Spanish 250 Syllabus
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
Cuernavaca, México
2007
Texts and materials
Long, Sheri Spaine, et al. Hacia la literatura . John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
NY, 1998.
ISBN 0-471-16173-X.
Fuentes, Carlos. Aura. New York: Continental, 1989. ISBN 968-4111-819.
Esquivel, Laura. Como Agua Para Chocolate. Anchor, 2001. ISBN 1385721234.
Diccionario para la enseñanza de la lengua española. Barcelona:
Bibliograf, 1995. ISBN 84-7153-813X.
Course description:
Spanish 250 provides students with the necessary strategies for reading
original texts in Spanish, as well as opportunities to read, understand, and
analyze short stories, poems, novels, and journalistic texts.
Course objectives:
In Spanish 250, students will learn strategies that will help comprehension of
the texts studied and of written Spanish in general, thus preparing for more
advanced readings in the 400-level courses and above. Students will also broaden
their vocabulary and practice spoken and written Spanish through communicative
activities. The course aims at developing reading comprehension and analysis
in Spanish, while also practicing other linguistic skills.
Attendance and Participation: All students are required to attend all classes and are expected to arrive on time. If an illness or an emergency prevents you from attending class, you are expected to notify the RD as soon as possible. Upon your return to school, you must submit a note from a physician explaining your absence. The Resident Director will notify you if the absence is excused.
- Makeup work will be permitted ONLY when the RD is presented with acceptable documentation and the absence is excused. Students with an unexcused absence will not be allowed to submit makeup work. Class participationpoints cannot be made up for any reason.
- After two hours of unexcused absences in a course, each additional unexcused hour will result in a one-percentage point reduction of your final grade per absence. This means that if you miss one school day and your absence is unexcused, your final grade will be reduced by 2 percentage points. For example, an 80% becomes a 78%.
- Lateness to class counts toward unexcused hours and will be rounded to the next quarter hour. (If you arrive 9 minutes late, you now have 15 minutes unexcused; arrive 17 minutes late, you now have 30 minutes unexcused, etc.). Repeated lateness and absences will require a meeting with the RD, will be reported to The Ohio State University, and may result in your removal from the class.
- Missing or arriving late to required meetings and required school activities will be counted as an absence and will be treated as outlined above.
Academic Misconduct : Academic misconduct is defined as any activity which tends to compromise the academic integrity of the institution, or subvert the educational process. All suspected cases of academic misconduct will be reported to the Committee on Academic Misconduct as required by University rules. Such instances include, but are not limited to: plagiarism (representing as one's own work anything done by another), cheating on assignments or examinations, collusion, falsification of excuses, submitting work from a previous quarter without explicit permission of the current instructor, violation of course rules contained in the syllabus or provided in class.
For example for a written or oral report you should use the vocabulary, grammar structures, and strategies you've learned. Paraphrase your information and DO NOT "cut and paste" whole paragraphs from the web. Work submitted must be in your own words. "Borrowing" materials without citing sources is plagiarism.
All cases of copying, cheating, plagiarism, fraud, deceit, and other unacceptable academic conduct will be reported to the Resident Director and subsequently to the Office of Academic Misconduct at the Ohio State University in Columbus without exception.
Code of Conduct: Disrespectful or disruptive behavior in this program will not be tolerated and may result in non-completion of the program. Please refer to the OSU Student Affairs "Code of Student Conduct" Web site for rules and procedure.
Course evaluation:
Three exams: 45%
Final project: 20%
Como Agua Para Chocolate: 10%
Activities, homework and participation: 15%
Journal: 10%
Grading Scale |
|
| Letter Grade | Numerical Equivalent |
|---|---|
| A | 93 - 100 |
| A- | 90 - 92 |
| B+ | 88 - 89 |
| B | 83 - 87 |
| B- | 80 - 82 |
| C+ | 78 - 79 |
| C | 73 - 77 |
| C- | 70 - 72 |
| D+ | 68 - 69 |
| D | 65 - 67 |
| E | 0 - 64.9 |
Class activities and participation: Classes will focus on comprehension, analysis, and discussion of the assigned texts, through activities that require active participation from students. Students must be in class in order to obtain participation credit. Class activities cannot be made up. Teachers will hand in weekly reports to the RD summarizing each student’s attendance, participation, and academic progress. It is expected that all students will arrive to class on time and will participate fully in all class activities. In addition to regular classroom hours, students are required to fulfill six activity hours per week in order to receive the maximum participation component of their grade. At least two participation hours should be spent with your intercambio conversation partner, 1 hour in the Mexican History class, and the remaining 3 hours should be spent attending scheduled activities at the school. Students participating in the Vamos program will volunteer a minimum of four hours per week, which will count for your six-hour requirement. You will sign up for weekly activities on Monday mornings.
Homework: Students must complete their assigned homework before class. The instructor may go over homework in class, or s/he may collect homework for grading.
"Como Agua Para Chocolate": To further develop reading skills, students will complete the first third of this book and complete activities that will be reviewed and graded by the instructor.
Exams : The exams will evaluate comprehension and analysis of assigned readings, as well as of new readings.
Final project: Students will choose one of the following categories for their final project: El medio ambiente (based on "Origen del río Amazonas", pp. 216-222), or Los derechos humanos (based on "Afiche conmemorativo de la comisión interamericanda de derechos humanos", pp. 160-163). Students will find a minimum of two new readings (newspaper or magazine articles, short stories, etc) related to the theme chosen and will present the following work written in Spanish.
First part:
A summary of the readings (200 - 250 words per reading). Please note:
- Do not copy directly from the sources. The information must be paraphrased in the student's own words.
- The summary must include: the author's point of view, the text's message, the narrative voice, and other relevant information..
- All sources must be cited (for citation formats, please consult with the RD).
- The RD must approve the plan for the project by the end of the first week.
- The first part of the project (the summary) will be turned in during the
second week and is worth 40% of the project.
Second part:
- A 500-word paper about the theme chosen, with an analysis and interpretation of the texts, including comparison and contrast of the texts (40% value).
- A 250-word reaction paper mentioning the strategies used to comprehend the texts, the difficulties that were encountered and how they were solved, and the student's opinion of the texts (20% value).
- The second part of the project will be turned in at the end of the course.
The project will be evaluated based on its content and the correct use of language.
All your work should be included in your Cuernavaca program portfolio.
Calendario
Unidad Uno, La experiencia hispana en EEUU, p. 2
- "Y/O: Yo", de Gustavo Pérez Firmat, pp. 5-8.
- "Cuando era puertorriqueña", pp. 17-25.
- Unidad Dos, Temas gastronómicos, p. 56.
- "Como agua para chocolate", de Laura Esquivel (primera parte), pp. 57-62.
- "Como agua para chocolate", de Laura Esquivel (segunda parte), pp. 63-68.
*** Aura , Capítulos 1 y 2 (pp. 11-29); escribir resumen para discutir en clase.
Exam 1 : "Y/O: Yo", "Cuando era puertorriqueña", "Como agua para chocolate", Aura
Unidad Tres, Donde vivimos, p. 108.
- "La segunda carta de relación", de Hernán Cortés, pp. 109-115.
- "La aurora", de García Lorca, pp. 116-123.
- "Nota biográfica", de Gloria Fuertes, pp. 124-129.
- "Origen del río Amazonas", pp. 216-221.
*** Aura , Capítulos 3 y 4 (pp. 30-50); escribir resumen para discutir en clase - SLRPE PRACTICE.
Exam 2 : "La segunda carta de relación", "La aurora", "Nota biográfica", "Cuando me gustaba el fútbol", "Origen del río Amazonas", Aura.
Unidad Cuatro, Relaciones humanas, p. 148.
- "Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así me nació la conciencia", de Rigoberta Menchú, pp. 149-154.
- Men with guns, movie and activities.
- "Fallo positivo", pp. 177-182.
- "La cruzada de Mecano contra el SIDA", pp. 183-184.
- "Afiche conmemorativo…", pp. 161-163.
*** Aura , Capítulos 5 (pp. 51-62); escribir resumen para discutir en clase.
Exam 3 : "Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así me nació la conciencia", Men with guns, "Fallo positivo", "La cruzada de Mecano contra el SIDA", "Afiche conmemorativo…", Aura.
