The purpose of this project is to develop your interpretive and presentational language skills, which focus on reading, listening, and viewing information in Spanish. You choose to read or view a text in Spanish, which could be 1-2 chapters of a book, a short story, 1-2 episodes of a TV Series/Podcast/, a movie, and/or a documentary in the Spanish language. Then, you develop a presentation about your text and deliver it to your classmates on the discussion board. You describe the text, summarize its main ideas, identify cultural themes, make comparisons, critique the text, and reflect on the project.

You will use the Spanish language skills of giving descriptions, presenting information, using past and present verb tenses, making comparisons, and responding to others. These skills will help you describe your text, the culture(s) you explore, and various cultural products, practices, and perspectives. You’ll also make connections and comparisons using the Spanish language. At the end of your presentation, you’ll reflect on your learning and how you developed your skills throughout the project. 

Project Tasks

1. Read the purpose, description, tasks, learning outcomes, and templates related to the Book/Video Study Project. (Weeks 1-2)

2. Explore topics and choose a video/book for project 1. Read/Watch the book, video, or text. (Weeks 1-2)

3. Review strategies for reading and listening in Spanish. (Weeks 1-2)

4. Complete the readings and videos about using the Spanish Language in your project, including the present, past, and future verbs, making comparisons, giving opinions, and presenting information in Spanish. (Week 2)

5. ✅ Tarea: Design and Rough Draft your project - Share your rough draft for review (Week 2)

6. ✅ Tarea: Submit a final draft of your project (Week 3)

7. ✅ Tarea: Respond to 2 classmates' presentations (Week 3)

8. ✅ Tarea: Reflect on your learning in the reflection journal (Week 3)

9. ✅ Tarea: Add 3 new words to the Wordcloud (Week 3)

Learning Outcome Checklist for this Project

This is the learning checklist you can use to evaluate yourself on this project. If there are parts of the checklist that you would like to change, feel free to modify it and add to it to fit your learning style and language level. 

1. Develop interpretive communication skills to understand, interpret, and analyze what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics

2. Develop presentational communication skills to present information, concepts, and ideas to communicate to listeners, readers, or viewers

3. Acquire information from diverse perspectives through the language and target cultures

4. Compare and contrast target cultures and their own via the target language

5. Compare and contrast the nature of the target language with their own

6. Make connections to other disciplines while using the target language to develop critical thinking

Complete this journal after you finish the major project. Reflect on your language, culture, and identity learning. You can write in Spanish, English, and/or Spanglish. Answer the questions completely with about 1-2 paragraphs (5+ sentences) for each learning competency.

1. Develop interpretive communication skills to understand, interpret, and analyze what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics

   • Compare your skills at reading, listening, and viewing information in Spanish from the beginning of this project to the end of this project. What have been some of your learning moments related to these skills?

   • What strategies and skills have you used for understanding information in Spanish?

2. Develop presentational communication skills to present information, concepts, and ideas

   • Compare your skills at designing presentations from the beginning of this project until the end of it. What have been some of your major learning moments when it comes to designing presentations in Spanish?

   • What words, phrases, and sentences did you use for presenting about your topic? How did you use different verb tenses in Spanish? 

   • What did you learn from viewing your classmates' presentations and leaving them feedback?

2. Acquire information from diverse perspectives through the target language and cultures

   • Compare your understanding of the three P’s, cultural products, practices, and perspectives, from the beginning of this project until the end of it. What have been some of your major learning moments?

   • What products, practices, and perspectives have you learned about from Latinx/o/a and/or Hispanic cultures? 

3. Compare and contrast the target language and culture with your own language and culture.

   • Compare your understanding of culture and language from the beginning of this project until the end of it. What have been some of your major learning moments?

   • What are similarities between your culture and language and the Spanish-speaking cultures and languages you have explored for this project?

   • What are differences between your culture and language and the Spanish-speaking cultures and languages you have explored for this project?

   • What words, phrases, and sentences have you learned for making comparisons in Spanish?

4. Make connections to other disciplines to develop critical thinking 

   • In what ways does your project topic connect to other fields of study? What are ways it relates to majors and careers?

   • How does your project topic relate to your own life? What similarities are there between your project and your own personal life, academics, and career?

5. Grade Yourself and Set Goals

   • At this point, what grade would you give yourself and why?

   • What has gone well in this class so far? What could you keep improving on?

   • Reflect on the goals you set at the beginning of this class. Would you like to change any of them? What new goals would you like to set for yourself?

   • Look ahead at major project 2, do you have any initial questions or topic ideas?