Because this was the first time I used this method of teaching, I don’t have any past semesters’ work to compare it to. I can look at what happened with the oral presentations as we implemented them and make judgments based on that experience. For instance, in future semesters, I will check into videotaping these presentations. That will involve other aspects that I did not have to consider this initial time, such as finding and becoming familiar with using the taping equipment and preparing the students for the taping. I think it will be a nice way to keep records, although it does mean that there will be a first time that we create such a document, and that first recording will not have an antecedent.
My department has had a very positive response to this course. We are debating how it will fit into our other course offerings, at what level, and the best way to integrate it with those offerings. First, we have found that it bridges two sides of our field: Spanish and Latin America. It is important that we cover both sides, as transatlantic issues are the direction the field is going. We are already making that bridge in research, and we want to do it in teaching, too. The second way that this course helps our overall department offerings is by exposing students to cultural issues at an early point in their coursework. The upper level courses are generally literature based, and that content brings up two issues. One issue is that language barriers can be an obstacle for students who aren’t native speakers; they find it hard to analyze texts at this level. Another issue develops because the students often aren’t from the countries whose literature we are studying, and therefore, they lack a strong cultural literacy background. This course offers a means to begin attuning them to cultural background prior to their study of literature.
Towards the end of the semester, a tenured colleague came to observe a class section, with full access to the materials and goals that I was employing. Afterwards I received a very nice evaluation of not only that day but also the entire course. Overall, the department response has been super towards this work. It is very likely that I will teach this course again next spring.
I am thinking about teaching much more. The concrete information from the teaching seminars—new strategies, activities that worked or did not work in colleagues’ classes—gave me ideas I could consider implementing in my courses. I not only applied these tips, strategies, activities, and types of assignments to Spanish 440 but others as well. In the fall semester, I have agreed to join a faculty seminar in order to work on a totally different teaching project for a graduate course. I have learned a lot, and I have made good friends as a result of my work on teaching.
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