318-20200 Intermediate Spanish, Spring 2006

Professor: María DiFrancesco, Ph.D.

Office: Muller 409

Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 11-12:00 pm, or by appointment

Telephone: 274-1412 (Office)

E-mail: mdifrancesco@ithaca.edu

Description: This course is for students who have passed Intermediate Spanish I with a C- or better. As we cover the texts Horizontes, we will review the salient points of Spanish grammar, and you will strive towards intermediate level proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. You will acquire vocabulary that will enable you to manage in various situations, and you will become increasingly familiar with the cultures of the Spanish speaking world. By the end of this course you should be prepared to study Spanish at the advanced level, and be able to get by quite comfortably in a Spanish-speaking setting.

Books: by Graciela Ascarrunz Gilman & K. Josu Bijuesca,

1) Horizontes: Repaso y conversación, (Quinta edición)

2) Horizontes: Cultura y Literatura (Cuarta edición)

3) Horizontes: Manual de Ejercicios y Laboratorio (Cuarta edición)

4) A good Spanish-English dictionary

Assessment Tools:

Exams: 5 (500 puntos)

Essays 3 (300 puntos)

Presentation (100 puntos)

Homework/Workbook: (10*20 = 200 puntos)

Attendance/Class Participation (125 puntos, about 3 points per class)

Requirements and policies, especially with regards to assessment tools:

A. Language to be used: The textbooks for this course will be in Spanish. As such, the language to be used in class discussions, homework, quizzes, presentations, and other writing assignments must be Spanish.

B. Attendance –Class work & Participation: Language is a performance discipline. It can also be lots of fun! You must come to class smiling, prepared, and willing to participate actively! You will take part in oral presentations incorporating the vocabulary and grammar we cover. You must prepare lessons from the texts daily. Each day we meet, you will be assessed on attendance and your ability and willingness to participate (√ + = A, You raise your hand, always volunteer answers in Spanish, work extremely well in groups, show creativity and interest in class lessons, are always polite and collegial with classmates and work seriously; √ = B, You sometimes raise your hand, may volunteer answers in Spanish but sometimes rely on English, work well in groups, are polite and collegial with classmates and generally work seriously; √ - = C, You generally do not raise your hand or volunteer answers in Spanish or English, you can work well in a group, but often not in Spanish and/or are off-task.)

Students are permitted to miss a maximum of 3 class periods (i.e., one full week of class) without penalty. For each absence beyond this number, your final cumulative grade will be reduced by 2% percent per missed class. For example, if you have a final grade of 95, but you have missed a total of 4 classes, 1.9 points will be deducted from 95 because you missed 1 class beyond the allotted number of classes (95*.02=1.9). Your final grade will therefore be 93.1% (A-). After a total of 9 absences, the professor maintains the right to withdraw and/or fail any student.

Requests for excused absences (i.e., due to grave illness, hospitalization, funeral of a family member, etc.) must be made within one week of the absence, no exceptions. Furthermore, written documentation/evidence of extenuating circumstances must be rendered to the professor within one week of the absence (i.e., a medical excuse from a doctor, documentation from a lawyer, police officer, etc.). According to the Undergraduate Catalogue, the student has the right to notify the Office of Student Affairs and Campus Life when he/she cannot attend class due to legal or family/ individual health emergencies.

Finally, tardiness is not acceptable. I define "tardy" as 10 minutes after the beginning of class. Each 3 "lates" counts as 1 absence.

C. Students are required to have COMPLETED written and non-written assignments for each class period PRIOR to the class in which the assignments will be discussed. By "completed," I mean that students will have: 1) read the assigned readings/lessons and looked up difficult vocabulary, 2) taken notes in a notebook and/or in the margins of the textbook,/workbook, 3) written out questions that emerged from this study, and 4) TYPED OUT assignments listed as "to be handed in" at the beginning of each class.

D. Grades on homework/workbook assignments will be assigned as follows:

√ +: 90-100: The assignment is not only complete but exceeds the professor’s expectations; the student’s work shows a unique interest that is truly creative and/or insightful; the assignment is neat, handed in on time, with no or very few errors (0-2 errors).

√: 80-89: The assignment is complete, but it is not especially unique, creative or insightful, the work is neat, handed in on time, with some errors (3-4 errors).

√ −: 70-79: The assignment is complete, but meets the bear minimum requirement of such work; the work is handed in on time, and is somewhat neat; it has many errors (5-6 or more).

Inc: 50: The assignment is handed in on time but it is notably incomplete and/or is not neat, and/or has many errors.

E. I do not give make-up exams, quizzes or other assignments. Late assignments--essays, homework, etc--will NOT be accepted except in the case of an excused absence (see above). I define "late" as 10 minutes after the beginning of the class period in which the assignment is due. This means that you should print out all assignments early and make sure you have multiple saved and hard copies of all documents. Computer failures and printer woes will NOT move me to change this policy.

F. No electronic submission of any assignment will be accepted. No handwritten submission of any assignment will be accepted.

G. Students should turn off cellular phones during class. Cellular phones distract your colleagues from the task at hand, and I find such distractions personally annoying.

H. Academic dishonesty and/or plagiarism. All assignments handed in must reflect the individual work of the student handing in the assignment. I am personally offended and disturbed by acts of academic dishonesty, cheating and plagiarism. The Ithaca College Student Conduct Code describes these offenses and possible actions resulting from such behavior here: STUDENT CONDUCT CODE OF ITHACA COLLEGE, APPENDIX II. If you have ANY doubt as to how to cite or paraphrase a source, ask.

Grades: