LA SALLE UNIVERSITY BA IN SPANISH, ENGLISH, AND FRENCH LITERACIES AND ELT

SECOND TERM PROJECT

Designed by: Arnold Medina, 26122049 and Eliana Torres, 26102091
Case 2, population: Business people, private institute in Bogota.
Number of students: 13 (8 men and 5 women) Age: 30 to 50 years old.
Classroom characteristics:
The room is not spacious and looks cozy. Equipment and internet available all the time. U-Shaped desk
arrangement.
Classes are from 6:00 am to 6:45 a.m. They study three times a week: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Most students have masters degrees or specializations.
Students mostly like working individually or in pairs.
Language level:
Students are able to understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognize implicit meaning.
They can express themselves fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions.
They can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes.
They can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of
organizational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices
Unit overview:

Overall aims:

This unit seeks to offer an alternative activities index in which

our chosen public be truly benefic, we want to point put in
new ways of learning English, and at the same time share and
promote tips or suggestions; so that, students start developing
learning strategies on their own wit the creating a digital
magazine.

Students will be capable to develop knowledge and creativity in

their digital magazine.
Students can develop strategies to communicate their ideas and
messages in their product with innovation, is to say, in a new way.
With this didactic unit students will have the opportunity of
working in group, in way that they start practicing collaborative
learning

Assessment:

Anticipated problems:

As the last step of this unit, students are required to:

Choose one of the many online platforms to create a

digital magazine.

Select one topic to develop in the digital magazine.

Choose the sections that will be shown in the digital

magazine

Select the public that the digital magazine will be

directed for

Lesson aim or
objective
Lesson 1: Knowing
platforms to create a
digital magazine
Students will know
about certain types of
software and online
applications to create a
digital magazine

Students from business educational background in some

cases are not in favor of changes in learning strategies, they
prefer preserving traditional language learning.
The topics and activities thought for them will be sort of
different, in ways that their reactions may be not so good.
The proposed assessment may be over-loaded; the topics
can be ones that they do not expect. Lack of interest.

Stages and main procedures

Topic introduction:
Opening question: Do you know any software for creating a
digital magazine?

Resources

Student will search for many programs and tools that they can
use in their production and optimize their work in the sense to
be most attractive for the public.
Students will select the program according to the resources that
they offer with social networks, apps, online forums, without
forgetting their personal preferences.

Internet access
Video Beam
What is a digital
magazine video.
Available at:
https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?
v=4TI_XCfuVkM
Slides illustrating
some examples of
digital magazines.
Including Glossi,
Fodey Newspaper
Clipping Generator,
Joomag, Zinepal, and
Scoop.it.

Lesson 2: Selecting a
topic
Student will start
thinking in some ideas
and topics that may be
part of their digital
magazine content.

Topic introduction:
Opening question: What kind of topics do you like offering on
your digital magazine?

Students will search for popular topics around the world and
ideas to generate interest and make successful their production.
Then, they will watch a YouTube video in which how important
a topic for a presentation is.

After that, students start thinking on the advantages and

disadvantages about some possible topics they are choosing. In
ways that they visualize the convenience and possible
acceptation of the proposed contents.

Lesson 3. Thinking
about the digital
magazine sections.
Students will start
thinking in the
possible structure that
their digital magazine
may follow.

Topic introduction:
Opening question: What kind of sections do you think a digital
magazine may have?

Students will select their own sections according to their beliefs

of what kind of topics can be more interesting for the audience
and followers.
Students will make a draft to organize their ideas and give form,
in ways that they have a structure to follow and to respond to the
aims planned

Lesson 4. Choosing
the layout.
Students will choose
the layout of their
digital magazine
according to their
preferences

Topic introduction:
Opening questions: What would be seem attractive to your
digital magazine?
What kind of component would you take into consideration?
Students will look for examples of digital magazines where
students will find attractive components that they can use in
their own digital magazine.
Students will make a selection of their own layout and design to
start the production.

Internet access.
Social Networks,
news, publicity of
fashion topics.
Forums, newspapers,
magazines, public
chats
Surveys popular
tendencies.
How to choose a
presentation topics
that rock. Available at:
https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?
v=ukIJapE56yc
Internet access.
PPT presentation to
illustrate the sections
that are digital
magazine may have.
E.g., Index, sports,
fashion, economics,
health, and so on.

Internet access.
Video Beam
Introduction to
Magazine layout.
Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=t4JBuCSgbZw

Lesson 5. Sharing
and socializing
digital magazines
Students will
share their
digital
magazine with
the group, to
socialize the
way to create a
digital
magazine and
Pedagogical and
theoretical rationale:
Kalantzis, M., Cope,
B. (2012). Literacies.
Kalantzis, M., Cope,
B. Literacies.
Cambridge
University Press:
New York.

Topic introduction:
Opening question: What elements or aspects did you take into
account for creating a digital magazine?

Internet access.
Video Beam
Computers

Students will have the opportunity to speak about the creation of

their work, also the, tips and steps followed to create a
successfully digital magazine.
After that students will socialize the purposes or aims that were
planning concurrently and the digital magazine creation.

This didactic unit is based on the ideas providing by Kalantzis and Cope (2013), but focalizing in
the chapter seventh chapter, which is called Literacies as multimodal designs for meaning. We took
into consideration some very important aspects for example, the concept of representation and
communication as very relevant internal and external processes in human beings socialization.
We took also into consideration available designs which helped us to visualize how important
students ideas may be, in other words how to interact with the contents from the class and the
ideas they bring on their minds.
Finally, following a theoretical framework like the one provided by Kalantzis and Cope also make
us think in other possibilities to plan and develop our classes attending to the new resources and
demands that the current worlds expect on our part.