Author: Carmen Valenzuela

The artifact I am planning to work in is the composition assignment for my Elementary Spanish classes. In my experience and from what I heard from other professors, students trend to use google translator or to copy their writing assignments from somewhere. My solution to this problem is to create an structure that their composition needs to fit in, using certain structures and vocabulary. This way the students have to be original. Something that would help this goal as well student engagement is to make the assignment interactive with the other students.
The objectives for the long composition are:

-To improve grammar and vocabulary skills in Spanish in writing that show a proper use of this elements at a basic level.

-To improve student communication at an oral level.

-To provide repetition about the components of the assignment, fostering retention.

-To reflect on ones writing. Metacognition.

Hello, my name is Carmen Valenzuela. I teach Spanish at the Modern Languages and Literatures Department at Baruch College. The classes I am currently teaching are Elementary Spanish I and II. The format is in person, but I have taught online classes and the classes I will teach next semester may be online.
The goals for the classes are to communicate in Spanish at an elementary level, both in writing and orally. Becoming familiar with Hispanic culture is another important goal.

I would like to work on the frame of the class and policies that can make the class more productive. The sylllabus is an important document that reflects the frame, but there are also interventions one can make that are not written, but work for this purpose