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Table Directions in educational format

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From: Laurie Kamrowski
Date: Apr 14, 2020 8:08AM


Hi everyone!

My school is creating our own text for our Spanish 101 class, and
distributing it for free for the students via Google Docs. We are creating
15 separate files for each of the 15 weeks of class, and one of the things
that we are covering is the conjugation of the stem-changing verbs. There
is a table of sorts that has long been established in teaching Spanish
called the boot table or the boot verbs.

My concern is over the cognitive accessibility. I am worried that every
week, if we are using the 'boot table', do I need to include the
explanation of the table every time that we use it? This is what I am
referring to:

//begin excerpt. This is the actual explanation text that I have created:
Stem-Changing Table Explanation

To properly explain these tables, imagine a table, two columns wide and
three rows deep and it consists of the six variants of each verb. The first
column, from top to bottom, consists of the ‘I' form, the ‘you' form and
the ‘active' form. The second column, from top to bottom, consists of the
‘we' form, the ‘formal you' form, and the ‘they' form. The table would look
like this:

Column 1

Column 2

I

We

You

You (Formal)

Active

They

If we were to only select the forms that will change, which is the entire
first column, and the only the bottom cell of the second column, the
resulting shape looks like a boot. To clarify, the only forms that change
stems are ‘I', ‘You', ‘Active', and ‘They'. The stem undergoes the change
only when stressed.

Column 1

Column 2

I

We

You

You (Formal)

Active

They

//End excerpt

I'm inserting that whole explanation into any file that has the 'boot
table' in it. It takes an entire page to place it, and I am worried that it
may just get in the way and cause cognitive overload all by itself if it
appears in every file.

My possible solutions:

1. Leave it in every week, regardless.
2. Only include it in one week, trusting that the faculty will present it.
This makes me nervous because while we have an amazingly dedicated Spanish
professor who is developing this, we have also had adjunct faculty who
literally presented a blank moodle shell in an online only course (no
longer works for us, but it still lessened the quality of the education
that the students enrolled in that class received).
3. Compile the entire text into one single file, placing a link to the
explanation text every time it is called. I would have to have approval
from the professor to compile it.

Any ideas or input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time,

Laurie Kamrowski
She/Her/Hers
Accessibility Specialist
Mid Michigan College