Spanish & Illinois

Take Spanish community service learning classes. by Ann Abbott This week I am going to talk to a group of students from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois. I need to make a quick pitch for ways that freshmen can get involved in the Spanish program. One of the most important things on the list, in my opinion, is taking a Spanish community service learning class. Not only will you learn about things that few other Spanish classes teach, you'll also improve your Spanish by speaking with native speakers and gain valuable experience as a bilingual pre-professional. So here's a list of the courses I teach that incorporate experiential learning. More might appear in the future, or more people might teach them, so be sure to ask the Spanish advisor for an updated list of courses. SPAN 142: Spanish for the Professions* This semester I am teaching two sections of the course, and students will participate in one community event, using t...

by Ann Abbott Capítulo 3 Comunidades nuevas y renovadas Martes ¿Qué imagen proyectamos en nuestras redes? 1. ¿Cómo creamos una comunidad en las redes sociales? (Explorando el tema, p. 96) In pairs, they answer the question at the top of the page. (I was surprised by how many share pictures of their pets!) I changed the pairs, and they interviewed their new partner for Actividad 3-2, Paso 1. A lot of them were sharing their profiles with each other so they could see what they were talking about. We transitioned from talking about ourselves to famous people. I changed the pairs again. They chose a person from the list and looked them up on various social media sites (Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). After they had several minutes to explore, each pair said who they looked up and what kind of image they project. 2. We create communities through social media, and we have spent the past six weeks creating a community in our classroom. Students even knew the names...

by Ann Abbott Lunes: Una vista panorámica de México Éxito comercial, Capítulo 3, pp. 73-83 Usually I like to have the students dig in to the information during class, analyzing, discussing and then presenting their work. However, today I want my students to be inspired about working in Mexico, not put off by the negative information.  We´re going to look at one of my former students, David Pérez Hernández, who just spent one year in Mexico. I know for sure they will be inspired by him! Here are his words for my students: 1) How convenient it is to be in Mexico. You are in a totally different country than the US, but because of the proximity you cant help to feel so close to home. Youre in the same time zone, youre a quick plane ride away from home, alot of the comfort foods make it to Mexico, and youre always 1.5 hours away from some of the best beaches in the world! 2) The second is how important Mexico and its people are to the US. The US trade...

by Ann Abbott One of my students told me that she felt her Spanish was a little rusty and wondered what she could to get back into the swing of things. I'm so glad she asked! Simply wanting to improve your Spanish is one of the most important parts of actually improving your Spanish. Here are a few resources I suggest. At the University of Illinois Tutoring Room.  If you have specific problems, you can go to the Spanish Tutoring Room on the 4th floor of FLB. Mi Pueblo . This is one of the best resources because you can meet up with other people who are practicing their Spanish--and actually speak Spanish in conversations with real people. Nothing beats that. Anywhere MySpanishLab . In this particular course, my student has access to everything that is MySpanishLab. That includes grammar tutorials, verb charts, videos and sound files for everything that is in the book and workbook. There's no way we can cover everything in the book or in MySpanishLab, so taki...

by Ann Abbott Brittany Koteles continues to amaze me. I've written about her several times before (you can search her name in the search bar on the right). Brittany is a social entrepreneur who works at Ashoka to support other social entrepreneurs. I'm so proud of her and her work, and I received the message below from her today.  If you are a current student, look back through this blog for my posts about Brittany and see how you might model your trajectory on hers. Wherever you are in life and in your career, consider adding Brittany to your network: she's an amazing woman who is always in the know and on the go. Finally, I just have to say how much I love her writing style. She injects this message with passion and personality. I can't help but get caught up in it all! Hello friends & fam,   I’m writing you because something really exciting is happening tonight! Ashoka's  Start Empathy  network & an Ashoka Changemaker School from Tuscon...

by Ann Abbott Ken Kliesner is one of those students whom professors love, because you can tell he's in college to learn. Really learn as much as he can. And part of soaking in everything you can in college is going abroad. Take a look at the places Ken has studied:  Jordan  Ecuador  Brazil  Aside from everything that he must have learned in those three experiences, the combination of those three unique places is significant in and of itself. You can tell that he takes (calculated) risk, doesn't just follow the crowd (most study abroad students go to Europe and English-speaking countries), can manage change and actually enjoys working with people who speak other languages and have other cultural perspectives. Those are all highly valued characteristics in a variety of work environments.  Combine all that international experience with Ken's work with recent immigrants in the US--from all over the world--and a full picture emerges of a...

Find a meaningful way to stand out from all the other new grads with high GPAs from great colleges. by Ann Abbott Why you need to find a way to stand out Face it, every student at the University of Illinois is intelligent. Lots of students make good grades. Students in the same major take the same required classes. A whole lot of students take on part-time jobs. Many students spend their summers working and taking on-line classes. You have to find a way to stand out. A way to destacarte. You need to do this while you're in college. Yes, it's so that you can then truly stand out when you're looking for post-graduation jobs. But it's also so much more than that. Avail yourself of all the once-in-a-lifetime resources at your disposal at college so you can better figure out who you are. What you care about. (Beyond grades, please.) What you're good at. What you thought you cared about but then found out didn't really light your fire. What the men...

by Ann Abbott If you plan to attend the 2016 Conference of the Modern Languages Association, you might be interested in this panel that I will be a part of.   Friday, 8 January 289. Communities of Learning in Second Language Acquisition: An Exploration of Alternative Pedagogies 12:00 noon–1:15 p.m. Program arranged by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages Presiding:  Elise C. Leahy, Southern Utah Univ.; June Miyasaki, Los Angeles Valley Coll., CA Speakers:  Annie Abbott, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Lucile Duperron, Dickinson Coll.; Victor Fusilero, Los Angeles Valley Coll., CA; Adi Raz, Univ. of Texas, Austin; Heidi Soneson, Univ. of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Elizabeth Dolly A. Weber, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago Foreign language departments have become increasingly innovative in teaching language, writing, and culture. Panelists explore alternative pedagogies in second language acquisition that are revitalizing foreign language departments,...

by Ann Abbott Because I think digital literacy is such an important professional skill, not just for the future but also for right now, I am always happy when my Spanish community service learning students create digital products for our community partners. It helps our partners, but it also develops important, valuable skills for our student. And there's a big bonus: the results of their projects are tangible; they can share links to their work when they apply for jobs or other types of opportunities to truly showcase their language proficiency, cultural knowledge and digital skills. Here's a wonderful example of this type of project from my former student, Cassie Grimm. She made videos in English and Spanish for our community partner, Crisis Nursery. (And here's an update on what Cassie has been doing after graduation: "El otoño pasado, fui para enseñar inglés en españa en un campamento lingüistico (y necesitaba actuar como no hablé ni entendí español jaja). Ah...

Click on this image to go to the website by Ann Abbott My previous post featured a video interview with a student who had taken "Spanish in the Community" and enjoyed it immensely . She specifically mentioned her experience interpreting at the parent teacher conferences at Central High School. I'm glad she had a good experience, and I hope even more Spanish students will participate. But fear often holds them back. Luckily, another former student, Jenna Kandah, created this wonderful website with helpful information about being a volunteer Spanish interpreter at parent teacher conferences . Read it and feel more confident as you go to help parents and teachers communicate with each other!

by Ann Abbott Imagine my surprise when I ran across this video interview in which one of the students talks about SPAN 232 "Spanish in the Community" as her favorite elective! And when the guy talked about his entrepreneurship course with Prof. Paul Magelli (whom I respect tremendously), I kept thinking, "Well, I think you would really like 'SPAN 332 Spanish & Entrepreneurship: Languages, Cultures & Communities,' too!" Take a look at Illinois Admission's YouTube playlist , and you will see several other clips titled "Campus Conversations." They give very interesting student perspectives about student life at Illinois. (It was also fun to see the video below and see my picture used. Just a little lift on this summer morning.)

by Ann Abbott As I have written here many times, it is always a pleasure to hear from former students because: I simply enjoy hearing about their lives, their careers, their paths. I think that they make wonderful role models for our current Spanish students. So I was very happy to hear from Carrie Casady. Take a look at her trajectory as a student and as a graduate. Is there anything that you would like to emulate? Don't forget that networking is a very important part of what you should be doing while you are a student--could you add Carrie to your network? Community Service Learning (CSL) Information Spring of 2010 (SPAN 232) I did my community service at Leal School working in the kindergarten classroom. Highlights from this work for me were helping the kids to read and seeing them progress in Spanish and English. Spring 2012 (SPAN 332) I did my community service at ECIRMAC, which helped me to use my speaking skills in an office sett...

by Ann Abbott Sometimes, the right question is posed to you and answering allows you to reflect on all the disparate things you've been working on and see within them a common thread.  This was the information I was asked to respond to today: Following is a description of the Career Services Council (CSC): *********************** The Career Services Council serves as a forum for career service, career counseling, and pre-professional practitioners to review current developments in the practice of career planning and trends in the economy and environment which relate to students’ post-graduate outcomes. The Council members collaborate in offering common services and programs that serve the general university community and advocate for the essence and value of career services to the University of Illinois. The Council reviews policies and procedures which clarify and document the work of the various career offices on campus in their efforts to effectively and efficiently s...

by Ann Abbott During the 2014-15 academic year I traveled to many universities and met many creative people doing very meaningful work with their language students. I also took a very careful look at many course syllabi. They all were interesting and reflected the instructors' deep subject knowledge and intellectual curiosity to take a journey with their students. That is the kind of course we would all like to create! There were also red flags for potential issues in community service learning (CSL) courses. I don't have all the answers, of course, and my course design can look very different from someone else's and yet both be very successful. Still, in the spirit of critical reflection that is the backbone of a good CSL learning experience, I offer a few key questions that you can ask yourself about your CSL course design. What is the organizational capacity of your community partner(s)? You need a true partner, so ask yourself these questions. Does this ...

by Ann Abbott Did you enjoy working with the community partner in your Spanish community service learning? Do you think you could contribute even more, now that you know more? Are you looking for an internship? Now you can continue doing the work that you did in your Spanish community service learning, legitimately call it an internship and receive academic credit, all at the same time. Here's a note from Dr. Kirstin Wilcox (kwilcox@illinois.edu): ENGL 199-INT (CRN 63954; I'm starting the paperwork for a permanent distinct course number).  It's limited to students who have located an internship for Fall 2015 and requires the instructor's permission (mine!), but I'd be happy to grant permission to students in any humanities department who want to take it--particularly those in unpaid internships.  I can envision students who've taken your service learning course and want to keep working with their community organization coming up with their own project-...