The Trayectos Initiative
Our Open Educational Resources (OER) Trayectos initiative was established in Fall 2017 with three specific objectives:
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To develop theoretically-sound digital, open-source instructional material for second language (L2) Spanish teaching;
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To investigate the pedagogical, linguistic, and institutional dimensions that can play a role in instructional innovations of this kind; and
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To train undergraduate and graduate students as L2 researchers and materials developers.
The project focused on the investigation of issues such as,
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The identification of students’ needs (considering personal and institutional expectations);
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The development of curricula (the determination of thematic and linguistic content and outcomes);
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The search for and selection of appropriate resources, including the assessment of existing ones;
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The training and coordination of development teams; and
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The design of units, tasks, and assessment tools.
This initiative also constituted a collaborative effort involving the participation of undergraduate and graduate students. The materials produced collaboratively have been compiled in a textbook titled Trayectos.
Trayectos
What does Trayectos offer second language Spanish learners? An open, two-volume digital program that features:
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A learner-centered approach based on Learning by Design, a pedagogy inspired by the Multiliteracies movement (Kalantzis et al. 2005; 2016).
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Fresh, multimodal content that connects the life worlds of learners with the life worlds of diverse Spanish speakers.
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Multimodal texts (e.g., readings, videos, posters) based on a variety of textual genres that contextualize topics about the lives of real university students.
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Communicative activities that bind language form to cultural meaning within real-life contexts.
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Critical thinking tasks that help learners explore the Spanish-speaking world, including Hispanic/Latinx communities in Texas.
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Language awareness activities that feature different varieties of Spanish, including those spoken in the US.
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Guided induction activities that help learners discover how to use new Spanish vocabulary and grammar.
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Culminating activities that oblige learners to synthesize the linguistic and cultural content of each module into a personal, multimodal text.
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Supplementary resources that offer learners the opportunity to practice the content learned through self-correcting activities (Práctica individual) and to use Spanish to broaden their knowledge of and critically analyze issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Spanish-speaking world (Voces de nuestro mundo).
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An open copyright license (Creative Commons license) that gives all users the right to adapt the textbook and to share their new content with others.
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How-to sections that guide you in the creation of a personalized version of the textbook to meet the unique needs of your classroom.
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To explore Volume 1: Mi vida en la universidad (textbook and workbook [included in textbook chapters as "Práctica individual"]), click here.
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To explore Volume 2: Más sobre mí (textbook and workbook [included in textbook chapters as "Práctica individual"]), click here.
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To explore the units in Voces de nuestro mundo, click here.
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To explore the teacher's manual, click here.