Hispanic culture that you can then research and present in a formal/professional way. This is not intended to be a tourism-style presentation, but rather one that focuses more deeply on the history/impact of the aspect in question.

Some topics might include music, authors, linguistic phenomena, holidays, indigenous communities, independence movements, films, etc.

A passing grade on this assignment meets all the following objectives:

Student submits a proposal and short bibliography by the due date listed on the syllabus (bibliography and citations can follow MLA or APA format).
Student presents a 6-8 minute live presentation on their topic of choice in class.
Topic is well-researched and includes several academic sources.
Powerpoint/Prezi/other visual presentation includes a works cited slide.

OPI & WPT

The OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) and WPT (Written Proficiency Test) are designed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages to assess your skill in the target language based on a set scale. We will do one practice test of each during the semester. Aspiring Spanish teachers will eventually need to reach an advanced intermediate level on these tests to become licensed, however for this class you you're just getting familiarized with the test; the professor will also give you qualitative feedback that can help you hone your study skills so that you're better prepared for the official test later on.

A passing grade on this assignment meets all the following objectives:

Student completes exams by the established dates.

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