SPANISH 111--Elementary Spanish

SPANISH 1001--Elementary Spanish

Dr. K. Guffey If you are in Learning Support Reading

Academic Building, Office D or English, you are not allowed to take

Phone: 770-358-5232 Spanish until you have completed that/

k_guffey@gdn.edu those course(s).

Office hours: TR 10:45-12:30; 2:50-3:30; 4:45-6:20

Textbook: Arriba (not required; search for a used copy if you’d like to have a hardcopy for reference)

Objectives: By the end of the course, the student will be able to greet someone in Spanish and convey basic concrete information about topics such as studies, hobbies, and food. He will be able to participate in simple exchanges with educated native speakers of Spanish. The methods include formal study of vocabulary and grammar with daily application to all four areas of language use: reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Absences: THREE absences, excused or unexcused, are allowed. That is, the student's first three absences need not be explained to the instructor. Every absence after the first three, however, must be excused. That means that if, for example, you are in the hospital and miss three classes, your fourth absence, as well as all subsequent absences, must be excused. In case of illness, the student must present a doctor's excuse. Besides illness, only emergency situations, such as a death in the family, will be considered excused absences, and the student must present written proof of the emergency. An absence due to your job is NOT an excused absence. An absence due to a lack of a ride to school/a need to leave early to catch a ride is NOT an excused absence. If you are a parent, only an excuse from your child’s doctor will be accepted for an absence involving your child. Inability to find a babysitter is NOT an acceptable excuse. Any absence due to participation in any official Gordon College activity is, of course, an excused absence.

Every unexcused absence after the third absence will result in a 5% lowering of the student's final grade. That is, a fourth absence will lower the grade 5%, a fifth will lower it an additional 5%, etc. If, for example, a student with a 93% average has six absences, the last three of which were unexcused, his grade will drop from 93% to 78%. IT IS THE STUDENT’S RESPONSIBILITY TO PRESENT A WRITTEN EXCUSE. If the instructor is required to return the excuse to the student, he must watch her record the excuse before taking the excuse back. Absences count from the day that the student’s name appears on the instructor’s roll.

Tardiness: Three tardies count as one absence. If a student arrives 15 minutes late, he is considered absent. Students may not leave class early without the instructor’s permission. If you do leave class without the instructor’s permission, even if it is only a few seconds early, you will be marked absent.

Failure to attend class: Any student who ceases to attend class should go to the registrar’s office to take the appropriate steps to withdraw. If he fails to officially drop the class, he will receive a WF in the course. THE FINAL DATE TO DROP A COURSE WITHOUT A PENALTY IS Oct. 8. If you drop the course after that date, you will receive a WF in the course.

Tests and Quizzes: The student may miss one quiz, one test, and one dialogue presentation. Because you are allowed to miss them, NO MAKE-UP TESTS, QUIZZES, OR DIALOGUE PRESENTATIONS WILL BE GIVEN, even if your absence is excused. If you miss one quiz, one test, and/or one dialogue presentation, you will not have any zeros recorded. However, any additional tests, quizzes, or presentations missed FOR ANY REASON will be recorded as zeros. If the student does not miss any tests or quizzes, the lowest quiz, the lowest test, and the lowest presentation will be dropped. THE SCHEDULE MAY CHANGE AT ANY MOMENT, AND YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR FINDING OUT ANY CHANGES IN THE SCHEDULE. If you are absent on Monday, for example, and a quiz or test or presentation not on the schedule is assigned for Wednesday, you will be required to take it on Wednesday. It is YOUR responsibility to find out what you miss in class.

The interview and the show-and-tell presentation are exceptions to the “no make-ups” rule. However, they must be made up by Nov. 24. It is your responsibility to arrange a time for the make-up and then remind the instructor the day of the presentation if it is done in class. The instructor will not remind you that you have missed something. Also, if you are hospitalized or diagnosed with a contagious ailment, you may receive special consideration. All such illnesses must be well documented, however.

Following is the makeup of the oral exam grades:

Dialogue presentations:

You will be graded on your pronunciation, phrasing, and how well you have the dialogue memorized.

Individual exam:

10 points for each of the following categories: how well you understand the question, how well I understand your response, grammar, variety of vocabulary

Sports: If you are absent due to participation in an official Gordon College game, you may take quizzes and tests BEFORE the day they are scheduled to be given. You may not make up a quiz or test AFTER an absence due to a game. The only exception is if the coach schedules a game with less than 24 hours’ notice.

Quizzes: You will be required to use a sheet of your own paper for each quiz. You may have only one sheet of paper on your desk. If you have more than one, even if they are blank, they will be confiscated during the quiz.

Cheating: If you copy an answer onto your test or quiz from another student, a cheat sheet, a book, a cell phone, the palm of your hand, or anywhere else, you will receive a 0 on that quiz or test. If there is any object with any material on the test or quiz within your reach during the test, you will receive a 0 on that test or quiz. For example, if you are sitting on a paper with test/quiz material on it, you will receive a 0 even if you protest that you did not know that it was there and certainly were not using it. If you commit any other action that constitutes cheating, you will receive a 0, and that grade cannot be dropped. You may also be expelled from the course or receive an F in the course, actions that are at the discretion of the instructor and the division head. If you cheat on a mid-term or final exam, you will receive an F in the course.

Math Section: If the instructor ever refers you to the math section on the syllabus, this is it: Rarely are there 100 points on any test. Therefore, the number at the top of your test is your PERCENTAGE, not the actual number that are correct. If you have -6 at the top of your paper but a 90%, don’t go to the instructor and say, “Shouldn’t this be a 94, since I only missed 6?” You missed 6 out of 60, not 6 out of 100. That’s 10%. To find percentages, you multiply the number missed by 100 and divide by the number of total points on the test. That is, if you missed six out of 60 points, you multiply 6 by 100 (=600) and then divide 600 by 60 (=10) and deduct that from 100 (=90%) to get your score.

Power Points: Every grammar item in every chapter is taught on Power Point. You will normally start these in class. I designed these Power Points myself in my own teaching style and included practices throughout many of them so that you can test yourself on one bit before moving on to the next. I have found that students like doing these because they can take them at their own pace. I originally began designing these because I realized that in a class of 25 students, only 10 are listening at any given moment, and I therefore had to repeat myself a lot, so some students got bored, and some never tuned in at all and didn’t learn anything. With Power Points, students who pay close attention and those who catch on quickly can go through the work faster, and those who work more slowly don’t slow the others down but also don’t get left behind.

The usual format is that I give you an overview of the grammar of the day, and then you do the Power Point. You may always ask any questions you want as you’re doing the Power Point, and I always take questions about the homework that you do after having viewed the presentation. However, if you feel that you need to be taught the material more in depth rather than viewing the slide presentation, you are free to ask me to teach it to you. I will take those who prefer to be taught into another room and let those who prefer the Power Point presentation learn from it.

Homework: Homework will be checked periodically throughout the semester, not every day. If you do not have the homework completed on a day that it is checked, you will not be allowed to make it up for credit. When you are absent, it is YOUR responsibility to find out if homework was checked that day. If you fail to show it to the instructor, you will lose points. Note that homework counts 10% and that since homework is checked only about 10 times during the semester, you will lose one point off your final average every time you fail to have your homework. You receive credit for having done the homework, not for how many you have correct. Therefore, it is ridiculous to lose points for not having homework completed. It should be evident that that anyone wanting a good grade in the class should ALWAYS have his homework done.

Besides losing points if he does not have his homework on a day it is collected, the student will find that he is unable to master the material if he waits until the night before a test to do his homework rather than doing it on a DAILY BASIS.

Virtually all homework is on my website (www.gdn.edu/faculty/k_guffey). The exercises have due dates that correlate to when the material is taught and are interactive. (For example, a homework exercise over the regular present tense will be due the day after the grammar lesson on the regular present tense.) “My computer/printer/mouse/electricity isn’t working” is not an acceptable excuse for not completing homework on time. Students will receive no credit for handwritten work. You must type answers in the blanks and then click “check.”

There are several vocabulary exercises that correspond to the vocab quizzes. Each day you have a vocab quiz, you are expected to have the corresponding vocab exercises done as part of your homework.

Group assignments: At least once in each chapter, you will be told to converse with another person in Spanish. If you fail to do so, you will have a 0 averaged into your homework grade that day.

Classroom behavior: You may not eat in class. This includes sandwiches, chips, candy, and all other types of food. Failure to schedule a lunch period is not an excuse for eating in class.

You are not allowed to use the classroom printer without permission from the instructor.

If you are caught defacing/destroying property (e.g., writing on desks), you will be sent IMMEDIATELY to the Student Affairs office. You will be marked absent for that day, and if you are working on a test or quiz, you will not be allowed to finish it.

Turn your cell phone off before entering class. The instructor may confiscate your phone and hold it until the next class day if it rings in class, and she may answer it. Do not answer your cell phone. If you answer it, check your messages, or do text messaging, you will lose FIVE points off your final average.

Students are not allowed to use offensive language in class. This includes “four-letter words” as well as words that may offend others because of religious beliefs.

Special assignments: The instructor may assign you exercises while she is out of town. “I couldn’t figure it out” is not an acceptable excuse; figure it out ahead of time. If you are assigned an exercise—an exercise on the computer or any other type--to turn in the day that the instructor is absent, that assignment is considered classwork. Therefore, if you fail to turn it in, YOU WILL BE COUNTED ABSENT FOR THAT CLASS.

Computer Exercises: Frequently in class we will do computer exercises. Your user name is the following:

First initial last initial DAY of birth (2 digits) MONTH of birth (2 digits) 6^th & 7^th digits of SS#

123-45-6789

Your password is the last six digits on the BACK of your student ID. At some point you will be prompted to change your password. Change it to a word you can remember, because after that, only YOU will know what your password is.

Any day that we do work on the computer and you can’t get logged in, YOU WILL HAVE A ZERO AVERAGED INTO YOUR HOMEWORK GRADE. The reason for your failure to do so doesn’t matter; if you can’t get logged into a computer and the instructor CAN get logged into the computer, you get a zero.

Warning: Students may open only applications assigned by the teacher. If work on the internet is assigned, they may go only to internet sites assigned by the instructor. If the instructor finds other applications open or finds the student opening a web page not assigned, that student will lose 5 points off his final average in the class. He will lose five points each time he is caught opening non-assigned applications or web sites on the computer.

Contact information: Contact normally takes place via GORDON e-mail. You are responsible for checking your Gordon account regularly. If there is a sudden change in the schedule, you will be notified through that account.

Grade notification: Students always receive their graded tests back the class day after they take them, so do not e-mail or call the instructor asking for the grade any earlier. Going to her office to ask for the information is fine. Instructors are not permitted to e-mail final exam grades or final grades, to give out that information over the phone, or to post the grades, so please do not ask. Grades are posted on Banner very soon after exams are over.

IMPORTANT: If you miss your final exam, you may not be allowed to make it up. If you are able to show up during one of my scheduled exam times, I may allow you to take it. Under no circumstances will I make special arrangements to give you your exam at a time when I don’t have a scheduled exam. If you fail to make it to one of my scheduled times, you will receive a 0 on your final exam.

DO NOT CALL THE INSTRUCTOR AT HOME. If you have a problem or question about the class, please see the instructor on campus. You may come by during office hours, make an appointment, send an e-mail message, or leave a message on the office door.

Grading: Scale:

Homework 10% A 90-100

Quizzes / compositions 20% B 80-89.99

Oral presentations / exam 10% C 70-79.99

Tests 20% D 60-69.99

Mid-term exam 20% F below 60

Final exam 20%

FINAL EXAM:

Tuesday, Dec. 8 2:45-4:45pm

Tues., August 18

Thurs., August 20

Tues., August 25

due—numbers 1-100

dialogue 1a

quiz over months and days

Thurs., August 27

quiz 1

due—vocab 1 and articles/plurals

Tuesday, Sept. 1

quiz 2

due—vocab 2 and ser/subject pronouns

Thurs., Sept. 3

quiz 3

due—vocab 3 and Time

Tues., Sept.8

quiz 4

due—vocab 4 and Adj. Agreement

dialogue 1b

Thurs., Sept. 10

TEST

It will be short; come prepared to stay the entire hour.

Tues., Sept. 15

due-- -ar verbs

Thurs., Sept. 20

quiz 5

due—vocab 5, Negatives and Questions, Adj of Nationality

Tues., Sept. 22

quiz 6

due—vocab 6, numbers to millions, Regular Verbs

dialogue 2

Thurs., Sept. 24

Test; we’ll go over it before you leave

Tues., Sept. 29

mid-term

Thurs., Oct. 1

quiz 7

Hmwk: irreg verbs 1

Tues., Oct. 6

Due: irreg verbs 1

Thurs., Oct. 8

quiz 8

due—vocab 8, progressive

Thurs., Oct. 15

Dialogue 3

due—Possessive Adjectives., Irreg. verbs 2

Tues., Oct. 20

TEST

Thurs., Oct. 22

Interviews

Tues., Oct. 27

vocab 9 quiz

Thurs., Oct. 29

la gallina blanca quiz

Due: stem-changing verbs, saber/conocer

Tues., Nov. 3

verb quiz

due—direct object pronouns

Thurs., Nov. 5

Vocab 10 quiz

Due: ser and estar; demon adj.

Tues., Nov. 10

Test

Thurs., Nov. 12

Dialogue 4

Tues., Nov. 17

Quiz 11

Due—comparisons

Thurs., Nov. 19

Show and Tell

Tues., Nov. 24

Due—negs. and indefinites

Tuesday, Dec. 1

Test

Thursday, Dec. 3

Review