Name: Marta Gavilanez
Institution: Willamette University
Language: Spanish
Status: Full-time, non-tenure Track
Type: Summer Fellowship
Type1: Travel Fellowship
Title: 1. Spanish 232 Fourth semester guided reading course:El viejo que leía novelas de amor 2. DigitalPhoto Tour of Ecuador, including sites in Ecuadorian rain forest mentioned in novel El viejo que leía novelas de amor 3.Continuation of Personal Web Page Development
Duration: Continuation of summer, 1998 project; will continue developing project Summer, 1999, academic year 1999-2000 and finalize summer, 2000
Description:
1) Guided Reading Course:
The objective of Willamette's fourth semester intermediate Spanish course is to present an intensive review of the main grammatical structures of the language and bring the students to the intermediate high level of proficiency by combining intensive work in reading, conversation and grammar study. Our experience has shown that our students in the fifth semester composition and discussion course show a deficiency in reading level. One of the principal objectives of the guided reading course is to provide additional reading of texts to correct the reading deficit. The text that has been adopted for the 232 course is Punto y Aparte, by Foerster, Lambright and Alfonso-Pinto. While we are satisfied with the grammar and communicative activities of the text, the reading selections consist of numerous short selections of a variety of different materials. In consultation with another faculty member who also teaches this course, we have identified a need to include one complete work as a supplement to the reading materials for this course.
I propose to supplement the reading materials with the addition of one novel, El viejo que leía novelas de amor, by Luis Sepúlveda. The novel is set in the Ecuadorian rain forest and deals with a number of environmental themes which are timely and relevant for today's students. I intend to develop on line guided reading materials for this text, which will include digital photos taken in Ecuador during this summer, video clips on the environment of the rain forest in Ecuador and other relevant materials such as newspaper articles and Ecuadorian governmental documents regarding Ecuador's envirornmental policies. As part of the guided reading proposal I also intend to develop a series of units which deal with the conflict between the different Indigenous tribes that inhabit the rain forest and their conflict over land rights with the multinational oil companies.Most of the Ecuadorian materials will be collected during a six week stay in Ecuador this summer. I expect to finish the guided reading project during the academic year 1999-2000 and implement it in my 232 classes during the spring, 2001 semester. I anticipate that the guided reading course will be utilized by the other five faculty who are currently teaching the 232 sequence.
2) Digital Photo Tour of Ecuador
This project is a continuation of a personal project which I began during the summer of 1998, when I directed the Willamette/Chemeketa Community College Intensive Intermediate Spanish program in Quito, Ecuador. While I was in Ecuador last summer I was able to take numerous digital photographs of Ecuador which I have placed on line and which I have made available to any interested faculty member of the Mellon Consortium. During the summer of 1999 I propose to take additional digital photos to be included in my guided reading course on the novel El viejo que leía novelas de amor. The novel is set in the Ecuadorian rain forest in a town which I intend to visit and photograph. I also intend to visit and photograph one of the major oil installations in the rain forest and to spend several
days in one of the Indigenous communities located in the area in which the novel takes place. All of these photos will be incorporated in the the guided reading course. I also intend to photograph several of the art and anthropological museums in Quito and to travel to the Incan ruins of Ingapirca near the coastal town of Guayaquil. If time permits I also intend to take digital photographs of several of the important coastal export crops and their system of cultivation. These will include a trip to Ecuador's largest sugar refinery and plantation and brief visits to a cocoa and coffee plantation and a shrimp farm. I anticipate that the digital photos of important aspects of Ecuador's coastal agriculture will be incorporated in a course in Latin American Political Economy which is taught by John Uggen in Spanish.
3) Continuation of Personal Web Page Development
I propose to continue to develop my personal web page. This will include putting all of my course syllabae on line and incorporating the use of on line testing and submission of some of the homework assignments. I already use e mail groups and have adopted a computerized grade book program for all of my courses. During the 1999-2000 academic year I intend to establish links with other sites which have content on Latin American culture, Ecuador, the rain forest, and other issues relevant to my guided reading project.
I have already incorporated in the current version of my home page information on our two off campus programs in Ecuador with the Andean Center for Latin American
Studies and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. I intend to supplement this information with additional digital photos taken this summer.
Outcome:
Timeline:
Summer, 1999
· Take digital photos of relevant sites in Ecuador
· Gather other relevant material in Ecuador for guided reading course
· Begin development of guided reading course
Fall, 1999
· Continue development of guided reading course with material gather in Ecuador
· Scan digital photos, digitize video segments collected in Ecuador
· Begin identifying sites to link to guided reading program Continue web page
development Spring, 2000
· Continue development of guided reading materials
Summer, 2000
· Finalize guided reading course
· Finalize web page development
Spring, 2001
· Implement guided reading course in Spanish 232
Amount: $3000.00
Breakdown: Summer stipend of $3000 to carry out research, photography and datacollection activities in Ecuador. Stipend will cover following estimated expenses:
· round trip air (Portland-Quito)$1,200.00 (estimated)
· Ecuador travel $ 500.00
· Room and board @ $30.00 per day for 30 days $ 900.00
· Purchase of materials $ 300.00
· Stipend $1300.00