Personal Glossary

Overview

Since this course does not use a published textbook, there are not many formal vocabulary lists for you to study and memorize. Instead, you will be creating your own glossary of words you learn during the semester. As each of you has a unique background with Spanish, the words you learn and that are valuable to you are different than those of a classmate. You will come across new words in the readings, videos and practices that we’ll do each week, so as you find terms that are unfamiliar to you or that you learn a new meaning for, you’ll add them to your personal glossary.

For those of you entering the Community Spanish Interpreting program, this is an exercise you will continue to do in future courses.

Procedure

Start a new document (Word, Excel, or the like) where you can record your new terms in a table following the example below.

Each week, fill out the table with words that fit these scenarios:

you did not know it
you learn you’ve been using it incorrectly
you learn a new meaning or context for it, or maybe you’ve been using a regionalism without realizing it

You will submit your personal glossary on September 6 and November 1 for a check-in and on December 6 for the final grading.

Example

You will come across words either in Spanish for which you have to look up the English, or in English that you need the Spanish for. For both scenarios, write the English and Spanish along with sample sentence(s), and number your entries. If you look up a word and there is more than one relevant translation, include them (as in line #2). You do not need to include every possible translation for a word – just what may be relevant to the context you’re dealing with or what you’d like to remember about the term.

English

Spanish

Example(s) and notes

1. root

Raíz (raíces)

Los raíces de mi cultura son mayormente de Europa.

Los raíces del árbol están debajo de la tierra.

2. looks (“it looks delicious”)

Verse (to appear to be)

Parecer (to seem)

Se ve delicioso.

Ella se ve muy paciente porque trabaja bien con los niños.

Me parece interesante su historia.

(Note: it’s not mirarse)

You can put the terms in any order you choose (alphabetical, chronological, or some other categorization that works for you.)

Grading

The Glossay counts for 10% of your final grade. The mid-semester check-ins will not be graded as this is an opportunity to give you feedback on your progress. The final glossary will be graded based on the following rubric.

Criteria	Exceeds expectations	Meets expectations	Approaches expectations	Does not meet expectations
Number of terms	11+ per week	9-10 per week	6-8 per week	Less than 5 per week
Content and Accuracy	All terms are presented accurately with no spelling, definition or grammatical errors. Terms are well defined and include contextual examples where applicable.	All terms are presented accurately with no spelling, definition or grammatical errors. Terms are defined but may not include other contextual applications.	All terms are presented accurately with no definition or grammatical errors. There are spelling errors.	Some terms are presented inaccurately or spelling/grammatical errors impede understanding of the terms.

I consider this project as starting on Week 2 and continuing through Week 15, roughly. This means I'm using 13 weeks as the measure for the number of entries.