LA SALLE UNIVERSITY BA IN SPANISH, ENGLISH, AND FRENCH

LITERACIES AND ELT - SECOND TERM PROJECT

Undoubtedly, EFL teachers and students need to work with projects and practices that allow
them to read, write, and
interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through
handwriting, print, TV, radio, and film, to digital social networks. This needs calls for a change
in the EFL classroom so that it can move towards a unifying ecology not just of media, but of
all literacies relevant to reading, writing, interaction and culture, both past and present. One
way to do this is having students create and design digital magazines, which are interactive
and created purposely for a digital audience. In this kind of projects, students should not
simply learn how to work with technical and technological issues, but they should mainly learn
to deliver text, photographic, and illustrated content via a website.
As a class project, you are required to design an English sample unit based on the example
provided in class. First, you need to choose one of the three cases described below. Then,
you need to work on the creation of sample unit that matches that particular set of
circumstances. To do so, you should use the English sample unit format provided at the end
of this document. Make sure you describe and explain all sections sufficiently. There is no
need to write many or elaborate details, but one should be able to have a clear picture of what
you imagine you could do in your selected case. When ready, you will publish your English
sample unit plan at scribd.com so that your professor and classmates can read it and
evaluate it. Further explanations and indications will be given in class.

Case 1
Population: 10th grade, public school in
Bogota. Number of students: 42 students
(22 girls and 120 boys) Age: 15 to 17
years old.
Classroom characteristics:
The room is not very big and looks packed.
Equipment and internet available when requested.
Organized in single rows with desks and chairs.
Classes are from 7:00 am to 2:00 pm. There are two 20-minutes break at 9:15 am and 11:30
am. Every week, they have 6 hours of English, 8 of Math, 8 of Social Sciences, 4 of Spanish,
4 of arts, 6 of social service, and 4 of physical education. Most students enjoy music and
sports.
Students like working in small groups.
Language level:
Students can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most
immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local
geography, employment). They can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a
simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. They can describe

in simple terms aspects of their background, immediate environment and matters in areas of
immediate need.

Unit overview
In this unit students design, develop and
publish an interactive magazine in which
they could show their musical preferences
while creating a basic magazine online.
Students will work in groups according to
their preferences in terms of genre such as
rock, pop, funk, etc.
Students will be able to think in their
personal knowledge not only in the
traditional way but also taking into account
the new literacies (digital literacies) as a
dimension in the globalized world.

Overall aims or objective (language,

communication, and learning)
-Promote in students the use of digital aids
while using English language as a way of
communication.
-create an active online learning space
to record the processes of learning
-To recognize the impact of digital resources
and media messages in their lives
-To create an on line magazine based on
their personal preferences and previous
knowledge.

They will be asked to research by their own

about types of magazines (on line and print
version) and also teacher will be a guide who
facilitate the way of designing and
implementing
technological
aids
for
achieving this.
Assessment

Anticipated problems

The on line magazine will be evaluated

taking into account the criteria that teacher
gave at the beginning of the unit. The best
Magazine will be published as an incentive
of participation.

No internet working
No equipment available
Less of creativity
Not enough time for external issues

Lesson aim or
objective

Stages and main

procedures

Resources

Lesson 1. To
know about the
magazine online
as an interactive
way of
communication.

Talking about the

different kind of
magazines,
Bring print versions
what other print
versions do you
know?
To show a variety of
on line magazines
To talk about their
preferences in
terms of music
What do they know
about their favourite
music genre?
To split the group
according to their
preferences (rock
group, funk group,
salsa group.etc.
Showing on line
magazines about
music.
Show video
tutorials about how
to create on line
magazines.
To make a draft
about their own on
line magazine in a
paper (designing a
logo, the style, etc.)
Checking their
drafts, suggest

Print magazines (EL TIEMPO, EL

ESPECTADOR)
Video beam
http://read-magazines.com/
Homework: Bring different articles about your
favourite kind of music.

Lesson 2.
To recognize the
music genre
And the online
magazines that
use music as
their main topic

Lesson 3.
How to design
and create an on
line magazine

Video beam
Speakers
http://www.rollingstone.com/
http://www.billboard.com/biz/magazine

Videobeam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWffeEEQlc4
https://flippingbook.com/online-digital-magazine

changes
Lesson 4.
Creating a PPT
presentation with
their on line
creations

.
Design the previous
draft in the PPT
presentation
following the criteria
given for the
teacher.
The best PPT
presentation will be
published in
scribd.com

English laboratory

Lesson 5
.

Final revision of the

magazines.
How to publish on
line
Publishing the
winners

English laboratory
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-i-selfpublished-my-magazine-online-and-in-print/

Pedagogical and
theoretical rationale

www.scribd.com

The importance of teaching literacy in classroom is guide the

students to design meaning based on things that they are normally
see in their daily lives. We need to provide them tools that help
them to become critical thinkers able to access, analyze and
evaluate all the information that they receive in several ways like
media messages, newspaper, tv programs etc.
The most common understanding of literacy is that it is a set of
tangible skills particularly the cognitive skills of reading and
writing that are independent of the context in which they are
acquired and the background of the person who acquires them.
Scholars continue to disagree on the best way to acquire literacy,
with some advocating the phonetic approach and others reading
for meaning, resulting in what has sometimes been called the
reading wars (Adams, 1993; Goodman, 1996; and see discussion
in Street, 2004).
Paulo Freire is perhaps the most famous adult literacy educator
whose work integrated notions of active learning within sociocultural settings (Box 6.5). Freire emphasized the importance of
bringing the learners socio-cultural realities into the learning
process itself and then using the learning process to challenge
these social processes.