Course Proposal:

PROPOSAL TO CONVERT A TRADITIONAL SPANISH I COURSE INTO A BLENDED

ONLINE/FACE TO FACE COURSE
Julie Tucker-Leaton
Oklahoma State University
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PROPOSAL TO CONVERT A TRADITIONAL SPANISH I COURSE INTO A BLENDED ONLINE/FACE TO FACE COURSE

Introduction
One of the largest challenges a traditional classroom teacher has is keeping all students

engaged in the subject matter. This entails a balancing act between moving the class forward to

meet the needs of students who are faster learners and holding back the students who are slower

learners. If a teacher goes too slow, the faster learners will become bored and will disengage

from the class. If a teacher goes too fast, the slower learners will become overwhelmed and will

also disengage from the class. My proposal is to meet the needs of both types of students’

learning styles by converting a Spanish I high school course into a blended, flipped course in

which students work both at home and meet face to face in class two to three times in a week.

Because the Sapulpa Public School district allows students in eighth through twelfth grade to

take the Spanish I course, this is the age range of students for this proposal. I would, however,

use caution in allowing an eighth- grade student take this type of course due to a possible lack of

maturity.

Rationale

As stated above one of the most challenging parts of being a teacher is keeping students

engaged for the entire class period. Language students, like in other subject areas, are best

taught using the premise of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Ko & Rossen, 2017). In a beginning course,

such as Spanish I, students must gain the low-level skills of knowledge and comprehension

before they can use the information in high- level thinking skills of application and evaluation.

The challenge is that students gain the Taxonomy skills at different rates. In a traditional face-

to-face classroom, the teacher must use their time to help build the slower learning student’s

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beginning skills that they do not have the time to create and implement higher level skill

activities for the faster learning students.

One way to help this problem is through a blended classroom, in which students work at

their own pace to learn the material at home and then meet face to face in the classroom to

complete the higher Taxonomy activities in class. To help both groups, the online portion of the

course would be scaffolded to meet the needs of the various students (Ko & Rossen, 2017).

Students will work at their own pace to gain the knowledge and comprehension necessary to do

the classroom projects. By structuring the course this way, the faster learners can move faster to

higher level practice and learn and use the material at a deeper Taxonomy level. Meanwhile, the

slower learners can take longer on the lower Taxonomy levels to practice the material. In both

cases, the teacher will monitor the students’ progress and give feedback and help as needed. The

face-to-face class time will be used to practice speaking, complete group projects, take

assessments and ask questions in person. This constructivist approach, gives students more

control of their learning, allows students to acquire knowledge instead of just memorizing facts,

and allow students to delve deeper into learning the material than just sitting in the classroom

(Solvie & Kloak, 2007). Studies have shown that this method of instruction shows higher levels

of learning than either traditional classrooms or completely online classrooms (Means, Toyama,

Murphy, & Baki, 2013).

Course Design

This course will be a voluntary elective course that students can choose to take instead of

traditional instruction. Students will work independently on the week’s topics for three days of

the week and will meet with the teacher in a classroom setting for two days. In the following, I

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will describe the technical aspects, the learner analysis, the course’s goals, projected activities for

the course, how the course will foster a sense of community, and how students will be assessed

in the course.

Technical Aspects and Potential Websites

For this course to work, students choosing to take it must have a reliable device and

access to reliable internet. In the proposed district of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, all students from third

to twelfth grade have access to a school issued Chromebook. All students grades sixth to twelfth

have the ability to take their Chromebooks home to use. This means that all students interested

in this course will have access to a reliable device. Approximately 70% of households in

Sapulpa have a broadband internet connection (“U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Sapulpa city,

Oklahoma,” 2017). To reach the potential students without reliable internet, the district could

educate families on options. One option is low cost broadband for low income families

(Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, 2016). A second option is for students to access the

free WIFI internet in our community library (“Sapulpa Public Library | Sapulpa, OK - Official

Website,” n.d.). A final option is to create a public area in the school for students to go to access

the school’s internet. While this will not solve the internet problem for all students, it does give

them options to see if this style course is right for them.

The course will be placed in the Oasis Learning Management System (LMS) that is

licensed by the district and Google classroom, a free online LMS. Because the Spanish

curriculum is not currently in the Oasis system, time would have to be given to the course

designer for implementation. Other sites and resources the course will use include several free or

inexpensive websites. Several sites, such as Memrise and Conjuguemos allow students to

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practice in a nonthreatening way the vocabulary in our curriculum. Other sites, such as Powtoon

and Storybird, allow students to create projects both individually and collaboratively in the

Spanish or English to apply and synthesize what they are learning. Students can use these tools

to show what they have learned in the lesson to demonstrate understanding and learning in a real-

world environment. Examples include:

Potential websites to be used in the blended course:

Google classroom Smart Learning System Pearson Realize

Google Docs Google Forms Google Slides

Canva Powtoon Biteable

Google Expeditions Google Tour Builder Google Tour Creator

Flipgrid StoryBird Conjuguemos

Memrise Duolingo

Learner Analysis

Sapulpa, Oklahoma is a town of approximately 20,000 located near the city of Tulsa

(“U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Sapulpa city, Oklahoma,” 2017). The school district has

approximately 1,300 eighth through twelfth grade students enrolled with 58% of students eligible

for free or reduced lunch (Office of Educational Quality and Accountability, 2016). This course

is designed for eighth to twelfth grade learners that have self-motivation, want to learn a second

language, and is willing to learn not only the language, but also new technology and website

tools. It is also designed for students that have access to reliable internet. Because so many of

Sapulpa’s students are eligible for free and reduced lunches, many students must come to the
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campus daily. There must be a place at the school for these students to be able to work on

classwork in an independent environment. For the Spanish I course, no previous Spanish

knowledge is required. They are strongly encouraged to meet the district’s recommendation of

eighth grade students making a C or above in their seventh grade English class or Spanish

exploratory class. The district also recommends that students make a C or above in their English

class for ninth grade and above. As the course is designed to meet all students’ abilities and

needs through scaffolding, special needs students that are able to use the Chromebooks and

websites are encouraged to take the blended course.

Goals and Objectives

The goals and objectives for this course will follow along with the Oklahoma Standards

for World Languages (Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2015). The state’s expectations

is for students that complete one year of Spanish should be able to read, write, speak, and listen

in Spanish at a novice low level (Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2015). This means

that for each goal, students will be able to utter a few memorized phrases, be able to create lists,

and other very basic level communication. In addition, the state gives Spanish teachers five

main goals that continue to build as the student studies more advanced courses of Spanish

(Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2015). Goal one is Communicating in Spanish. For

a Spanish I student, an example objective would be the student is able to recognize and repeat a

few spoken and written phrases on very basic subjects, such as family, towns, school subjects,

etc. Goal two is understanding Hispanic Culture. For a Spanish I student, a sample objective

would be students being able to greet each other appropriately, recognizing similarities and

differences between U.S. culture and other Hispanic countries, and recognize some historical

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Hispanic figures. Goal three is making Connections with other academic subject areas. A

sample objective for Spanish I students would be students being able to read a simplified article

in Spanish or English about historical figures and doing simple math problems in Spanish. Goal

four is Comparing Spanish and English. An example objective would be students being able to

compare and to contrast basic grammar structures in Spanish and in English. Goal five is

building global Communities. An example objective would be the students being able to attempt

to have a basic conversation with a native Spanish speaker, and to create a short presentation in

Spanish.

Course Activities

As this will be designed as a flipped classroom, most of the new information will

presented to the students online. The teacher will use Google slides, Powtoons, Youtube videos,

and teacher created videos to present the new information. Every two weeks, students will be

presented with a new vocabulary list and grammar point. Intermixed with these will be various

activities or cultural projects. During the two weeks, students will spend about 10% of their time

with teacher led instruction, 40% doing various practice activities and website practice, 30%

doing projects, and 20% doing formative and summative assessment activities. For the course,

students will watch the explanations independently then complete activities designed to give

them the rote practice necessary to gain the knowledge and understanding. Examples will

include Google worksheets, using Memrise.com and Conjuguemos.com or equivalent sites to

practice the grammar and vocabulary, and complete short Google Forms quizzes to test their

understanding. Memrise is a good site to practice vocabulary and Conjuguemos practices

grammar points. The plus about both of these sites is that the teacher can create a class for the

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students and assign the exact work to them to do. It also gives the teacher feedback on how long

students used each site and how well they did. For each grammar and vocabulary point, students

will take a “Did you get it” type quiz to self- evaluate their understanding. On the first day of the

week’s face-to-face meetings, the class will have a full class discussion to clear up any

misunderstandings in the week’s information. Then the class will break into groups to complete

a problem-solving project. An example project is, after learning about the countries in South

America, the students will create a VR tour using Google Tour Creator. On the final day of the

second week, students will take a short formative assessment on Google Forms or on the Oasis

platform. A sample week is included on the chart.

Sample Week Lesson Plan

Monday-Wednesday This week we are going to be learning about

places around town, the -ar verb conjugations
and for culture, South American Countries.
Complete each activity by the time you get to
class on Thursday.
Vocabulary: Look up the vocabulary on the
worksheet. Practice the vocabulary on unit
4A on your Memrise.com. Complete the
Google Form practice quiz.
Grammar: Watch the You tube explanation
on how to conjugate an -ar verb. Complete
the e-worksheet to practice the verbs.
Practice the conjugations on your class in
Conjuguemos.com. Complete the Google
Form practice quiz.
Culture: Complete the Google slideshow
presentation assignment. You may use any
Spanish-Speaking South American country.

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Thursday I will answer questions. We will then begin

the South American VR project with your

partner.

Friday Finish the VR project and present them to the

class using Google Expeditions.

Community Building

As said above, building a sense of community with the Spanish language is part of

foreign language’s state objectives (Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2015). To

accomplish this in a blended Spanish class, the teacher will incorporate activities encouraging

students to interact with each other. In the first week, students will use Flipgrid to introduce

themselves in Spanish then tell one interesting thing about themselves in English. During the

face to face class meeting, students play a game to see which group can complete a scavenger

hunt. The questions on the scavenger hunt will be from the videos on Flipgrid. After the game,

each student will identify themselves from the scavenger hunt in the full class discussion. The

next thing for the Spanish I students is to learn basic introductory phrases. As they learn the

phrases, students will practice the phrases with a partner. In a blended classroom, students will

practice orally with an activity using Flipgrid. Throughout the year, the class will continue with

their community building with group projects, face to face interviews using Spanish, and other

activities.

Assessments

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Students will be evaluated formally and informally through formative and summative

assessments. Students will be informally assessed through their worksheets, games, website

activities, and “Did you get it?” self-quizzes. While these projects will not be worth many

points, it will show the teacher and the student how well the student is learning the material and

what misunderstandings they have. At the end of two weeks, students will take a summative quiz

over the vocabulary and grammar points practiced. This will be taken using Google Forms or

the assessment feature of the Oasis platform. At the end of each of the year’s five units, students

will take a summative unit exam. Because students are expected to be proficient in all four

forms of communication, the unit exam will evaluate them in reading, writing, speaking and

listening. The unit exam will be given using the Oasis learning platform. Because the platform

does not allow audio on it, the listening will be played for the full class from the teacher’s

computer, with the students replying on their computers. The platform also does not allow for

students to record their voice. As a result, the teacher will evaluate the students’ speaking

individually and place the points manually into the exam. At the end of each semester, all

Spanish I students in both the traditional and the blended classrooms will take a common final

that will be created by the Spanish department’s teachers. This will give the department and

school data on the effectiveness of each course. Due to test security concerns, students will take

all summative assessments during the face-to-face class time. To keep students from going to

other websites, the teacher will use the web-blocking program Lightspeed that the district uses to

monitor and control students’ Chromebooks. At the current time, Oasis LMS does not have the

capability to record students while they are testing. Because of this, the teacher will also

visually monitor students during the assessments.

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Conclusion

While a blended classroom would be a lot of work in the beginning for both the teacher

and the students, it would be worthwhile if it helps students learn the material better, retain the

knowledge longer, and be able to use the material in a more real-world way. Care will have to

be taken that the correct students join the course. They should be self-motivated, disciplined,

and willing to use technology to learn. Care should be also taken to ensure the blended course is

not overcrowded to ensure the time for the projects and speaking activities. If these

considerations are met, the course will be designed to challenge students without wasting their

time. This will help create an educational system That Sapulpa can be proud of. Thank You for

your consideration.

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References

Ko, S., & Rossen, S. (2017). Teaching Online: A Practical Guide (4th ed.). Routledge.

Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., & Baki, M. (2013). The Effectiveness of Online and

Blended Learning: A Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Literature. Teachers College

Record, 115, 1–47.

Office of Educational Quality and Accountability. (2016). 2016 SCHOOL PROFILES: Sapulpa

High School (No. 19-I033-705) (p. 3). Retrieved from Web: http://www.EdProfiles.info

Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service. (2016). Internet Options for Low-Income Households

in Oklahoma (No. AGEC-1065-2) (p. 7). Retrieved from

http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-10504/AGEC-

1065web.pdf

Oklahoma State Department of Education. (2015). Oklahoma Academic Standards: World

Languages (pp. 1–18). Retrieved from

https://sde.ok.gov/sites/ok.gov.sde/files/2015%20World%20Languages%20Standards.pdf

Sapulpa Public Library | Sapulpa, OK - Official Website. (n.d.). Retrieved November 25, 2018,

from https://www.cityofsapulpa.net/269/Sapulpa-Public-Library

Solvie, P., & Kloak, M. (2007). Using Technology Tools to Engage Students with Multiple

Learning Styles in a Constructivist Learning Environment – CITE Journal. Contemporary

Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 7(2). Retrieved from

https://www.citejournal.org/volume-7/issue-2-07/english-language-arts/using-

technology-tools-to-engage-students-with-multiple-learning-styles-in-a-constructivist-

learning-environment

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U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Sapulpa city, Oklahoma. (2017). Retrieved November 24,

2018, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/sapulpacityoklahoma

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