Spanish 1412 Online
Midland College
Syllabus
Summer 2011
Instructor Information:
Whitney Purvis
wpurvis@midland.edu
(432) 686-4800 x 2053
I. Course Description
Spanish 1412 is Elementary Spanish II. This course is the second in the four lower-level Spanish language
classes offered by Midland College and most other university institutions. The prerequisite is a passing grade in
Spanish 1411, elsewhere numbered as Spanish 101, or the equivalent. This class will build upon the
foundational skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking.
II. Texts
Required Texts:
Mastering Spanish Vocabulary (2nd Edition)
José María Navarro and Axel J. Navarro Ramil – Barron’s Educational Series
Spanish Verb Tenses (1st or 2nd Edition)
Dorothy Richmond – NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group
Complete Spanish Grammar (1st Edition)
Gilda Nissenberg – McGraw-Hill
Optional/Suggested Text:
English Grammar for Students of Spanish
Emily Spinelli – The Olivia and Hill Press
A useful additional text that you may decide to purchase eventually:
501 Spanish Verbs
Kendris and Kendris – Barron’s Educational Series
III. Software, Hardware, System Requirements
You must use Firefox as your internet browser. This will prevent all sorts of glitches and make the class run
smoothly and easily. It is available for free download by going to http://www.getfirefox.com
This class is run via Blackboard online and requires no special software, however you will need to learn a
method for adding special characters used in the Spanish language (á, é, í, ó, ú, ñ, ¿, ¡). This may be done by
copying and pasting the characters from a word processing document created with a program like Microsoft
Word, or copied and pasted with the use of http://spanish.typeit.org. These special characters are not optional;
they are part of the mandatory orthography of the language.
You will need a reliable and fast internet connection, and an up-to-date operating system using either Mac or
Windows, as well as a means for listening to audio presentations that I have embedded in our course on
Blackboard.
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing .pdf documents, available for free download at
http://www.adobe.com
For general information regarding computer requirements for Midland College Web classes, go to
http://www.midand.edu/distance/index.html.
IV. Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, the students will:
- Have mastered an additional 1500 commonly used words to their Spanish vocabularies, as well as the seasons
of the years and weather expressions, and use these correctly in at least 70 percent of written evaluations.
-Understand prepositional pronouns, direct object pronouns and possessive pronouns. Use direct and indirect
object pronouns in the same sentence. Students will demonstrate their understanding of pronouns correctly in at
least 70 percent of written evaluations.
-Understand the formation of all stem-changing verbs in the present tense and the conjugation of verbs with
irregular first-person forms in the present tense, and be able to use them correctly in at least 70 percent of
written evaluations.
-Understand the formation of the preterit tense of regular verbs, as well as the preterit of SER, IR and DAR, and
use them correctly in at least 70 percent of written evaluations.
-Know the uses of the verbs saber and conocer, and the uses of the verbs pedir and preguntar. Student wills
also understand special verb constructions with gustar, doler and hacer falta. Students will demonstrate
understanding of all of these correctly in at least 70 percent of written evaluations.
-Use affirmative and negative expressions, demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, reflexive constructions and
por and para and demonstrate their knowledge in at least 70 percent of written evaluations.
V. Course Objectives
To build a strong foundation in the basics of the target language and be able to expand toward good
conversational, reading, and writing abilities, the 1412 student of Spanish should, upon successful completion
of the course, have mastered the following:
-Approximately 1000 new vocabulary words
-The formation of all stem-changing verbs in the present tense
-Affirmative and negative expressions
-Prepositional pronouns
-Direct object pronouns
-The use of direct and indirect object pronouns in the same sentence
-The conjugation of verbs with irregular first-person forms in the present tense
-The uses of the verbs saber and conocer
-The uses of the verbs pedir and preguntar
-Special verb constructions with gustar, doler, and hacer falta
-Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns
-Possessive pronouns
-Reflexive constructions
-The formation of the preterit tense of regular verbs
-The formation of the preterit tense of irregular verbs
-The uses of por and para
-The seasons of the year and weather expressions
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VI. Course Structure
Tarea, Prácticas and Pruebas
For each topic, I have assigned reading and an explanatory video that will help you to understand the topic.
Once you feel you have grasped the grammatical concept, you will move forward to the graded assignments that
you will submit through Blackboard. You will have at least one práctica (practice) and a prueba (quiz) for
nearly every topic in our course. Both the prácticas and the pruebas count towards your grade. You may do the
prácticas as many times as you wish, but you may only do the pruebas once. While the prácticas are not timed
and can be saved and returned to later, the pruebas are timed and must be completed once they have been
started.
Oral Assignment
At the end of the term, you will have a brief oral assignment that you will submit to me as a voicemail
recording. You will be graded on pronunciation and fluidity.
Final Exam
The final examination for this course is cumulative, and will be comprised of randomly selected questions that
are drawn from the pools that form the basis for the prácticas and pruebas.
Blackboard Attendance
You will need to log into Blackboard very frequently, and you will need to check your email often to see if you
have any messages from me. I cannot accept the excuse that you didn’t know an assignment was due because
you hadn’t checked your email. Because this is an online class, Blackboard functions like our classroom; as
such, it requires your regular participation and attendance, just as your presence would be required in a
classroom setting.
Late work
All work is due at 7pm Central Time on the due date. Late work will not be accepted. If you have a conflict,
please maintain close contact with me so we can make arrangements if necessary.
VII. Policies of Integrity
Cheating and Rule bending
Cheating will not be tolerated in this course, and while you may think that it would be easy to cheat in an online
setting, Blackboard has a wide variety of methods for me to see what you have been doing in our class. If I
suspect you have been cheating or have figured out a method for bending the system, I reserve the right to ask
you to take a set of exams that are not taken from Blackboard in order to verify that you have indeed learned the
material.
Academic Misconduct
I abide by the official rules put forth in on page 65 of the Midland College Catalog of 2008-2009. Please go to
http://www.midland.edu/admissions/catalog.php to view these policies and regulations.
Online Dictionaries and Translators
While spoken Spanish employed in day-to-day life utilizes a myriad of different kinds of vocabulary and
regional forms, I have to restrict our scope of study to those words and forms found in our textbooks. Using an
online translator will be a serious detriment to you, principally because they are undependable and provide
insufficient or incorrect translations.
Proctored Final Exam
A proctor must administer the final examination in this course. This is to insure that you are the person taking
the exam, and that you have not paid or enlisted the help of someone to take the class for you. Details for
selecting a proctor and getting approval by me will be available on our Blackboard website. You will have to
present an official form of identification to your proctor before you can take the exam.
VIII. Grading
Blackboard automatically grades your work in prácticas and pruebas. If you feel an answer has been marked
wrong in error, please let me know and I am happy to look at your assignment and restore credit if possible. It is
up to you to be vigilant with respect to your grades. If you have any questions, please contact me right away.
As you move through the course, you may be a little alarmed by what you see as your overall percentage in the
class which is viewable in your grades on Blackboard. Remember that Blackboard counts incomplete
assignments as a zero. For example, before taking the final and the oral exams, you may see your class average
as something like a 69% even though you had consistently received As and Bs during the term. Don’t panic!
Remember that the final and oral make up 25% of your grade, so you could optimistically add 25% to that 69%,
and find yourself with an A in the course once all is said and done.
IX. Communication
Please include the course number (1412) in the subject line of all emails to me. Email is the best way to get in
touch with me, as I check my inbox very frequently and seldom take more than a few hours to respond to your
questions or problems.
Check your email frequently. If you do not use your midland.edu address, you will need to change your
communication preferences once you log onto Blackboard.
I ask that you be polite and courteous in your emails, and use proper grammar and spelling at all times. I have
no other means by which to become acquainted with you, so the tone and form of your emails is of particular
importance. Please don’t use text messaging forms in your emails (e.g.: idk, thx u2, i dunno if u can help).
Please use an appropriate greeting (“Querida Profesora Purvis,” would be one example) and an equally
respectful ending to your emails. Greetings such as “Whazzup Prof” or “Hey,” or endings like “Later,” don’t
really convey the sort of professionalism that I hope to maintain in our course. I provide grammar explanations
in English, so I am perfectly happy to converse with you in English via email in order to prevent confusion or
frustration.
Never hesitate to contact me. I assure you that no problem is too big or too small, and provided that you have a
little patience with the experience of taking an online language course, and are respectful of me and of your
learning process, we will be able to have smooth and productive conversations that aid your language
acquisition and provide you with an enriching and happy experience.
X. Numeric Breakdown
Class Percentages
55% = pruebas (quizzes)
20% = prácticas (practices)
5% = tarea oral (oral assignment)
20% = examen final (final exam)
Final Grade Cut-Offs
89.5% - 100% = A
79.5% - 89.4% = B
69.5% - 79.4% = C
59.5% - 69.4% = D
Below 59.4% = F
I look forward to working with all of you, and I hope you find our class to be enjoyable, informative, and well
organized. As I have said, never hesitate to contact me with anything at all!
Division Information:
Dean of Fine Arts: William Feeler
Secretary: Lula Lee
Division Office: 141 AFA
Division telephone: (432) 685-4624
BLACKBOARD LOGIN DIRECTIONS
http://blackboard.midland.edu
User ID:
VCT – 1st initial of first name + first 3 letters of last name + last 3 numbers of telephone
number. (Example: John Doe; 485-123-6789: VCT-jdoe789)
Please note there is a hyphen after “VCT.”
Password:
Phone number with dashes. (Example: 485-123-6789)
Note: Student must use telephone number submitted at registration with host college.
After login, access the Tools bar > Personal Information > Change Password > verify or revise e-mail address >
Submit. The student must consistently use the same e-mail address to facilitate communication between student
and instructor.
The course (http://www.midland.edu/blackboard) will be accessible to the student at 8:00 a.m. on the first day
of class instruction. If the course is not accessible, contact the Midland College webmaster by clicking on the
“Blackboard Online Help Request” link at http://www.midland.edu/blackboard/index.html.
Contact the Midland College webmaster if experiencing difficulty logging into Blackboard. Click on the
“Blackboard Online Help Request” link at http://www.midland.edu/blackboard/index.html.