The idea is to make available to you as many extra-class activities as possible, allowing you to widen your exposure to Spanish issues and culture, and ultimately provoke you to think more about that exposure, help you push farther in your own thinking about what you've seen, listened to, read. Each will also strengthen your language skills.  At the same time, this is intended to offer you the possibility of making up to some degree for a missed or late homework assignment, uneven class participation, or excessive tardies, will not necessarily receive credit.  It is an "extra" option, and should reflect some time and thought, though clearly it should not come before your regular work.  Keep in mind that in terms of calculation, the extra credit will not raise a quiz grade a certain percent, erase a certain number of absences, make up for rarely speaking in class during the entire term.  This really is "extra" credit, and, as you already know, your grade depends on your regular participation, presentation, quizzes/exams/paper, etc. If a student hasn't been prepared throughout the term, rarely offers his thoughts in discussion, and did poorly on exams, even excellent extra credit assignments won't help the grade much.

Invariably, however, people find that these kinds of events/assignments help them actually do better in class by increasing their knowledge of Spanish culture and often by improving their speaking, listening and writing skills.

Last notes:  Some materials (i.e. movies) will be put on reserve for a specified time, usually no longer than a week due to library loan, etc., so I encourage you to jump on them as early as you can.  I'll indicate in class, on the web listing, and/or via email how long they'll be on reserve.

Finally, doing extra credit is *completely* left to your discretion.  You are free to choose to do it, or not.  It's there for you if you're interested and has no negative effect if you choose not to.  Should you have any questions about the extra credit, please let me know.