Faculty: Robert M. Shannon, Ph D., rshannon@sju.edu

Subject/Discipline: Spanish
School: St. Joseph's University
Project Area:

Fall 1997

Office: Bellarmine 310
Phone: 610-660-1858
Fax: 610-660-2160
Email: rshannon

Office Hours: 
Monday 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Tuesday 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
Thursday 1:00 PM - 1:30 PM
and by appointment

OBJECTIVES OF COURSE

The Statement of Mission and Goals of this University indicates, "The students and faculty of Saint Joseph's ... share a common zeal for learning, for wisdom, for justice, for service, or witnessing and sharing the wonders of God...Saint Joseph's University intends to provide a forum for questions concerning the totla natural and social environment.  Saint Joseph's will encourage innovative educational program aimed at imporving the quality of life both in the local and global community...Saint Joseph's recognizes that the basic contribution to the solution to the many critical problems confronting society today lies in the development of actively concerned individuals who are intellectually and spiritually prepared to deal with these problems effectively."

This course is designed to fulfill the cited Statement of Mission and Goals by giving students practice in spoken and written Spanish and bringing the experience of volunteer service in the Hispanic community of the Delaware Valley into the classroom.  Class discussion, written work and examinations will be totally in Spanish.

GOALS OF COURSE

Beginning early in the semester stdents will wotk as volunteers at one of the sites in the Hispanic community of the Delaware Valley tht has been identified for the course and selected by the student.  The intention is that the students' work experience at the site willbe a catalyst for many classroom discussions and written assignments.  Students will volunteer three hours per week at this site.  A supervisor at each site will provide the professor with an evaluation of the student's performance at the end of the semester.

TEXTS AND SUPPLIES

George D. Greenia.  Generaciones: Composicion y Conversacion en espanol.  Forth Worth: Holt, Reinhart, Winston, 1997.  [includes text and workbook]

SCHEDULE OF CLASSROOM ASSIGNMENTS

We will use the text, Generaciones, in the classroom and complete one chapter per month, allowing ample time for review at the end of the semester.
 
 

 

septiembre 2	Introduccion
septiembre 4-29	Capitulo 1 Generaciones
octubre 2-30	Capitulo 2 Experiencia de la ninez
noviembre 3-24	Capitulo 3 Los animales
diciembre 1-11	repaso general

SCHEDULE OF COMPUTER LABORATORY ASSIGNMENTS

Beginning Tuesday, September 9 until Tuesday, December 9, we will meet every week in the computer laboratory, Bellarmine 101.  We will learn to compose in Spanish using one of the word processing software found in Apendice 3 of Generaciones, pp. 202-216.

The purpose of the weekly meeting in the computer laboratory is to develop students' composition skills under the supervision of the instructor who will answer questions regarding vocabulary, grammar, syntaz, etc.

DIARY

Students will keep a Diary in Spanish.  The principal aim of the Diary is to give students the opportunity to reflect on the service learning experience.  The Diary will be collected for evaluation at the end of the each month, i.e. Tuesday, September 30, Thursday, October 30 and Tuesday, November 25.

WORKBOOK

The Workbook, Generaciones: Manual de ejercicios, will be collected for evaluation at the end of each month, i.e., Tuesday, September 30, Thursday, October 30 and Tuesday, November 25.

PAPER

Students will refine and expand, to a minimum of thre type written pages, one of the writing assignments completed in the computer labortary.  The paper is due on Monday, December 1.

FINAL GRADE

The final grade will be calculated on the following percentages:

classroom & computer lab participation            20%
written midterm examination                             10%
service evaluation                                              20%
3 page paper                                                      10%
written final examination                                   20%
Diary                                                                 10%
Workbook                                                         10%

The University's numerical grade equivalents are:

100-94 = A
93-90 = A-
89-87 = B+
86-84 = B
83-80 = B-
79-77 = C+
76-74 = C
73-70 = C-
69-66 = D+
65-60 = D
below 60 = F

ATTENDANCE

Attendance will be taken at every class and will be strongly related to the final evaluation of students' classroom participation.  No absence is excused, but if you know in advance that you will absent, please notify me.  Absence from five classes will result in the grade of FA.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

The Policy on Academic Honesty (pp. 50-52 of the 1997-1998 University catalog) will be strictly enforced.  Any breach of the Policy will result in the grade of F for the course.