create a blog in Spanish!

Introduction

As you have found out, learning a language is complex and involves learning many concepts and putting them together.  The purpose of this final project is to help you review and use your knowledge of the several aspects of Spanish you have learned during this term

It is widely known that you learn much better when you teach what you need to learn.  Therefore, for your final project you will choose from one of the cultural topics on the next page and create a webpage to teach it to someone else.  Imagine that your audience is people who are taking Spanish for the first time.  For each point you explore, ask yourself, “Is this explained simply enough for them to understand, even if they speak very little Spanish?”

Guidelines

2.      In your blog you will include text entries. Make sure your entries are YOUR OWN ORIGINAL SENTENCES (not copied from any book or website). Unless you are quoting somebody (an author, politician, etc.) the text should come from you, without much use of translators. Remember what we discussed about the dreaded word-by-word translations.

3.      Your blog should make use of texts written by yourself, quotes by famous people concerning your topic/theme, photos describing the places you are talking about, interesting links explained by you in your own words, sample dialogues describing something interesting, and audio –songs from a country or by a specific artist- or videos.  (This means you can record parts of your explanations in your PREZI -that works like Power Point for bloggers- or using YouTube, just like we have done throughout the semester.) The project should consist of several entries (as many as you consider necessary, there is no overdoing it) with a bare minimum of 15.

4.      A rough draft is required by Thursday, 9/11 .  Make sure you comply with this deadline. I will respond with recommendations for improvement, and your final draft will be due Sunday, 9/14. If you do not comply with this deadline you will get an F in your final project. No excuses allowed. No extensions. Contact me early ([email protected] ) with any questions (regarding understanding the assignment or for technical help) to avoid delays.

Topics:

• Any Spanish Speaking country. You can focus on more than one country, if you prefer.
• Famous singers, actors, artists, etc. from Spanish Speaking countries.
• Famous families from Spanish Speaking countries.
• Tourism, hotels and touristic attractions.
• Food.
• Geography.
• Art.
• Any other relevant cultural topics.

Resources:

•       Invitaciones:  (look for the cultural assignments)

•       Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/

•       Tumblr: www.tumblr.com

•       Prezi: http://prezi.com/

•       Youtube: www.youtube.com

Evaluation

I will take the following into consideration when evaluating your project:

• Overall Use of Blog
• Intellectual Engagement with Key Concepts
• Personal Response to Key Concepts
• Engaged Writing
• Overall Quality

Overall Use of Blog

Your blog should have more than 15 blog entries and you should submit five comments to your classmates’ blogs and those comments need to be in Spanish and substantial i.e. they need to be related to the topic your classmate is talking about and constructive. Both the entries in your blog and your comments in other students’ blogs will be taken into account for your project grade. To comment an entry

Intellectual Engagement with Key Concepts

Blog entries demonstrate engagement with important issues raised through readings and/or class activities. In this case, you need to use the concepts we have learned in class (how to describe people and places, nationalities, daily activities, etc.) when writing your entries. Remember that each entry you post in your blog needs to be explained/expanded. You cannot just publish a photo and state that ‘it’s pretty/ es bonita’.  

Personal Response to Key Concepts

Blog entries convey extensive evidence of a personal response to the issues raised in the cultural activities/ notes found in the book or during your research, and demonstrate your growth through reflection on learning, technology and society using Spanish. This also concerns engagement and critical thinking. To demonstrate your engagement, you will also have to comment in at least five (5) of your classmates’ blog entries providing comments that show your engagement with the content they are providing (i.e. ‘Yo creo que España es muy interesante. Yo quiero viajar a Galicia en el futuro.  Yo quiero visitar Madrid y Barcelona también.’)

Engaged Writing

Your blog entries should show your command of Basic Spanish and can have some flair and originality. You will use basic Spanish and construct basic sentences, in order to form a short paragraph ( ). You can use Word or any word processing program to create your paragraphs and then paste them in your blog. Remember that Word has a Spanish tool that allows you to proofread what you write in Spanish. Make sure you do NOT copy and paste from Wikipedia or any Websites. Writing with a proficiency above a Basic Spanish course will immediately be considered academic dishonesty and will disqualify your final project from being graded and will earn you an F. See Kendall College website for more on academic integrity: .

Overall Quality

Your blog should showcase your creativity and what you have learned in the course. Postings should reflect your unique personality through expressive and carefully selected word choices that bring the cultural topic you have chosen to life. Your blog should show a consistent organizational structure that is easy to follow, placing the most recent posts at the top of the page.

due Thursday Septm 11