Trayectos is an open curriculum for beginning second language learners of Spanish. This is the beta version of a two-volume program 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. The contents of this website were developed under grants P229A180003 from the U.S. Department of Education.
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.
- Multimodal texts (e.g., readings, videos, posters) based on a variety of textual genres that contextualize topics 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/Latinx communities in Texas.
- 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.
- Supplementary resources that offer learners the opportunity to practice the content learned through self-correcting activities (Práctica individual) and to use Spanish to broaden their knowledge of and critically analyze issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Spanish-speaking world (Voces de nuestro mundo).
- 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 sections that guide you in the creation of a personalized version of the textbook to meet the unique needs of your classroom.