UNIDOS powered by A Success StorY Dr Carolina Marquez-Serrano Associate Professor of Spanish Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL Course Name: Elementary Spanish • Credit Hours: • Course Format: Hybrid Text: Unidos by Guzmán, Lapuerta & Liskin-Gasparro • MyLab User Since: 2012 “With Unidos and MySpanishLab, students are prepared and confident.” Course Information: n n I piloted Unidos in the fall 2012 semester We offered only one section of Elementary Spanish, so all students participated in the Unidos pilot Course Objective: To develop students’ speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills with an emphasis on communication and cultural fluency Assessment: n n n n ySpanishLab (weekly online M preparation): 30% Six Exams: 50% One Comprehensive Exam: 10% One Final Oral Exam: 10% MySpanishLab, students are prepared and confident I use more dialogues in class now, and students are more engaged with speaking and listening I also appreciate that the writing assignments are based on authentic topics and situations Unidos presents vocabulary and tenses the way that native speakers use the language This is not like other books at all, “Unidos helped me flip my classroom Students are now empowered to use Spanish in class because they prepare with MySpanishLab beforehand.” Unidos IMPLEMENTATION I selected Unidos, powered by MySpanishLab because I felt that the program would strengthen students’ proficiency with vocabulary and grammar, allowing more time to practice the target language Students’ weekly online preparation in MySpanishLab exercises listening comprehension, writing, and speaking skills to enable active communication in class The exams mirror the weekly online preparation so students who complete the weekly MySpanishLab work receive better grades Unidos BENEFITS Unidos helped me to flip my classroom Previously, we spent a great deal of time on grammar instruction Students are now empowered to use Spanish in class because they prepare with MySpanishLab ahead of our class meeting Students who don’t their homework ahead of time find themselves in catch-up mode They quickly learn to complete homework beforehand so they can participate fully in class In the past, I had many nervous students afraid to speak Spanish in class, but with Unidos, powered by —Professor Carolina Marquez-Serrano and I worried at first that students would find this approach difficult But I soon realized that the Unidos approach is easier for me to teach and easier for students to learn Native-like dialogues that combine tenses help students to communicate more effectively. For example, the conditional tense appears early in Unidos—this facilitates talking about culture My students don’t love grammar, but they now understand more grammar from having used Unidos—and this makes us all happy For students, the primary benefit of Unidos is MySpanishLab When I introduce new vocabulary in class, students are already familiar with the words from their work in MySpanishLab I used to hear complaints about our previous textbook and the homework assignments With MySpanishLab, students are more engaged and have no complaints at all CONCLUSION I suggest allowing students to make multiple attempts on homework Some students submit homework quickly to comply with a due date, but if allowed to make multiple attempts, they engage more and work hard to improve their grade www.pearsonhighered.com/mylabmastering • For a product tour or to find out more, please visit www.mylanguagelabs.com