The Contextos project. Spanish 230 and LACS-201 Introduction to Hispanic Culture

Course: Spanish 230 and LACS-201
Faculty: J. Eduardo Jaramillo-Zuluaga, Professor of Spanish
Librarian: Mary Prophet, Deputy Director, Head of Government Documents; Susan Scott, Information Services

Purpose

In applying for a faculty curriculum development grant, I seek support to revise a course (Spanish 230, Introduction to Hispanic Culture) and to develop the English version of it (LACS 201, Introduction to Latin American Culture). I will be teaching both Spanish 230 and LACS 201 in the fall of 2002. These courses are intended for Spanish majors, LACS concentrees, and for International Studies majors. They both fulfill General Education Requirements (L and M respectively). Whereas I have taught Spanish 230 in its current format for the last three semesters, I will be teaching LACS 201 for the first time. Since both courses are introductions to culture, the multimedia format I use to teach them is ideal. Yet, based on the experience I have accumulated in the last three semesters, I can identify some limitations in the format. I believe that a strong information literacy component may help me to overcome these limitations. In the following paragraphs I will describe the format I use, the problems and the solutions I propose, and the activities and timeframe I propose for developing LACS 201.

Description of the course

The course introduces students to various topics of Latin American culture. The topics are listed in a web site called "Contextos" [username = contextos; password = sur]). Each topic constitutes a "contextual unit" and it is structured in four sections we study for a week:

Monday	Gallery	A picture or a collection of pictures that illustrate the topic
Wednesday	Viewpoints	A video-clip in which a Latino informant presents his or her opinion about the topic under discussion
Thursday	Reading	An article, usually an academic article in which the topic is discussed
Friday	Wrap Up	A round table discussion or an essay in which students examine the material presented in the Gallery, the ViewPoints, and the Reading.

The pedagogical assumptions of this course are twofold:

• Every cultural object (a song, a picture, a dish, a profession, a literary text, a gender role) is closely related to other cultural objects which enrich its meaning.
• To analyze a cultural object, it is necessary describe, interpret, and evaluate the object.

Because of these assumptions, the materials presented in a contextual unit are accompanied by a series of questions that facilitate their comprehension.

The course has two other important components:

• Individual presentations. Each week one or two students briefly present to the class a "cultural capsule" (bullfighting, a soccer team, a singer and her sons, etc.). Students select the topic, discuss the presentation with me, and design an activity to for their classmates. Interaction between the student and the class is essential.
• Group projects. In the last two weeks of the semester, students design and present to the class a "contextual unit" which follows the same structure I described before (Gallery, ViewPoints, Reading, Wrap up).

Pedagogic problems and solutions

Based on the experience I have accumulated in the various versions of Spanish 230, I can identify some problems in the contextual units as well as in the individual presentations and the group projects. I plan to alleviate these problems in revising Spanish 230 and in developing the materials for LACS 201.

The Contextual Units. It is essential that I stress the connectedness between Gallery, ViewPoints, and Reading. To do this I plan,

• to add a descriptor to each unit (a unit entitled "The Races in Latin America" will become: "The Races in Latin America: Mestizos, Economic and Social Stratification). The descriptor will provide students with a perspective or sense of purpose in studying the topic.
• to modify the questions that accompany the material. The new questions will not only facilitate the basic comprehension of the material but they will also encourage a critical view of it.
• when necessary, I will change the material (the picture or the reading) so their connection to the descriptor is more evident.

The Individual Presentations ("Cultural Capsules"). On many occasions, students present to the class a cultural experience they had. Unfortunately, in their presentation they do not go beyond the anecdotal level. To encourage them to adopt a more critical perspective, I will ask them,

• to add a descriptor to the title of their presentation
• to complement their presentation with information acquired in other sources and in other formats
• to cite appropriately the information used (MLA format)
• to respect the copyrights of the information used
• to evaluate the relevance and accuracy of the information used
• to show in the presentation why this information is relevant to the topic and its descriptor

Before students present their "Cultural Capsules," I will present to them a model. The librarian will work with stundets on the information literacy components listed above. Together we will design exercises for the studnets to use in evaluating the information they will base their presentation on (for these exercises I rely on "A Student's Guide to Research with the WWW," (a web-based document designed by Craig Branham, 1998. St. Louis University. May 15, 2002 http://www.slu.edu/ departments/english/research /index.html). A peer and I will evaluate the "Cultural Capsules." The criteria for the evaluation will be based on the tasks I have listed above.

The Group Projects. When designing a "Contextual unit," students experience difficulty both identifying the information they need to illustrate their topic and articulating the questions they need to guide their classmates through the "Contextual unit." As a consequence, the connectedness between Gallery, ViewPoints, and Reading, is weaken. To address these issues, I plan to ask students,

• To invert the order of tasks, that is, instead of asking students to provide me first with "Gallery" and then with "ViewPoints" and a "Reading," I will ask them to start with the reading. In the presentation of the project to the class, they will revert to the original order. This will give them a better sense of direction and purpose.
• To review three articles on the topic selected. This will increase students' familiarity on the topic. One of these articles will be part of the "Contextual unit" they present to the class. Article reviews include analysis of intended audience, reliability, authority, point of view and applicability.
• To add a descriptor to the topic.
• To discuss with me the relevance of the questions they will ask to the Latino informant for the "ViewPoints" component of the project. As always, students will receive instructions from Cheryl Johnson (Instructional Technology Analyst of the Department of Modern Languages) about the format of the interview. As in previous occasions, students are also provided with a form the interviewee signs granting permission for publishing the interview on the web.
• In the final day, students will spell out what their goal was and how the different components of the "Contextual unit" accomplished such a goal.

The librarian will work with students as they chose their articles and will develop an evaluation log for use by studnets in preparing article reviews. A peer and I will evaluate the Group Project. We will evaluate the relevance of the descriptor, the use of different formats of information, the citation, the respect to copyrights, the connectedness between the different components of the project

Timeframe

• June 1-28: Collecting interviews from Latino informants in English for LACS-201
• June 29-July 12: Break
• July 15 - August 23: Digitizing material collected for LACS-201 and re-designing web-site of both SPAN-230 and LACS-201
• August 26-30: Course syllabus incorporating Information Literacy activities for both LACS-201 and SPAN-230
• Throughout the academic term the librarian will be working with the students on locating and evaluating information to be included in their "Cultural Capsules" and group projects.
• Through out the academic term and based on students evaluations and feedbacks from "Cultural Capsules," I will continue making minor modifications on the web-site such as revising comprehension and critical questions, and redesigning information literacy exercises.
• After the semester is over and / or at any time, I will make the evaluations available to the Information Literacy committee.

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