Spanish 101, Fall Semester 2011

6:00-7:50pm, T H, ML 47

Course Number: SPAN 101, Section 3 Instructor: Megan Vasatka Office: AH 218F Office hours: T, H 4:45-5:45pm, or by appointment REQUIRED TEXBOOK and WEBSITE: y y y y

Email: megan.prosen@mnsu.edu Phone: (507) 389-2783

Text: De La Fuente, M., Martn Peris, E., & Sans Baulenas, N. (2012) Gente: Nivel Bsico. Boston: Pearson (3rd edition). MySpanishLab.com. Access to which is contained in the cardboard card that was shrink-wrapped with your book. DO NOT THROW THIS AWAY. Spanish/English Dictionary Notebook

REQUIRED TECHNOLOGY: y y Daily access to e-mail and D2L Headphones or speakers and microphone to accommodate MySpanishLab.com online listening and speaking activities

BIENVENIDOS! Bienvenidos! (welcome) to Spanish 101. Learning another language is a personal mission that requires a great deal of time and effort. Daily study and practice are absolutely necessary to move forward. I hope you are willing to embark in that mission that will hopefully lead you to proficiency in the language and also to a whole new world of opportunities. COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES: 1. The elementary study sequence (SPAN 101, 102 and 201) is designed to help students in the process of achieving proficiency in Spanish. This is an ongoing process that develops over a long period of time; the successful outcome of which is very much dependent on your time and effort both in and out of class. 2. The course fulfills Gen Ed Category 8 requirements (Global Perspectives). 3. The instructors role is to facilitate learning and encourage you to succeed. To fulfill this role and aid in the mastery of the target language, the course will be taught in Spanish. Students who want additional instruction in Spanish or English may work with me during office hours, attend tutoring sessions offered by the department of Modern Languages, hire a tutor through the Learning Center, and/or take advantage of the tutorial and the extra practice activities available on the course's companion website. 4. This course will be taught in room ML 47, the Global Learning Lab, which allows each student access to a university laptop for use during class. When class is in session, the computers must only be used for classroom activities as decided by the instructor. Laptops may not be used for personal email, social networking, or other nonrelated activities during class hours.

COURSE FORMAT Participation and Attendance Due to the communicative nature of this Spanish course, students are expected to be present in class and participate orally and in writing in all classroom activities. Students will be observed and evaluated on an individual basis as well as in pair work and in small group activities. Thus, attendance is critical to your success in this course. Only two unexcused absences are allowed. Each additional absence will lower the students final grade by 1%. If you need to miss a class due to health or athletics, please notify me in advance. You are responsible for any assignments and announcements made during any missed class period. Homework Students are expected to complete assigned activities before class so that they may participate effectively on an individual basis and in group activities. Homework will either be assigned through the textbook, online through MySpanishLab.com, or through related handouts and worksheets. In order to complete homework online, you will need to register for the MySpanishLab.com online component to this course that comes with your textbook purchase. You are responsible to gain access to this graded homework, even if you bought a used book or borrowed one from a friend. YOU WILL NEED YOUR OWN ACCESS CODE AND USERNAME. The online homework will be graded according to the assigned value and criteria. The course assignments are due by 6:00pm on the due date indicated on the MySpanishLab.com calendar. After 6:00pm you will no longer be able to submit the assignments for credit. Take into account that computers can sometimes be unpredictable do not wait until the last minute to complete assignments. Quizzes There will be 6 unannounced vocabulary quizzes (1 per chapter) given at random throughout the course. The first day of the new chapter is a legitimate quiz day. It is important to note that vocabulary and grammar are to be studied on your own time. Class time is for putting into practice what you are learning. Quizzes cannot be made up. If you are absent the day a quiz is given, you will receive a zero. Chapter Tareas The central element of each chapter is the tarea or task. In the tarea, the students will work in groups to use the contents of the chapter to carry out a collaborative task. The groups will then present to the class and participate in class discussions related to the task. The tareas will be graded on the students ability to communicate and complete a task in Spanish and their oral presentation skills. Oral Interview There will be one individual oral interview with me during midterm week. Each student will be required to schedule a five minute time slot outside of class time either in person or on Skype. Further instructions will be given in class. Exams There will be 5 chapter exams (Captulos 1 to 5) at the end of each chapter and a comprehensive final exam (Captulos 1-6) on Tuesday, December 6th from 6:00-8:00pm. There are no makeup exams unless you have an excused absence that can be documented by another professor or coach which should be addressed with the instructor BEFORE the exam. If you miss a class due to illness, you must have a written excuse from a doctor and should email the instructor WITHIN A DAY of the missed exam. All missed exams must be made up within one week of the scheduled date.

GRADING Grade Distribution Participation 10% Homework 15% Quizzes 10% Chapter Tareas 15% Oral Interview 5% Chapter Exams 25% Final Exam 20% Grading Scale 94-100% 90-93% 87-89% 84-86% 80-83% 77-79% A AB+ B BC+ 74-76% 70-73% 67-69% 64-66% 60-63% Below 59% C CD+ D DF

ADDITIONAL COURSE INFORMATION: Spanish Placement Information and Guidelines for Registration: All students registering for this course are required to take a Spanish Placement exam online. Address: http://webcape.byu.edu/ Account/School: Mankato (mnsu) Password: mavericks1 Language: Spanish ID Number: enter your 8-digit Tech ID # *Results from the proficiency exam must be reported by the next class period. Accomodations for students with disabities: Every attempt will be made to accommodate qualified students with disabilities. If you are a student with a documented disability, please let me know as soon as possible to discuss the necessary accommodations and/or contact the Disability Service Office from on-campus at 2825 or 1-800-627-3529. Academic misconduct: Academic misconduct will be prosecuted to the full extent that the university allows. It is the intent of Minnesota State University, Mankato to encourage a sense of integrity on the part of students in fulfilling their academic requirements. To give students a better understanding of behaviors that may constitute academic dishonesty, the following definitions are provided. Plagiarism Submission of an academic assignment as ones own work, which includes critical ideas or written narrative that are taken from another author without the proper citation. This does not apply only to direct quotes, but also to critical ideas that are paraphrased by the student. Plagiarism includes but is not limited to: y submitting the work of others as your own y submitting others work as your own with only minor changes y submitting others work as your own without adequate footnotes, quotations, and other reference forms y multiple submission of the same work, written or oral, for more than one course without both instructors permission, or making minor revisions on work which has received credit and submitting it again as new work. Cheating Use of unauthorized material or assistance to help fulfill academic assignments. This material could include unauthorized copies of test materials, computer or online translators, calculators, crib sheets, help from another student, etc. Collusion Assistance to another student or among students in committing the act of cheating or plagiarism

***IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ***

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE TEXTBOOK AND APPROACH OF THE COURSE Getting the most out of the class If you have taken a language course before, this may be very different from anything you have previously experienced. If you haven't, you may be shocked that the book dives immediately into Spanish from page one. Don't be. This exposure to the language is vital to your acquisition and quite manageable with the help and guidance of your instructor. You should play close attention to me as I help you to understand, but you should also be prepared to form your own hypotheses and even guesses as you work to process the material. One thing about Spanish is that there are many words that look very similar to English and because of this you are not starting at zero. You already have the ability to understand a lot more than you realize perhaps by simply being a native English speaker. In any event, you will be taught strategies to help you do the activities and get the most out of the course. How languages are learned The approach taken by this course is called "task-based". It is predicated on the assumption that we learn a second language by using it to communicate. Most language experts believe that people learn languages best when they are confronted with a genuine need to communicate their thoughts and ideas. Unlike traditional approaches where the grammar is presented and then practiced, in this class, communicative contexts and situations have been created in which the appropriate grammar and vocabulary are provided that enable us to be understood and ultimately accomplish our communicative goals. Therefore, you will be expected, with much guidance from your instructor, to use the language from the outset through group activities and projects designed to be authentic and interesting while having ready access to the tools you'll need to do so successfully. It will be up to you to do the homework and be prepared for each class in order to make accomplishing these tasks possible. Show up, participate and don't sweat the mistakes. You will be asked to take an active part in your learning by engaging and collaborating in these tasks and projects both in and out of the classroom. You should keep in mind while attempting to communicate in Spanish that it's okay to make errors and that the instructor is there not to judge but to guide and facilitate your learning. There are at least two things you should be aware of concerning errors: first, they are part of the process of acquiring a language, and second, they are inevitable. We become increasingly less error prone as we become more proficient in the language, but the vast majority of us will continue to make them. You will be given ample resources to assist you including grammar tutorials, verb charts, and supplemental practice activities and games, and discussion and voice recording activities on line in the course website MySpanishLab. Be sure to take advantage of these. In addition, we offer free tutoring and of course your instructor is available outside of class to assist you. Most importantly, in order to be successful in this course, you must attend class every day, and spend at least an hour of preparation outside of class for every hour in class. The more time you spend preparing, of course, the more successful you will be. Above all, relax and don't stress out about how much you don't understand, pay attention to the clues the instructor and the text are providing you and you will quickly get accustomed to hearing and understanding Spanish. Of course, if you continue to have problems in the class, I urge you to talk to me sooner rather than later. Why do YOU want to learn Spanish? I would also like you to keep in mind your own reasons for learning Spanish. Many of us come into the classroom with very specific needs. Are you a nursing student? studying law enforcement? international business? or just wanting to learn a new language? Personalize your learning experience by concentrating on learning what you will find most useful for your own purposes. This will greatly enhance your motivation and enjoyment of the course. The instructor reserves the right to make changes to this syllabus.