Curriculum development is always an eye-opening learning experience. I was happy to learn and help learn in such a process as I was partaking in the curriculum development of Intermediate Spanish II as part of my role as Interim Co-Language Program Director (2021-2022).

In collaboration with the CLS, the Spanish and Portuguese Department has conducted an evaluation of the Spanish 140 pilot curriculum by comparing the two L4 courses which used different syllabi during the fall 2021 semester. The purpose of the pilot evaluation was to assess the extent to which each syllabus of the SPAN 140 course adheres to best practices in syllabus design and aims to provide students at the level of L4 with the learning experience to continue to L5. In addition, the evaluation process is meant to provide an opportunity for the Instructors to become familiar with the two syllabi employed during fall 2021 through syllabus analysis and classroom visits. The classroom visits aimed to observe how lessons were structured in alignment with the syllabus and students’ engagement with instructional materials and interaction in activities.