Requisitos

Participation, attendance and preparation (10%) You are expected to come prepared (i.e. have studied --not just read-- the assignment) for every class and participate (that is: answer questions, take part in activities, and speak Spanish at all times).  A general rule-of-thumb for any course: prepare for a minimum of 2 hours for each hour in class. If you have questions that are not answered in class, please see me during office hours or make an appointment.  The syllabus indicates the assignments due each class day. In general you should combine study with oral and written practice (read examples out loud, write out verb paradigms, make up and use flash cards to learn new vocabulary words, etc.). This approach will allow you to participate in classroom activities, and to learn more effectively. At times, the concepts we deal with will be complex. Don’t panic if at first you don’t understand. If after studying and working with the concept you don’t quite get it, please ask me for additional help.  

***You are allowed no unexcused absences. If you have a medical emergency, please bring in a written note from your doctor. Please note that in accordance with the catalogue (p. 80), an instructor may deny a student credit in a course due to excessive absences. The Spanish Section defines “excessive” as 25% of the course. What this means is: any student who misses 7 or more classes for any reason will receive an automatic F in the course.

Written assignments (10%) You will prepare short written assignments related to class activities and the texts such as exercises from the Cuaderno de trabajo, movie reviews and summaries of readings. Although the syllabus indicates the major assignments due on specific days, I reserve the right to assign additional brief tasks to be completed outside of class.  

***As part of the “tareas escritas”, you are required to attend two (2) local, national, or international cultural events dealing with the Hispanic world either on or off campus. You will prepare two written “informes” (reports) on these events that should be 1-2 pages (100-150 words) in length, properly typed and printed. If you attend an event off campus, please provide a brochure (or a ticket) of the event with your report.   The first “informe” needs to be handed in during the Oral Midterm and the second one is due during the oral final.

Oral assignments (20 %) You will be asked to prepare oral recorded assignments as well as other oral activities such as pair work, presentations, or debates. For oral activities, feel free to bring in graphics and other materials to help you spark interest and get your points across.

***Here is the Rúbrica para la Calificación de las tareas orales I will use for grading. Click here for the specific assignments

Oral exams (10%) There will be two oral exams each worth 5% of the final grade. Your speaking ability is also evaluated through daily participation in class and during the oral exam. The exams will take place in my office (plan on making appointments with me for this purpose). The grade on the final exam will take into account improvement as well as the ability to perform the language tasks practiced in class and through homework. The final oral exam will take place during the final week of classes by appointment. *** During the first two weeks of classes, you will meet individually with me for an oral diagnostic exam so that I may give you suggestions on specific areas you need to work on during the term.  Since the results of this exam will constitute a baseline for the evaluation of your speaking ability, please be sure to keep the appointment you make.  

Written exams (20%). There will be two exams each worth 10% of the final grade on vocabulary, grammar, assigned readings and films.   

Compositions (30%) You will write three compositions that will be worth the following percentages of the final grade:  # 1 Descripción (2 pages) 5%, # 2 Narración (3 pages) 10%, #3 Exposición (4-5 pages) 15%. The first two compositions will undergo the following process: on the first due date you will bring in your completed draft and work with a partner to improve the content and organization of the composition; you will then take it home and incorporate your partner’s suggestions; this version will be turned in to me and will be worth 60% of the grade for the composition. I will mark grammatical errors according to a correction key and make suggestions for improvement. You must then correct the essay, incorporate my suggestions and turn in a final version that will be worth 40% of the grade for the composition. Please turn in all prior versions of the composition at every step, including the peer edited version with your partner’s suggestions.

Each composition must follow these guidelines:  Style: Times-New Roman;  Font size: 12 and typed Double Space. The compositions will be written outside of class and must be turned in on the due date indicated on the syllabus. Students are advised to turn in an outline (thesis, main points, details and conclusion) and any prior versions along with their compositions.

The compositions will be graded using this Rúbrica para la evaluación de composiciones.

Grade Summary

The following grading scale will be used:   

A = 94-100; A- = 90-93; B+ = 87-89; B = 84-86; B- =80-83; C+ = 77-79; C = 74-76; C- = 70-73; D+ = 67-69; D = 64-66; F = 0-63

Academic Honesty. This class will hold to the policies of academic honesty as explained in the GVSU Catalogue and Student Code. For this class, you are responsible for your own work on assignments and compositions. While you should incorporate suggestions from other students and the professor in your compositions, you should not take your compositions to a native speaker, tutor, or an advanced student for that person to correct and rewrite, unless you have explicitly gotten approval from the professor ahead of time. Also, you must properly cite any outside sources if used in your compositions.  

Important note. At this level, you need to take responsibility for your learning of Spanish. The professor is here to help, but you have to “try out your own wings.” This means that if you don’t understand something, you need to ask for help or more explanation. If there is a word that you do not know, look it up in a good dictionary. If you want to improve your grade on a composition, you need to make substantial changes to your work. Also, you should make an effort to practice Spanish outside of class time. In other words, you need to do more that just “get it done.” If you don’t want to put in the effort to learn Spanish, then this class is not the place for you!