Magazine handout

Materials Design 2014

Alonso - Carcano - Sainz Polo

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I.E.S. Lenguas Vivas “Juan R. Fernández”

Magazine handout Materials Design Alejandra Alonso, Sabrina Cárcano del Campo y

Florencia Sainz Polo



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First draft Name:…………………………….… Date:………………..………

1) Discuss the following concepts with a partner. Do you feel identified with any of

them?

2) Think about the following questions and discuss them with your partner:

a- Who do you turn to for advice?

b- Do you ever read advice columns in magazines?

c- Who was the last person you gave advice to?



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3) Read Marge’s column



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3) Reflection questions:

a- Which question was the most difficult to answer?

b- Do you agree with all of Marge’s responses?

c- What’s an agony aunt/uncle?

4) Now, think of a problem you would like to get advice on. You can use the questions

on the wordle to help you. Write an agony letter. Feel free to speak your mind, it’s

anonymous.



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5) Now, it’s time for you to do Marge’s job. Pick a letter from the box and write a

response to the letter.

Then we publish all the letters and responses in the agony column.

Feedback POSITIVE ASPECTS OF THE HANDOUT:

Appealing pictures.

Variety of activities

Interesting way of introducing the topic with a wordle

The activities are very well graded

Attractive context for the agony column

All the activities are contextualised

There are several models for studnts to rely on when approaching the writting task

Interesting and varied topics for students to choose from and write about in the wordle.

Meaningul topic for teenage students

Good way of sharing problems and helping people solve them. Also, it helps students put themselves

in somebody else’s shoes.

The same font and size is used throughout the handout which makes it look as a unit

Clear and short instructions

ASPECTS THAT CAN BE IMPROVED

Add a title to the handout

Instructions should be bigger and in bold Font so that they can be clearly identified.

In ex.1 it should be explained first that the picture is a wordle. We think that making

students talk about all the concepts would take a lot of time. We suggest making them

choose 3 concepts to discuss. We would add another question in the instructions ‘Why?’

In ex.2 question a), contextualise the students before asking the question by adding ‘If you

have a problem…’. In questions b) and c) we would add another question for the students to

enlarge their answers and prevent them from answering just ‘yes’ or ‘no’ .



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In ex.4 we would add a thought bubble in order to make the exercise more appealing and to

make it clear that they should reflect. We would also make question c) the first one and we

would reformulate question a) as it is not very clear. Also, we would add another question in

question b).

Second draft Name:…………………………….… Date:………………..………

1) Look at the following wordle and choose three concepts and discuss. Do

you feel identified with any of them?

2) Think about the following questions and discuss them with your partner:

a- If you have a problem, Who do you turn to for advice?



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b- Do you ever read advice columns in magazines? Which topic interests you the most?

c- Who was the last person you gave advice to? What was his/her problem? What did you say to

him/her?

3) Read Marge’s column



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4)

a- Which problem do you think was the most difficult for Marge to give advice to?

b- Do you agree with all of Marge’s responses? Why/Why not?

c- What’s an agony aunt/uncle?

5) Now, think of a problem you would like to get advice on. You can use the

questions on the wordle to help you. Write an agony letter. Feel free to

speak your mind, it’s anonymous.



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6) Now, it’s time for you to do Marge’s job. Pick a letter from the box and

write a response to the letter.

Documents

Magazine handout