SPAN 3105W CLA Course Transformation Project

1. SPAN 3105W CLA Course Transformation Project Transforming the curriculum

3. 3105 course transformation • Why was it necessary? • Focus on the analysis of culture, and not a traditional history of civilization • No longer have different sections devoted to Spain or Latin America • More consistency between sections and a better mentoring structure • Eliminate repetition between material taught in 3105 and other upper-level courses • Incorporate new technologies in a pedagogically sound manner • Redesign course in line with the new Student Learning Outcomes

4. Revealing results of survey given to 3105 students • Have learned a lot (Strongly disagree: 4, Disagree: 23, Agree: 40, Strongly agree: 17) • “I thought I would learn more about contemporary culture instead of just history.” • “I hoped to learn more about Spanish-speaking culture. A lot of the material I feel that I have learned in other Spanish courses.” • “I wanted to learn about art and culture. I did not learn it. I learned some history facts that were soon forgotten because there is too much that the teachers are expected to teach!” • “I was hoping for more current/cultural studies. Instead I got outlines of all the political histories of each Latin American country spanning a few hundred years.” • “I hoped to learn about Spain's history and its location in the world today. I hoped to learn not just what happened, but why it happened and why it was important. I feel that I learned a lot of facts, rather than a series of significant events that would shed light on current situations in Spain.”

5. Course objectivesSkills: at the end of this course, students should be able to • Engage with and critically appraise notions of culture in the context of the Hispanic world • Use different technologies to find relevant and appropriate information in the course of their study • Analyze an argument and identify its underlying assumptions • Express abstract ideas, communicate in an academic register, and develop an argument in the target language (both orally and in written form)

6. Course objectivesContent: at the end of this course, students should be able to • Identify and locate geographically all countries where Spanish and Portuguese are spoken • Understand the power dynamics that lead to the construction of the political and cultural entities of the Lusohispanic world • Be familiar with the historical formation of diverse cultures and historical subjects in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking world, including indigenous and African cultures

7. Course format • Course readings and materials are housed online in a moodle course site (we will have workshops, organized by the UTTC (University Technology Training Center) for all instructors who will teach the course the next semester) • Syllabus is divided into seven two-week modules organized by integral topics of Hispanic and Lusophone culture • Instructors choose six of seven modules • Modules include three subtopics that are chronologically, geographically, and modally diverse but united by the issues they bring to light

8. Modules • Mapas del mundo hispánico • Política y legado de los encuentros culturales • Discursos de identidad social • Coerción y subversión • Las naciones modernas • Cultura de élite / cultura popular / cultura de masas • La memoria cultural

9. On-going Challenges • Amount of historical contextualization, and how to present it • How structured do we make the writing component of the course across sections (The course is writing intensive) • Make sure that the technology used in the course works for the various learning styles of different students, as well as for the different levels of comfort with technology that different instructors may have. https://moodle.umn.edu/course/view.php?id=3880