Survey class mentality

One of the reasons I decided to begin blogging here is to give myself a space to wrestle with how to teach.  I'm currently in the process of building 2 new online classes.  I've taught Spanish 1411 and 1412 online, both once.  They were both a great first effort but now I'm looking to make improvements for 2.0.

When I built 1411 online a year ago I had no training and no real guidance.  I had taught the curriculum as an adjunct for 2 semesters and decided to give it a go online.  I worked hard.  I made lots of teaching videos (none with closed captioning) and selected tons of assignments from the curriculum.  I sought out people and asked lots of questions.  I was advised to think of this as my Beta model, meaning to launch it but be ready for lots of ways to improve it.  I'm not really a "Beta model" kind of gal.  I'm more of a perfectionist, but I launched it anyway.   

Now I see the logic behind the Beta mindset in online teaching.  You don't know what won't work until you try.  The good news is no one died taking my first attempts.  The not great news is the classes had lots of room for improvement.

This time around, I'm much more prepared.  I read 2 books in preparation:  Small Teaching Online which was fabulous when I was thrown into moving face to face and hybrid sections online in March due to the Corona virus.  That book recommended The Online Teaching Survival Guide.  It was exactly what I needed:  a step by step guide for how to build an online class well.  I took page after page of notes.  I've gone through and highlighted by color:  to do now for these immediate class, ideas for hybrid classes in the fall and ideas for one day.

As I'm designing these 2 classes for June, I am thinking about the concept of teaching them as survey classes.  My father-in-law taught leadership classes at Texas A&M and Tarleton.  I love to pick his brain because he was an amazing teacher and I strive to be like him.  He suggested I look at Spanish 1411 as a survey class.  What do students have to know at the end of this class and what will they refine in 1412, 2311 and 2312?  How can I make 1411 a true intro to Spanish?  These are great questions.  I'm using a concept map to guide me along as I'm thinking through these questions.

The state of Texas tells me in very broad terms what students should be able to do in 1411,1412,2311 and 2312 but the beauty is that the specifics are up to me.  That used to bug me but now I see what a gift it is.

One of my 2312 students has chosen to purse Spanish as a double major.  I told her that I'm thrilled for her, but I noticed on the final that she didn't show that she learned how to use the subjunctive.  I warned her that in real life communication the subjunctive is very important.  I encouraged her to use Quizlet sets and other ways to practice and refine this concept before entering into 3000 and 4000 level Spanish courses.

I'm using my real-life experience of Spanish communication for my concept map about Spanish.  What do students actually have to know when communicating?

This is the deep, important level of building a class.  I'm so grateful I'm taking the time to wrestle with this before I just jump in and use the curriculum.  I don't doubt that the curriculum writers produced a great product but I need to take ownership of my classes.  May the deep thought wrestling begin!