Spanish Composition Class

Frank and everybody,

Thanks for sharing all your ideas and for making the workshop continue through this blog and our Wiki.

I will start using Wikis for one for my classes next semester, and I am planning on start using them little by little in the Basic Spanish classes. Next semester I will be teaching a Composition Class. For this class we use a book called “Composition Through Literature”. In this book we read short stories, we answer questions related to them, we study some vocabulary and then we study some grammar. For this specific class I am going to use a Wiki for the vocabulary of each chapter, and we are going to have another one to do some creative writing.

1. Vocabulary

Idea
I am going to type some of the most relevant words for each short story (I already have them) on a Wiki. Then students and I are going to be giving definitions and examples of those words in context and in the short story. I am also thinking that it would be a good idea to have my students create some activities at the end of the Wiki.
How it’s going to work
I must also add that we read eight short storied in the semester which means we are going to have eight Wikis for vocabulary. Each Wiki will be a responsibility for two of the students (they are responsible for the “final product”) but everybody in class must participate in the Wiki (including myself).
How it was before
In the previous semesters, students have to do (in paper) some exercises from the book related to the vocabulary of each chapter and when we came to class we review some of those exercises. A problem I had was that only some of the would participate in the discussion.

2. Choose your own adventure

Idea
I went to a conference and in one presentation they talked how in a French class they are using Wikis for creative writing. What they do it’s divide the class in groups and each group it’s responsible for parts of the story. So I think it would be a good idea to have one creative writing paper along with the other papers my students write for this class.
How it’s going to work
I usually have fifteen students in this class so I was thinking to have three different stories for the class. The topics for each one of them could be: horror, love, sci-fi, or anything the students select. It is very important they chose their own topic. Then each student would write his/her part of the story. I have not decided how long it’s going to be but I am working on that.
The grade will be based in the final product, the process and the participation of each student from the group.
One final thing it’s that I will have a part in each one of the stories.
How it was before
I didn’t do anything like this before…so we’ll see how it goes…

I would like to add that since part of the grade comes from the final product, students will be responsible to highlight (no to correct) each other’s mistakes. I am also going to have due dates for each of the parts of the project so students will not wait until the last minute to do their parts.

Please let me know if you have any questions or more ideas.

Thanks,

Jaime.