Spanish & Illinois

by Ann Abbott It was the week after spring break, and I had just returned from a wonderful yet long trip to Japan to see my daughter who is studying abroad in Nagoya. I was looking forward to seeing my students later that day, but I wasn't sure how I was going to make the class interesting and engaging. Scrolling through my Twitter feed, I found just what --and who-- I needed: @tanyaboza. I have followed Prof. Tanya Golash Boza's work for years: her blogs, her books, her articles. But it was only recently that I found her on Twitter. She is just as a smart and generous there as I had come to expect from her. She shared the series of videos about race and racism that she has developed for her students. She shares her publications and thoughts freely. And on the morning when I needed inspiration, she provided it in this tweet: I am pleased to share my latest publication with you, on how families experience the deportation of a loved one: https://t.co/DnStaA5mbJ p...

by Ann Abbott In one of the final lessons (22) in my texbook Comunidades , I take students through a series of classroom activities to help them think about their academic and volunteer experiences in the Spansih in the Community course as actual pre-professional experience. It's important for them to articulate what they did with their community partner in the form of resume items, job interview answers or cover letter sentence.  This isn't easy! They are used to compartmentalizing: school versus work. They are used to shaping their academic learning into academic essays and their job experiences into job-search materials. So I was delighted when one of my students, Megan, decided to write her final reflection about the career connections with her Spanish community service learning work for a local immigrant helpline. She gave me her permission to share this excerpt below, and I will highlight the most relevant points. However, the whole piece is an excellent examp...

by Paige Valente Este semestre me ofrezco voluntariamente a través de un programa llamado "SOAR". SOAR es un programa después de clases en la escuela primaria internacional de preparación. Una vez que termina el día escolar, los tutores van a la escuela para ayudar a los estudiantes a leer y hacer sus tareas tanto en inglés como en español.  Estoy emparejado con una niña de segundo grado los martes, y los jueves trabajo con un estudiante de cuarto grado. Todos los días, trabajo con estos estudiantes uno a uno para practicar sus habilidades de lectura en inglés y español. El estudiante de segundo grado con el que trabajo los martes normalmente prefiere hablar y leer solo en español, pero mi estudiante de cuarto grado quiere hablar y leer en inglés.  Al comienzo de cada sección de tutoría, iremos a la biblioteca y escogeremos un libro divertido para leer. Luego nos turnamos para leer las páginas y hablar sobre lo que está sucediendo durante el libro.  De...

by Ann Abbott Yesterday I gave a talk at the Law School here at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. It was for a meeting of the Immigration Law Society, a group of students interested in immigration law. I built the slides and the information on a talk I gave earlier this semester to the interpreters in the Champaign school district. Here are my slides: Interpreting: Language, Culture and Ethics by AnnAbbott If you would like for me to speak to your group about this, you can reach out to me at arabbott@illinois.edu or 217-333-6714. I was very interested in the student questions afterward. Some asked for more detail about ad hoc intepreting, but a lot of students were interested in knowing more about how to improve their language skills. For people who feel that their second language is rusty, I suggested doing a lot of listening and reading (input); then they can find opportunities to practice speaking. If you're watching movies or binging on Casa de Papel on...

Next year's conference will be in Salamanca, Spain. by Ann Abbott This year's annual conference of the American Association of Teacher of Spanish and Portuguese celebrated the 100th anniversary of our professional association. The inimitable and admirable Sheri Spaine Long invited me to participate on a plenary panel consisting of several people who had written essays or rejoinders for the centenary issue of Hispania that will come out in December of this year. It promises to be an expansive look at where we have come from and where we are going as a profession. I'd like to share below my presentation from the plenary. What do you think our challenges are as a profession? What do you think "Spanish" means today and for the future? Do you think that teaching Spanish in this political climate requires us to rethink anything we do? Or teaching it in this changing environment of higher ed? I'd love to hear your thoughts. ***********************...

Wole en frente del Centro para Refugiados by  Olawole Daramola  Hola! El curso  SPAN 332 explora el concepto de emprendimiento social en un contexto latinoamericano. Se aprenden las injusticias en el sistema político contra inmigrantes sin documentos. Además, este curso revela oportunidades para transformar estructuras injustas de la sociedad y es un espacio para pensar sobre innovaciones de valor. Además, cada estudiante tiene un sitio donde ellos ayudan la comunidad latina en muchas formas diferentes. La clase proveerá conocimiento suficiente para navegar y entender las dinámicas de cada organizacion en comunidad donde se trabaja. Por ejemplo, si trabajas en El Centro para Refugiados sabrás tener más paciencia y compasión por los clientes porque en la clase escucharás sobre las barreras que enfrentan los inmigrantes. Éste es el sitio donde yo trabajé. Aprendí mucho en este curso y estoy muy feliz de haberlo tomado. Primero, mejor é  mi español--m...

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...