Lecturas /Required readings. For students who still have serious problems with the use of English, I will recommend them how to approach the texts. I might prepare a set of short questions to help them organize reading and understanding step by step.
Presentación oral/Oral presentations are, in general, a tough task for most students. The idea is to check who in the group has more language problems, and suggest different ways to contribute to the group presentation. We could also suggest a work in pairs for those students who are behind in the grasp of the language.
Proba de ensaio/Comparative Essay. This is a crucial test for this subject. It is a written text where students have to organize their own ideas about a topic and provide evidence from texts. Some students lack critical abilities, tend to be descriptive and prot-oriented. In preparation for the long comparative essay, instructor would ask them to work on a take-home short essay. This would make them be prepared for the more in-depth and challenging comparative essay.
Obradoiro/"Work-shop" on quotations from text required. Some students find very hard to read critically and come up with their own ideas from a given text. Although this activity is class oriented, emphasis and protagonism is given to students who tend to keep silent when asked for an interpretation of a few lines from a text. Through pointing out at the particular aspects that are relevant, and need to be analized, students get the grasp of what a "close reading" means at the same time they develop their own ideas from the given text. If time allowed, we tend to work in small groups (max. 4 students) where students are given a list of quotations, and the group is assigned a particular quote to fully analyze. After fifteen minutes (aprox.) each group provide their own interpretation, although not always agree with each other--which is a plus. They have to provide evidence from the text.