Comunidades is an open-access curriculum for first-semester Spanish students focused on teaching novice-level students about and through the Spanish speakers who live, work, and thrive in their communities.

The Comunidades philosophy

The organization of this text may seem strange to those instructors who are accustomed to more traditional textbooks that focus on structures in isolation first and then conclude with more integrated and culturally focused activities. Since the impetus to write this book has come from our desire to teach the Spanish language through exposure to the richness and vitality of Spanish-speaking cultures and the Spanish speakers who form part of our university communities, we have placed emphasis on exposing students to:

1. Native speakers and native language usage. Rather than tailoring the content to privilege the vocabulary and structures we think are important, we have instead oriented the text toward providing the scaffolding students need to access, interpret, and interchange with native speakers and authentic texts.

2. A rich variety of input. We know that students will acquire Spanish as a new language through their meaningful interaction with input in that target language. To that end, each chapter has multiple interpretive activities that are sequenced to show students how language and structures are used and allow them to engage with those structures in context.

3. Communicative activities. In every chapter, we provide multiple opportunities for students to engage in interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational communication. Since these are the most important activities to foment acquisition, instead of separating them into their own section at the end of each chapter, they are interspersed throughout the book. Interpretive activities, interpersonal activities, presentational activities, cultural reflection activities, and cultural research activities are all identified by a callout in the margin. We suggest you dedicate class time to exploring and carrying out these activities, since they will be what promotes proficiency in Spanish for your students.

4. Cultural products and practices to work toward an understanding of cultural perspectives. Especially in the variety of interpretive activities, but also through the “Tira cómica,” “¿Te fijaste que…?,” and “Ampliación,” we seek to expose students to the diversity of cultural products and practices that enrich our world.

How to assess student progress using Comunidades

Each chapter ends with at least one complete Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA), which is a three-part assessment that provides students an opportunity to both demonstrate what they know and continue to learn throughout the assessment process. The first part, the interpretive task, asks students to use a variety of strategies and demonstrate skills to interpret a text, including guessing meaning from context, identifying key words, identifying supporting details, identifying the main idea, describing the author’s perspective, and making a personal connection with the text. Next, students complete an interpersonal task in which they are given a conversational topic and a task to complete within the conversation. Finally, with the knowledge gained from the interpretive and interpersonal tasks, they complete a presentational task either orally or in writing in which they present specific personal content to the class. Chapters 1 and 2 ease students into the process by providing contrived texts at their level for the IPA. Chapter 3 helps bridge the gap using an authentic infographic as the main text. Chapters 4 and 5 present two options for the IPA, one with a contrived text and one using an authentic text. Instructors should feel empowered to use parts of the IPAs as practice, interspersing them into class as content for daily lessons and as formative and/or summative assessments.

Chapter structure

Each chapter follows the same structure.

1. Tira cómica—Brings vocabulary and structures to life by presenting them in the context of the Midwest college student experience.
2. ¿Te fijaste que…?—Allows students to explore their prior knowledge, confront stereotypes, and make connections by asking them to explore cultural practices and perspectives in the Spanish-speaking world and reflect on similarities and differences across cultures.
3. Ampliación—Provides contemporary examples of the modern cultural products and practices in the Spanish-speaking world, extending “traditional” cultural content and exposing students to the modernity of the Hispanic world.
4. Vocabulario—Exposes students to key lesson vocabulary and provides structured practice, moving from self-corrected homework activities to tasks that ask students to use the vocabulary to communicate personal meaning.
5. Video entrevistas—Puts vocabulary and structures in context and requires students to interpret real individuals’ sharing of personal information related to lesson topics.
6. Gramática—Explains target structures, provides examples, and guides students through application from structured responses and other self-corrected activities for out-of-class practice to open-ended, communicative tasks to use in class.
7. Evaluación—Presents an IPA created from a modified or authentic text. IPAs are three-part assessments that evaluate students’ performance and proficiency in the three modes of communication related to the chapter topic. IPAs require students to interpret a text, engage in a meaningful conversation connected to the text for a specific purpose, and complete a presentational writing or speaking task to demonstrate their knowledge and proficiency.

How to use this book

We suggest assigning readings in English, including cultural readings and grammar and vocabulary explanations, along with the auto-graded and controlled practice activities as homework and using class time for the called-out interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational activities. Activities are numbered by chapter and individual activity (e.g., 1.19 for chapter 1, activity number 19), and grammar (and sometimes vocabulary) points are labeled by chapter and letter (e.g., 1-A for chapter 1, point A).

Retain, reuse, revise, remix, redistribute

Remember that this is an open educational resource that you may revise, remix, and redistribute as fits your needs. As the Comunidades community grows, we hope to publish additional resources, supplementary materials, and edits. We welcome any and all questions, comments, additions, and corrections.

Yuriko Ikeda and Julia Baumgardt