Trayectos: An Introduction to Spanish (Volume 1)

Trayectos is a four-volume, open curriculum for beginning and intermediate second language learners of Spanish. It is currently being developed by Dr. Gabriela Zapata and a team of graduate and undergraduate students at Texas A&M University, and supported by COERLL at UT-Austin. What makes Trayectos different? A learner-centered approach based on Learning by Design, a pedagogy inspired by the Multiliteracies movement (Kalantzis et al. 2005; 2016). Fresh, multimodal content that connects the life worlds of learners with the life worlds of diverse Spanish speakers. Readings based on a variety of textual genres that contextualize videos about the lives of real university students. Communicative activities that bind language form to cultural meaning within real-life contexts. Critical thinking tasks that help learners explore the Spanish-speaking world, including Hispanic communities within the United States. Language awareness activities that feature different varieties of Spanish, including those spoken in the US. Guided induction activities that help learners discover how to use new Spanish vocabulary and grammar. Culminating activities that oblige learners to synthesize the linguistic and cultural content of each module into a personal, multimodal text. 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. How-to videos that guide you in the creation of a personalized version of the textbook to meet the unique needs of your classroom. At present we are developing the website for the first volume, which will be available at the end of March. Information on the initiative: https://www.gzapatatexasam.com/oer-initiative-research-and-teachin