Spanish & Illinois

by Ann Abbott I think it's really important to use the first day of class to set expectations and get students excited. I try to teach it as a typical class so that they know what to expect. However, I have learned over the years that for community service learning courses, it is a good idea to ease into things, to take one step at a time, to use class time to tie up the many loose ends this kind of pedagogy can create. I usually post my lesson plans on the UIUC Spanish Community Service Learning Facebook Page . Why? Because I post a lot of links that we then use during class for information and analysis. I also often have students write responses to my posts as a way to share their analyses, questions, etc. So look for the blue picture above that will accompany my lesson plans for this semester. With that in mind, here are my lesson plans for the first week of SPAN 332 Spanish and Entrepreneurship: Languages, Cultures and Communities. Week 1, Day 1: Presentación del cur...

Look below to click on the links from the slide above. By Ann Abbott  On Friday I will give two talks. One is a noon-hour workshop on service learning, and the other is a quick description of a classroom project for our School's Share Fair . Here's what I will share in the second talk. Connecting Students with Alumni: A Classroom Networking Project Making the transition from language student to working professional can be a difficult and mysterious process to our current students. In my Business Spanish course, students work on a networking project that connects them to former students who were in their seats just a few years ago but are now in the working world. I will share the specific steps and resources I use for this activity—from researching alumni LinkedIn profiles to writing a “cold” networking email. This activity can be adapted to any language and any course.  On their end-of-the-semester course evaluations, several students listed this project as o...

by Ann Abbott As I've written here before, I like to have my Business Spanish students practice being facilitators. I think it's a very important skill to have in business, and I think they already have enough practice giving presentations. But the fact that it is not a common academic assignment can create confusion. So here is one student's explanation to other students about how to prepare.

by Ann Abbott One of the hats I wear in my job is Director of Undergraduate Studies. I work closely with our advisor, I speak directly with potential students and their parents, and I am on our department's curriculum committee. On the one hand, I am passionate about Spanish and how it can help students understand our world differently, better. Studying Spanish, studying abroad in Barcelona for one year, and doing the PhD in Spanish literature gave me many wonderful experiences and tools. That was back in the 80s and 90s. On the other hand, I see some very important tensions that make me wonder about the long-term growth of Spanish as a serious, engaged, intellectual program on US college campuses. 1. Spain-centric programs Spain has central role in both the typical curriculum and in students' imagination of "Spanish," yet Spain is a small piece of the Spanish-speaking world and of Spanish-language cultural production. 2. Spanish as a tool Many student...

by Ann Abbott One of the hats I wear in my job is Director of Undergraduate Studies. I work closely with our advisor, I speak directly with potential students and their parents, and I am on our department's curriculum committee. On the one hand, I am passionate about Spanish and how it can help students understand our world differently, better. Studying Spanish, studying abroad in Barcelona for one year, and doing the PhD in Spanish literature gave me many wonderful experiences and tools. That was back in the 80s and 90s. On the other hand, I see some very important tensions that make me wonder about the long-term growth of Spanish as a serious, engaged, intellectual program on US college campuses. 1. Spain-centric programs Spain has central role in both the typical curriculum and in students' imagination of "Spanish," yet Spain is a small piece of the Spanish-speaking world and of Spanish-language cultural production. 2. Spanish as a tool Many...

We focus on social entrepreneurship that is linguistically and culturally appropriate, with 28 hours of service learning. Week 10 by Ann Abbott Semana 10: El riesgo Martes We talked about ethics. Why? Because people normally think about risk as a financial game that entrepreneurs play. Sometimes they win. Sometimes they lose--and lose big. But with social entrepreneurship, losing your reputation is one of the biggest risks for the organization.  As always, we spent the first five minutes of class in paired conversation. Like I always say, in community service learning (CSL) classes, students have to be able to start and maintain conversations in Spanish, often out of thin air. Those five-minute "hablar sin parar" activities are very important. I transitioned us to our topic--ethics--and emphasized that compliance and ethics are two different things. Just because you are not breaking a rule or a law does not necessarily mean that you are doing the most et...

by Ann Abbott I'm looking forward to attending the 3rd International Symposium on Languages for Specific Purposes in Phoenix  this week. Not only will I be able to see wonderful colleagues and friends (too many to list here), I always come away from this conference (and the CIBER Business Language conferences that have been folded into this one) with new ideas and renewed energy.  A quick glance at the conference program , and you can see that many languages are represented, many professions and many approaches. Whenever there are speakers from the professional world, I always take away tidbits of information that I can work into my activities, so I'm happy to see that there is a panel on Friday evening. I also want to learn more about Spanish for the health professions because we have a lot of student demand for that, but no course. (I haven't blogged yet about my student's independent study this semester in which she is working at a local hospital and writing up ...

We focus on social entrepreneurship that is linguistically and culturally appropriate, with 28 hours of service learning. Week 8 by Ann Abbott Semana 8: Medios sociales Martes ¿Qué importancia tienen los artistas solidarios para las causas que apoyan?  ¿Es Angelina Jolie una artista solidaria?   Lee esta página web y analiza las ventajas y desventajas de utilizar las grandes artistas para llamar la atención a una causa . ¿Qué causas apoyan estos artistas latinos?   Mira el video y haz una lista de los artistas que aparecen y la causas que apoyan .  ¿Qué es una fundación?   Echa un vistazo a este documento  y luego explica la diferencia entre una fundación y una organización sin fines de lucro. ¿Qué tipo de branding hace Ricardo Arjona para su Fundación Adentro?  El branding es importante para las empresas sociales. Analiza esta imagen de Ricardo Arjona y el poster de su Fundación para lue...

What books do you have on your shelf? Read on to find out Mark Wehling's book recommendations. by Ann Abbott In last semester's "Business Spanish" class, student teams had to do a networking project that culminated in each team reaching out to one of my former students to ask for career advice. (We did the work over several weeks, but here's a link with most of the information about the project .) My hope is that students learned about how to network appropriately. But of course the real gift was that all three former students answered the current students and gave them valuable advice. Such valuable advice. I won't delay any further, just enough to say that I had goose bumps reading Mark's reply (below). He is truthful, inspiring and detailed. I think he should write a book. Here's his email! Hola Kristin, Shamir, Haley, Daniel, y Xuefei (quieren copiarl@s?) Me da mucho placer poder contestar estas preguntas y ayudarles de esta mane...

We focus on social entrepreneurship that is linguistically and culturally appropriate, with 28 hours of service learning. Week 1 by Ann Abbott SEMANA 1: PRESENTACIÓN DEL CURSO Martes: Los elementos del curso Meta: saber por qué quieres dedicar tanto tiempo y esfuerzo a este curso. Aprendizaje en la comunidad: 28 horas I´ll start with the current situation in Champaign-Urbana's Latino community: anxiety over the announced ICE raids on a national level. Reading.  Students skim a December article in the Washington Post about the announced raids . Video.  Together we view this short video about knowing your rights.  Trabajar en la comunidad. I'll put students who took SPAN 232 together with students who didn't. But before they actually get together, they need to think of what they think the others should know, and the others have to come up with two questions to ask. Emprendimiento social: nuestro tema I want them to learn about entrepreneu...