Required Outcomes for this Goal 

(list below)

Relevant Course/Institutional Components (refer specifically to course syllabus)

Specific Assessment Method for Outcome

Understand major movements, themes, and values in one or more cultures as revealed in literature.

The entire course focuses on understanding Spanish American literary movements, themes, and values in Spanish American literature.

See Syllabus.

Sample quiz question:  Define modernismo, give its major characteristics and its most important writers. Discuss the historical and political events that prompted the birth of this movement in Latin America.

Tracking:  Percentage of students who score 70% or above on exam question.

Analyze particular literary texts as reflections of cultural movements, themes, and values.

Students will analyze particular literary texts as reflections of cultural movements, themes and values throughout the entire course. For example, using short stories of García Márquez as a basis, students will analyze the political and cultural relationships between Spanish America and the U.S. (Specific attention will be given to the role of U.S. Fruit and other U.S. corporations in Spanish America).

Debate Activity:  Half of the class will take the role of U.S. government representing U.S. Fruit interests. The other half of class will play the role of Spanish Americans opposing the entry and practices of U.S. Fruit.Each student will contribute to different aspects of the debate.

Tracking: A Rubric will be used to grade students on their presentations—Percentage of students scoring 70% or above will be tracked.

Required Outcomes for this Goal 

(list below)

Relevant Course/Institutional Components (refer specifically to course syllabus)

Specific Assessment Method for Outcome

Develop and defend interpretations of literary texts through written discourse

Students will write essays, quizzes, a term paper, midterm and a final exam in which they develop and defend interpretations of literary texts.

For example, students will write a two page essay defending or refuting the following statement: Although Gabriela Mistral may be considered a feminine writer, she does not fit into the category of feminist writers, as does, for example Alfonsina Storni.

Essays, quizzes, term paper, midterm and final exam.

Tracking:  Percentage of students scoring 70% or above on the Gabriela Mistral essay will be recorded.

General Education Criteria

Relevant Course Components (refer specifically to course syllabus)

1. Teach a disciplinary mode of inquiry and provide students with practice in applying inquiry, critical thinking, problem solving

Throughout the semester students learn what questions to ask and the terminology to use in answering them when analyzing poems, drama, and narrative in Spanish. Ex: Discuss the use of irony, symbolism, and imagery in the poem “Valium 10” by Rosario Castellanos.Is the message of this poem outdated today or still relevant? Why or why not?

2. Provide examples of how disciplinary knowledge changes through creative applications of the chosen mode of inquiry

During the first day of class students answer the question of why write and why read literature. The class discusses the different answers people have given over time and the different approaches to literary analysis that have resulted.

3. Consider questions of ethical values

Every literary work studied considers questions of ethical values.  Ex: Referring specifically to works by Isabel Allende and Pablo Neruda, students will discuss the literary representation of the 1973 military coup in Chile.What do you know about this coup and the U.S. role in it?  How is it described in U.S. history books (and on internet sites)?How does the U.S. version of what happen differ from Neruda’s and Allende’s versions?Which do you believe and why?

General Education Criteria

Relevant Course Components (refer specifically to course syllabus)

4. Explore past, current, and future implications of disciplinary knowledge

Throughout the history of Latin America, the land has been a constant source of conflict between citizens within a country and has caused wars between different countries. Students will discuss the manner in which the following writers represent land as a protagonist in their works:Pablo Neruda, Nicolás Guillén, Horacio Quiroga, and Carlos Fuentes.Can you think of current situations in which the interpretations of the above authors apply?

5. Encourage consideration of course content from diverse perspectives

Using Nicolás Guillén’s poem, “Los abuelos” as a basis, students will contrast the concept of mestizaje with that of pigmentocracia and discuss the hierarchy of color as perceived by Afrocubans and their whiter neighbors. 

6. Provide opportunities for students to increase information literacy through contemporary techniques of gathering, manipulating, and analyzing information and data

Students will use MLA bibliography, internet resources, and scholarly books to complete research for oral presentations as well as a term paper on assigned topics.

General Education Criteria

Relevant Course Components (refer specifically to course syllabus)

7. Require at least one substantive written paper, oral report, or course journal and also require students to articulate information or ideas in their own words on tests and exams

Students will write a fully documented 6-8 page term paper on a topic they select with the instructor’s approval. They will use correct MLA format as well as a Spanish word processing program.

8. Foster awareness of the common elements among disciplines and the interconnectedness of disciplines

No literature is written in a vacuum. Students will consider the political, historical, religious, psychological, and sociological implications in all literary works studied.

9. Provide a rationale as to why knowledge of this discipline is important to the development of an educated citizen

Although the U.S. is now the fourth largest Spanish speaking country in the world—with over 38 million Spanish speakers, Hispanic studies continues to be underrepresented in U.S. post-secondary curriculums. The literature of Spanish America is important, not only to students of Spanish heritage, but to all students of literature, since many of the works listed on the attached syllabus rank among the world’s most classic literature.Students will learn from this course that Spanish American literature, although originating from an area often described as “third world,” is by no means “third rate.”