1: Introducing Tarea Libre

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Introduction to Tarea Libre

This is an instructor guide to Tarea Libre. The Tarea Libre project is a comprehensive and accessible Open Educational Resources question bank of 1,400 interactive activities created in LibreStudio and ADAPT for first-year Spanish courses for California Community Colleges [CCC] that can be used via ADAPT or linked to a campus Learning Management System via LTI [Learning Tools Interoperability]. This LTI integration seamlessly connects the assigned activities to the grade book streamlining the assigning and grading of homework.

The project aims to create the foundation for a cohesive OER Spanish language homework set equivalent to what is available through paid-subscriptions licenses provided by commercial publishers. This homework ancillary fills an existing gap in OER and increases the likelihood of OER adoption in first-year Spanish courses.

Tarea Libre aligns with California’s C-ID SPAN 100 and SPAN 110, the curriculum standard for higher education disciplines. Additionally, the project aligns with existing Spanish OER text materials already identified on the ASCCC OERI Spanish Discipline page. It includes a variety of formative and summative assessments that cover a range of skills. Each module has multiple levels of engagement, allowing instructors to create homework assignments that address different skill levels. Additionally, it will enable students to practice speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills.

The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) IDEAA framework of inclusion, diversity, equity, anti-racism, and accessibility is at the foundation of this project. All 14 modules have been designed to address them through various readings that underscore the cultural practices of minoritized groups in the Spanish-speaking world, including the United States.

About the Project

Tarea Libre covers 57 grammar topics typically taught in first-year Spanish courses. To increase adaptability and flexibility for instructors, the project has 7 modules for SPAN 100 and seven modules for SPAN 110, based on California’s C-ID curriculum model.

Each module comprises of 4 to 5 grammar topics and listening, speaking, and reading comprehension activities. As found on most homework (workbook and lab activities), each grammar topic has a vocabulary page and four levels of mastering steps:

Paso Preliminar
Paso 1 "Empecemos"
Paso 2 "Continuemos"
Paso 3 "Practiquemos"
Paso 4 "Avancemos”

Each grammar module has an average of 20 auto-graded activities.

In addition to these auto-graded activities, Tarea Libre includes three sections of instructor-graded and auto-graded activities that target oral, speaking, and reading skills:

Hablemos: Using the ADAPT recorder, students answer the prompt questions.
Escuchemos: 48 short thematic videos were created in Powtoon. Using the ADAPT recorder, students provide their answers after watching these videos.
Leamos: 47 cultural readings with narration and auto-graded comprehension questions were created on various topics.

About the Integration of IDEAA Principles and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

IDEAA principles and culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) are integral to our project. The project’s fourteen modules contain different cultural themes and vocabulary.

We have included people, places, traditions, history, geography, music, and other elements from the Spanish-speaking world that are traditionally not found in commercial textbooks for first-year Spanish courses.

We wish to underscore minoritized cultural groups and regions, including but not limited to Equatorial Guinea and the Philippines, and a variety of people of African, Asian, and Indigenous descent, in addition to voices of queer and disabled communities. For example, we discuss the multicultural origins of musicians such as Buika (singer of Ecuatoguinean roots born in Mallorca, Spain), Jorge Drexler (Uruguayan of Catholic and Jewish roots), and Peruvian artists (Mimy Tayrako Succar), concepts lost in translation (false cognates), people with disabilities (Isabella Springmühl Tejada), and health resources for Latinos and the queer community. ( “Un libro recomendado: Building Confianza by Dalia Magaña”) and “Clínicas gratuitas o de bajo costo en Los Ángeles'').

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