I LOVE PROFE COBB! This was my first Spanish course at UVA as I came in with AP credit, so I was very nervous at the start. However, the small class size of 16 and the little classroom environment made me feel like I was in high school again; we all knew each other's names and would be laughing every class. If you took AP English Lit, this class is essentially the same thing but in Spanish; I got so much out of this class, and it was actually even better in Spanish! An A is a 95% which seems high, but it is totally doable! You got this!

Homework: The course was well-structured with three main units: narrativa, teatro, y poesía. Each week, we would have readings assigned, which would be due either every class or every other class depending on how long the reading was. We began with microcuentos which could be read and annotated in less than an hour and progressed to full cuentos cortos (a couple pages) in the narrativa unit, then moved to teatro with full scripts, and finished off with poesía (1-2 poems due each class). We were required to annotate each text and submit photos along with handwritten responses to questions regarding comprehension and more open-ended interpretation. Some short stories would have lots of vocabulary which I did not know and would look up for every sentence, so by the end of the semester I knew hundreds more very niche but very cool words. The short stories and play scripts could get up to 20 pages, but remember that we could have been reading full books, and I was glad because I was definitely not ready for that. Some weeks I would still be putting in upwards of 5 hours on my annotations and responses for these longer texts, which was obviously DTM but I had the time as a first year to do that. You can put in as much or as little as you want for your annotations and responses, of course, but I recommend spending a good amount of time on them as this will drastically improve your understanding of the material and the quality of discussion with Profe and your peers. Profe also provides comments for every handwritten homework, correcting grammar and giving feedback on your responses, which is super helpful of her. From my experience the homework is not graded harshly at all and I got 10/10 each time. I think as long as you put in the effort and give your personal interpretation, then Profe will give you 100%.

Class: During class, Profe would go through a slideshow with us explaining some context for the work, such as the literary period, the author, and go over the reading to make sure we understood the main points. Then we would answer questions together in table groups (usually sharing our homework responses) and share with the class. Profe would then ask us more profound questions which we would brainstorm in groups and share out as well. One time during the course, we would be Discussion Leaders for the class (groups of 4-5), essentially making a slideshow like Profe usually does, going over the context, author, readings, reviewing the homework questions, and providing new questions to teach the class. These classes were super fun and chill since we knew each other so well already.

Other Assignments: Occasionally we would also have a super short comprehension quiz accompanied with the reading to be completed on Canvas before class, consisting of 5 questions. These were also relatively easy if you did the readings, though the wording tripped me up sometimes. Throughout the course we also had 5 cultural reflection activities, consisting of a description of the experience and personal reflections, another super easy 100%. We had one 'podcast' commentary in pairs for the narrativa unit, and had two essays (one during the theater unit and one near the end as a comparative essay between two works). Profe helped us with our theses and we wrote the drafts in class, after which we could transcribe them online and make grammar edits but no major content/interpretation changes. We had three end of unit quizzes/tests, a mix of comprehension, providing examples from the text of certain techniques, matching authors and works, and interpretation of quotes. The poetry one is deemed the hardest, but if you study well, you will do fine and I averaged 99% on each one. At the end of the course we also wrote our own creative piece and shared with the class!

Content: This class is a great literary analysis course that provides you with all the tools to dissect any Spanish type of text. There is, of course, lots of overlap with English literature in terms of rhetorical figures, but this diverged when we got to the poetry unit (my favorite!) as Spanish poetry has its own unique technical elements regarding syllabification, structure, rhythm and sound. For theater, we dissected the narration style, props, lighting, and dialogue. We also go into a lot of broader thematic work and make connections across each unit with more abstract discussions.

Professor Cobb has been my favorite instructor at uva so far as a second year. Her class was very insightful and always full of great discussion if there is good participation. My class had a lot of students who participated a lot and everyone got super comfortable talking which was very nice and a great environment to learn in. Overall, the content isn't very difficult, it consists of 4 main units, short stories, theater, poetry, and narratives (still not super long) and there are 3 pruebas (theater, poetry, and narrative). There is an ensayo at the end of the semester but professor cobb gives great feedback on the draft so it is easy to get a good grade on the final essay. There is also a partner project, an oral recitation of a poem, and you get to create your own poem. Professor Cobb is very kind and she wants people to come to her office hours and is very welcoming! She is a great discussion leader and really wants to support her students. If you get the opportunity, please take professor cobb!