HT Module – Print Media and Latinx Communities

Produced by
Aránzazu Borrachero, Valeria Belmonti, and Katherine Entigar

Preparation and Resources

Objectives

Students will be able to:

use cross cultural comparisons to explain and analyze the concepts of culture, cultural heritage, and cultural diversity
compare community-based and institutional ways of acknowledging and celebrating people of Latinx origin and/or identity in the United States
identify and evaluate print media designed to communicate with a Latinx audience, including advertising and event announcements
apply new knowledge by creating a poster to announce an event, market a product, or achieve another goal with a Latinx audience in mind

Materials

For Activity 1 (Cultura questionnaires)

http://chicagolatinofilmfestival.org/gallery/posters-archive

For Activity 2 (Overview of types of print media)

For Activity 3 (Advertising and Latinx communities)

Singh, N. & Bartikowski, B. (2009) “A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Print Advertising Targeted to Hispanic and Non-Hispanic American Consumers.” Thunderbird International Business Review, vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 151-164. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tie.20255/epdf
1. PowerPoint summary of Singh & Bartikowski’s article (for instructor information): How marketers use culturally relevant content in print advertising to target the U.S. Hispanic consumers
2. Please note: We suggest that instructors look up several of the advertising campaigns that are included on page 157 of the article in advance to ensure that they will be meaningful for their classes and to review for the messaging, intended audiences, and goals of each campaign for class discussion.
Gatorade Campaign (2014)
Cheetos Campaign [shot of billboard] (2012)
Poster from Jamaica, Queens (NYC): Local Restaurant Advertising for Valentine’s Day
El Callao Restaurant
Eventos Heidi
Images from Chicago’s Hispanic Little Village [street shot of building facade]

Technology Resources

Project home site: Platform for posting resources, results from questionnaires, and student posters. Free options include:
Videoconferencing: Application which enables students to communicate via videoconference. (Note: YouTube Live and Zoom provide the ability to record conference sessions.) Free options include:
1. Skype
2. Zoom
3. YouTube Live (also, for guidance on how to create a YouTube account, click here)
4. Facetime [for Mac/Apple users only]
Cultura-inspired questionnaires: Application that enables instructors to create and submit an online form/questionnaire. Free options include:
Resources for poster making: Applications than enable students to collaboratively create a digital poster. Free options include:
1. Poster making sites:
2. Copyright-free online repositories/resources[1]:

Preparation for Instructors

Project Home Site

Make sure to set up the project home site prior to the start of class and use it to post all instructions and tutorials to be shared with students. This is also the space where you and your students can upload short bios.

Videoconferencing

Practice operating the selected videoconference software. Create a step-by-step tutorial for students or else locate existing online tutorials to post on the project home site.

Cultura Questionnaires

It is very important to get to know the Cultura model prior to the execution of Activity 1. We strongly encourage you to visit the Educator’s Guide on the Cultura website in order to review the descriptions of the Questionnaire activities and the Word Association debriefing tasks. For further information on the Cultura model, consult the following resources:

English, K., Furstenberg, G., Levet, S., & Maillet, K. (2001). Giving a Virtual Voice to the Silent Language Culture: The CULTURA Project. Language Learning & Technology, 5(1), 55-102.
Furstenberg, G., & English, K. (2016). Cultura revisited. Language Learning and Technology, 20 (2), 172–178.

It is also important to establish with instructors at C2 (College 2) a shared timeline for students’ submissions and the publication of questionnaire results. The Cultura-inspired questionnaires should be developed prior to the beginning of the course.

Before the first day of class, create a list of words and/or sentence starters that refer to Latinx culture and celebrations to share with the class. For the questionnaires, see the following suggested lists:

Word association:

cultura/culture
comparación intercultural/cross-cultural comparison
herencia/heritage
diversidad/diversity
comunidad/community
festivo/festival/fiesta/celebración/celebration
publicidad/advertising
activismo//advocacy
afilición comunitaria/community membership
orgullo en la comunidad/community pride
consumidor/consumer
destinatarios/target audience

Sentence completion:

Afiliación comunitaria se define a través de../Community membership is defined by…
Me siento orgullosa/o de ser parte de mi comunidad cuando…/I am proud to be a part of my community when…
En las celebraciones latinxs en los Estados Unidos, se puede encontrar…/In Latinx celebrations in the United States, you can find…
Para mí (no) es importante asistir a eventos latinxs porque…/I (don’t) think it’s important to attend Latinx events because…
Compro un producto si/cuando…/I buy a product if/when…
Creo que la publicidad es…porque…/I think advertising is…because…
Como consumidor(a), yo…/As a consumer, I…
Creo que los publicistas hoy en día…/I think advertisers nowadays…

When creating the questionnaires, follow these steps:

Create a first question—either “dropdown” or “multiple choice”—which can be used to filter and aggregate responses from each class. The names of the schools should be used as indicators for this question.
Create “Short Answers” or “Paragraphs” types of questions for the word associations and sentence completions.
Enable participants to submit responses only once.

The link to the questionnaire should then be posted on the project home site right before the execution of Activity 1.

Poster Making

Practice operating the selected poster making software and create a step-by-step tutorial or locate existing online tutorials to post on the project home site. In addition, review and select suggested resources to support activity 4, or locate alternative resources that would be meaningful for your class in terms of cultural and linguistic relevance. Finally, consider opportunities for (re)introducing a list of relevant keywords, phrases, and structures in Spanish that will support class discussion and exchange with the students at C2.

Preparation for Students

Project Home Site

Have students familiarize themselves with the project home site, including how to access resources and post content.

Student Grouping

Put students into groups of 3-4 people^[2] for work in class and for collaboration with their counterparts at College 2 during videoconferences. As these groups will work together over the duration of the module, it is recommended that students be given ample opportunity to get to know each other first, e.g., during the first class meeting in a warm-up exercise, before forming groups. This will help ensure that group members can work well together while ideally displaying heterogeneous backgrounds, interests, language competencies and experience, etc.

Videoconferencing

Familiarize students with how to participate in videoconferencing. We recommend conducting a short in-class demo prior to the start of the Module. Note: If students are required to record a videconference, they should be shown how to record the session and then submit the recording to you.

Have students complete a videoconference icebreaker session with the students at C2 so that all can become familiar with the media they will be using for assignments. This exercise should take place at least 1-2 weeks prior to the official start of the module to accomodate adequate time for exchange between the student groups. Students can use this practice to exchange basic information about themselves:

Nombres y apodos/Names and nicknames
País de origen/Country of origin
Tiempo que lleva en Estados Unidos y en la ciudad donde vive ahora/Time in the U.S. and the city where you live now
Estudios, empleo, metas profesionales/Educational background, current work, professional goals
Aficiones/Hobbies
Preguntas de seguimiento/Other follow-up questions

Poster Making

Introduce students to the poster making program(s) they will be using and show them where to find tutorials on the project home site.

[1] Note: Images which are free from copyright restrictions or are licensed for use under creative commons public domain may nonetheless require attribution. See https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Best_practices_for_attribution for examples and discussion. Also note that some of the sites require that users begin a free trial membership.

[2] We suggest that instructors discourage students from forming groups of two, as this may inadvertently create challenges if a student drops the class or if other issues arise.

Activity 1: Cultura Questionnaires

This activity is designed to create opportunities for students from C1 and C2 to generate associations between words, phrases, and images and their starting understandings of Latinx cultural identity, which they will discuss with their partners at C2.

Preparation for Videoconference: Cultura Questionnaires

Cultura Questionnaires

This starting step involves the creation of questionnaires which will provide students with the opportunity to engage with word association and sentence completion to create linguistic and cultural connections with various dimensions of membership in the Latinx community.

Follow the instructions in the section “Cultura-Inspired Questionnaires” under “Preparation for Instructors” to create the questionnaires ahead of time.
Notify students of the deadline for submitting their responses and be sure to give them adequate time to complete their submissions. Students should also be advised that they must complete their submissions in one sitting, write “spontaneously,” e.g. providing the first responses that come to mind, and use L1 (the language of the country where they are studying).
Once all students have submitted their responses, publish their results on the project home site’s group chat in a side-by-side comparison with those of the class in C2. See samples here. The side-by-side comparison can be posted as an image or as a link to an online table/document.
After publishing the results, discuss the findings with your students, inviting them to compare the results from C1 and C2 in order to identify similarities and differences within and across groups and formulate possible hypotheses and explanations for these similarities and differences. Based on this class discussion, ask students to form questions for their peers at C2 that will help clarify their questionnaire responses and test the hypotheses that your students have generated. More information on how to guide the debriefing part of the Cultura questionnaire exercise can be found here.

Option to Supplement: Cultura-Inspired Image Activity

An additional option may be to include images as a supplement to the word list in order to provide more access points. (Note: If you do include images, be sure to select resources that refer directly or indirectly to Latinx celebrations and/or community. In addition, try to find resources that are rich and evocative and can be described by students at various levels of language proficiency. Images should reference cultural celebrations that are typically associated with Latinx communities, e.g. the Quinceañera, Día de los Muertos, etc. Some examples can be found on the Chicago Latino Film Festival archive website: http://chicagolatinofilmfestival.org/gallery/posters-archive/

Task: Videoconference

Have students from C1 and C2 communicate via videoconference to discuss the results of the questionnaires. Students should use the videoconference to ask clarifying questions regarding the hypotheses that were posed during class discussion.The two groups will collaboratively evaluate the patterns, similarities and differences they have identified between the two educational contexts.

Post-Task Debrief

At Home: Journal Entry

Have students write a journal entry about the telecollaboration activity conducted with the students at C2. These journal entries should be shared with you via individual means (e.g. email or Blackboard) so that you can review them ahead of time and incorporate students’ ideas, questions, and issues into the following class discussion. Journal entries may also provide a rich linguistic resource for ongoing proficiency development. Possible elements for students to include in their journal entries:

A summary of your experience. What did you learn? What was it like to exchange ideas with students at C2? Did any challenges or issues come up? How was working with the students in C2 and exchanging information about your differing geographic contexts, lifestyles, and perspectives? How did this exchange inspire reflection on your own perspective?
Findings from the questionnaire responses. What emerged from the comparison/contrast of the information shared? What in-group and across-group patterns emerged?
Hypotheses generated during class discussion. What was strange, interesting, intriguing, controversial, surprising in the exchange, and what possible reasons might there be?
Clarifications and comments shared with the students at C2 during the task. What else was discussed during this experience?
Thoughts about language use. What language(s) were used during the communication? Where different languages used for different topics?
An element that inspires further research/reflection.

In Class: Discussion

After students complete their entry, conduct a class discussion/group reflection using the suggested guiding questions below. This portion of the activity assists students in critically engaging with the target concepts and developing new and deeper definitions. Note: students may respond in English, Spanish, or a combination of both languages in this discussion, depending on the proficiency level of the participating group(s) and class goals. Invite students to consider their language choices and how those relate to the ideas under discussion, using this as an opportunity to expand the vocabulary used as a group.

What was the telecollaboration like? What insights emerged from this process? What is working across educational, geographical, and cultural contexts like?
How would you define culture in the context of this activity?[1] What do cultural differences mean within this definition?
How would you define cultural heritage? How does cultural heritage pass from one generation to the next?
How would you define cultural diversity? Why is it important? How are we culturally diverse in this classroom?
What role do celebrations play in the expression of culture?
What meanings emerge through cross-cultural comparisons of Latinx and non-Latinx cultural celebrations? What do they have in common, and how might they be different? What are some examples of non-Latinx cultural celebrations in the United States? (For example, in New York some groups celebrate San Gennaro and St. Patrick’s Day.) Why might these other cultural celebrations be important to Latinxs?
What do cultural celebrations tell us about a community and its members?

[1] For all of the following, you can have your students look at various definitions online and ask them to use responses from the results of the Cultura questionnaires as well as their conversations with the students at C2.

Activity 2: Overview of Types of Print Media

This activity is designed to introduce students to various forms of print media and their distinct and overlapping features, and to explore the ways in which these forms are created by and/or for Latinx audiences.

Preparation for Videoconference: Exploration of Forms of Print Media

Overview of Print Media

Brainstorm with the class some of the different types of print media, as well as their various purposes and audiences. Create a list of relevant vocabulary on the board for the class to use in discussions and ask students to contribute definitions. Below is an incomplete list of different types of print media. (Note: Some types of print media occupy more than one category (e.g. promotions of a film festival specifically created for Latinx people).

Advertisement: Promoting a product, service, or idea. (Audience = potential buyers/consumers)
Information: Providing people with information about an event or issue that is relevant to their lives. (Audience = potential viewers who will benefit from this information)
Persuasion/Advocacy: Persuading people to do/not do something. (Audience = potential participants in change)
Expression of community pride and/or membership: Recognizing an important date, celebration, and/or aspect of individuals’ lives. (Audience = community members)
Other ideas?

Drawing upon the previous discussion, put students into small groups for a jigsaw activity. Provide each group with a poster which appears to be intended for Latinx viewers from one or more of the above categories. Have them work on the posters using the suggested guided questions below. Poster suggestions include the following:

Suggested guiding questions for small group poster discussions:

In one sentence, what is your immediate reaction to the poster?
Which of the previously discussed categories of print media does this poster fall into? Explain.
Who do you think is the target audience? Consider age, language(s) spoken, country of origin, gender, race/ethnicity, etc. What intended message(s) do you think the poster includes for this audience?
What are the visual components of the poster? Consider the images chosen (as well as their size and positioning), language use, organization of information, font, colors, etc. How is the main message of the poster created through the selection of and relationship among the images, texts, colors and overall layout that are used?
What emotion(s) does the poster try to generate in the viewer?
Who would you think created this poster (members of the Latinx community vs. non-members)? Do you think this is important information? If so, what effect might the identity/memberships of the creator(s) have on the ideas expressed and choices made?
Do you think this poster represents you and/or your community? Why or why not?
What is your overall reaction to the poster?

When the groups are finished with their discussions, debrief as a class. What insights have students gathered about the example of print media they have analyzed and how it may be used and perceived by Latinx audiences? Have students take notes on these insights to be used in the following steps. Encourage students to incorporate specific vocabulary they have built in this debrief, and add new language structures as necessary.

Visual Representation of Community

Have students work independently to locate a visual representation (photograph, video, painting, sculpture, etc.) that they feel represents themselves as a member of their community.^[1] Ask students to bring the visual representation to the class (or, in the case of a video, have them bring in a means of sharing this with their group) for discussion. Refresh the class’s understanding of the vocabulary they have built in previous activities (or generate a new list), and add/clarify as necessary. In order to give students a general idea of how these small group discussions will take place, bring in an example image and share it with the class, inviting them to consider their impressions of this image in relation to community identity.

Put students into small groups to share the visual representations they have brought in. Suggested questions include:

Why did you choose this visual representation? What do you think it says about you? About your community?
Does this visual representation refer to your college, neighborhood, city, region of the country? Explain.
Where did you find this visual representation? Who created it? Do you think this information is important? Why or why not? What are the devices (color, image selection and placement, etc.) used to construct the message of this image? How do they accomplish this?
What feelings, desires, and emotions does this visual representation produce? Do you think this might be different for you than for other people? Why or why not?
How might this visual representation generate a feeling in the viewer of membership, belonging, and community? Who do you think is included in this community? Who might be excluded (intentionally or unintentionally)?

When students are finished discussing their visual representations in small groups, have each group select and present one visual representation that it found particularly interesting during discussion. Discuss as a class each group’s selected representation and what it evokes for the rest of the class. Generate class understandings about individual cultural identity and the relationship between this and cultural identity in community. Use the vocabulary list that was created for the discussion, and add as needed.

After class discussion, have each group post their selected visual representation on the project home site and write a brief (3-6 sentences) summary explaining their choice and why this represents their community (including their college, neighborhood, city, region, and anything else they’d like to share). These posts will be reviewed by the students at C2 in preparation for a videoconference, while C1 students will review posts uploaded by the students at C2. When the posts have been published, invite students to identify patterns of similarities and differences within and across the two groups, and ask students to formulate possible explanations for these differences. Have students work in pairs to make a list of questions they will ask the students at C2 during the videoconference. Create a class list of questions that will be added to the question bank on the project home site.

Task: Videoconference

Set up a telecollaboration with the group at C2 and have students meet and discuss the visual representations shared by the students at C2. Students will work in small groups and use the list of questions previously created to meet with their counterparts at C2 for discussion. Have students take notes on these discussions in preparation for writing a journal entry as well as for an in-class debrief after the telecollaboration is completed.

Post-Task: Journal, Class Debrief

At Home: Journal Entry

Have students write a journal entry about the telecollaboration activity with the students at C2. These journal entries should be shared with you via individual means (e.g. email or Blackboard) in order for you to be able to review them ahead of time and incorporate students’ ideas, questions, and issues into the following class discussion. Journal entries may also provide a rich linguistic resource for ongoing class language building. Possible elements for students to include in their journal entries:

A summary of your experience. What did you learn? What was it like to exchange ideas with students at C2? Did any challenges or issues come up? How was working with the students in C2 with different backgrounds, contexts, lifestyles, and perspectives? How did this exchange inspire reflection on your own perspective?
Findings from the discussion of selected visual representations of “our”/Latinx communities. What emerged from the comparison/contrast of the information shared? What in-group and across-group patterns emerged?
Hypotheses generated during class discussion. What was strange, interesting, intriguing, controversial, surprising in the exchange, and what possible reasons might there be for this?
Clarifications and comments shared with students at C2 during the task. What else was discussed during this experience?
Thoughts about language use. What language(s) were used during the communication? What was that experience like?
An element that inspires further research/reflection.

In Class: Discussion

After students complete their entries, conduct a class reflection in which ideas and themes that emerged during and after the telecollaboration experience can be discussed as a class. Note: students may respond in English, Spanish, or a combination of both languages in this discussion, depending on proficiency level of the participating group(s) and class goals. Invite students to consider their language choices and how those relate to the ideas under discussion. Use this as an opportunity to expand the vocabulary used as a group.

What is the relationship between print media and cultural identity/membership? How does the former require a deep understanding of the latter?
What difference, if any, do you think exists between print media created by members of the Latinx community for members of the same community, versus media created by for the Latinx community by non-members? How might you be able to tell?
Compare and contrast print media and newer forms of media (e.g., social media platforms, websites, blogs, etc.) in terms of the ways in which they communicate with their audience, the ways in which they influence behavior, and their objectives. Do you think print media is becoming outdated? Why or why not?
What can print media tell us about the audience it is directed towards? What are the limits of making such assumptions?
What other ideas, themes, questions, or new understandings have come up for you through this experience?

[1] Note for instructors: Depending on student/class resources, this may be done in a computer lab, on students’ laptops, or at home in advance preparation for this activity.

Activity 3: Advertising and Latinx Communities

This activity explores the design, messaging, and intent of various forms of advertising for Latinx audiences.

Preparation for Videoconference: Exploring Advertising

Advertising

Using the PowerPoint included with this module, discuss print media and its role in disseminating information to specific audiences. See Singh and Bartowski 2009, Table 3, retrieve and analyze some selected campaigns in order to discuss whether students find the sample campaigns appealing, persuasive, effective, etc. (See PPT: How marketers use culturally relevant content in print advertising to target the U.S. Hispanic consumers for summary of article.) Some suggested questions include:

What stereotypes of Latinx consumers may emerge in these campaigns, if any?
What aspects of the advertisements do you think are designed to be “appealing” to Latinx consumers?
What other reactions do you have?

After finishing class discussion, divide students into groups and assign each group one of several printed advertisements which appear to be intended for Latinx audiences. Suggestions may include the following posters (from Activity 2):

Have students work in groups to discuss their impressions of the advertisements they’ve been assigned, using a list of guiding questions as in the suggested list below. Also include key words, phrases, and structures in Spanish that are relevant to this discussion.

Who is the target audience? Consider age, language(s) spoken, country of origin, gender, race/ethnicity, etc. What intended message(s) do you think the poster includes for this audience?
What are the visual components of the poster? Consider the images chosen (as well as their size and positioning), language use, organization of information, font, colors, etc. How is the main message of the poster created through the selection of and relationship among the images, text, colors and overall layout that are used?
What emotion(s) does the poster produce in the viewer?
Who would you guess created this poster (members of the Latinx community vs. non-members)? Do you think this information is important? If so, what effect might the identity/memberships of the creator(s) have on the ideas expressed and choices made?
Do you think this poster represents you and/or your community? Why or why not?
Consider the Print Advertising Coding Scheme from Singh and Bartowski in reviewing these advertisements. The topic areas (individualistic vs. collectivistic cultures, etc.) were generated by theorists in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. What, in your opinion, might be missing and/or need to be added in conducting an analysis of advertising for Latinx audiences in 2018?
What is your overall reaction to the poster?

Task: Videoconference

Set up a telecollaboration with C2. Have your students work in their small groups paired with groups of students from C2. If possible, have students present and discuss an advertisement that is different than the advertisement their counterparts are presenting, in order to create opportunities to encounter similarities and differences, generate inferences collaboratively, and draw broader conclusions. Have students take notes on these discussions for journal entry writing and for an in-class debrief after the telecollaboration is completed.

Post-Task: Journal, Class Debrief

At Home: Journal Entry

Have students write a journal entry about the telecollaboration activity with the students at C2. Then have them share their journal entries with you via individual means (e.g. email or Blackboard) so that you can review them ahead of time and incorporate the ideas, questions, and issues they contain into the following class discussion. Journal entries may also provide a rich linguistic resource for ongoing class language building. Possible elements for students to include in their journal entries:

A summary of the telecollaboration experience. What did you learn? What was it like to exchange ideas with students at C2? Did any challenges or issues come up? What was it like to work with students who have different backgrounds, contexts, lifestyles, and perspectives? How did this exchange inspire reflection on your own perspective?
Hypotheses generated during class discussion. What was strange, interesting, intriguing, controversial, surprising in the exchange, and what possible reasons might there be for this?
Clarifications and comments shared with the students at C2 during the task. What else was discussed during this experience?
Thoughts about language use. What language(s) were used during the communication? What was that experience like?
Suggest an element that inspires further research/reflection.

In Class: Discussion

After students complete their entry, conduct a class reflection in which ideas and themes that emerged during and after the telecollaboration experience can be discussed. Use the suggested guiding questions below. Note: students may respond in English, Spanish, or a combination of both languages in this discussion, depending on proficiency level of the participating group(s) and class goals. Invite students to consider their language choices and how those relate to the ideas under discussion, using this as an opportunity to expand the vocabulary used as a group.

What was the telecollaboration like? What insights emerged from this process? What is working across educational, geographical, and cultural contexts like?
How is advertising distinct from other forms of print media? What assumptions does advertising make that other forms of print media do not?
How does advertising capitalize upon existing stereotypes and generalizations about Latinx communities? What effects might this have in broader terms? Are there positive versions of this?
Now that you have explored the ways in which advertising can be analyzed using a framework like that created by Singh and Bartowski, what new insights can you apply to the ways in which you approach and understand advertising? Could these ideas be applied to other forms of print media for Latinx audiences? Explain.
What shifts do you think are taking place in the ways in which Latinx communities are approached as potential “consumers”? How might this be reflected in advertising?
What other ideas, themes, questions, or new understandings have come up for you through this experience?

Activity 4: Collaborative Poster

This activity gives students the opportunity to design posters of their own with the intention of communicating with a Latinx audience about a product, a community event, celebration, and/or other message/idea they find significant.

Preparation for Exchange: Poster Creation, Discussion

Poster Creation

Put students into small groups in which they will work to design a poster which is intended to reflect and communicate with their community, however they define it (geographically, linguistically, historically, etc.). Each group will define the following for their poster:

The form (or combinations of forms) of print media they are creating and the purpose of the poster (advertising a product, service or idea; publicizing an upcoming event for the month; informing the public about the history of the celebration; getting people’s attention on a related issue, etc.)
Images, background, and color choices. Refer to resource list for copyright-free online images.
Text (English, Spanish, and/or other linguistic resources) to complement the images
Organization/placement of images and text
Collaborative platform to create the poster

When students are finished creating their posters, have them upload their work to the project home site and write a brief (3-6 sentences) description of their poster.

In class, have students compare the images posted by their own group and by their counterparts at C2. Ask them to keep in mind the different forms of print media (advertising, informational, advocacy, etc.) they have worked with as well as previous class discussions about the purposes, audiences, and messages included in each form. Guide students in a compare-and-contrast activity in order to explore in-group and across-groups patterns. Have students take notes on this exercise in order to prepare for making comments on the work by the students at C2. Suggested questions for reflection include the following:

What does a comparison of your class’s posters and the posters made by students at C2 suggest about your respective perspectives on cultural expression and community representation? For example, what choices did your counterparts at C2 make that were different than your own in terms of type of print media, intended audience, images and text selected, etc.? What do you have in common?
Do you think a “pan-Latinx” identity (meaning a single, unitary identity) emerges in making this comparison? What might nonetheless be left out or obscured by such a comparison
Is the fact that you belong to a Latinx community evident in the way you create, perceive and analyze these posters? If so, how? Are there understandings you bring to this discussion that others from “outside the community” cannot?

Task: Exchange of Posters with Peers at C2

Have students log on to the project home site and post comments on the posters created by the students at C2, including clarifying questions in the comments. (Note: It is important to assign a few days for this back and forth between students from both groups to take place.) Have students take notes on the comments, themes and insights that emerge as a result. Questions to help guide their reflection may include the following:

What different topics, themes, ideas, etc. emerged in the posters created by the students at C2? What does this tell us about the communities and city in which this school is embedded?
What commonalities emerge among our selected posters? What differences emerge? What can we attribute these differences to?
What new insights have we discovered about Latinx communities in our respective locations? What does viewing our counterparts’ posters tell us about our own histories, local cultures, and ways of seeing and representing ourselves?

Post-Task: Journal, Class Debrief

At Home: Journal Entry

Have students write a journal entry about the telecollaboration activity with the students at C2. Then have them share their journal entries with you via individual means (e.g. email or Blackboard) so that you can review them ahead of time and incorporate the ideas, questions, and issues they contain into the following class discussion. Journal entries may also provide a rich linguistic resource for ongoing proficiency development. Possible elements for students to include in their journal entries:

A summary of the telecollaboration experience. What did you learn? What was it like to exchange ideas with students at C2? Did any challenges or issues come up? What was it like to work with students who have different backgrounds, contexts, lifestyles, and perspectives? How did this exchange inspire reflection on your own perspective?
Hypotheses generated during class discussion. What was strange, interesting, intriguing, controversial, surprising in the exchange, and what possible reasons might there be for this?
Clarifications and comments shared with the students at C2 during the task. What else was discussed during this experience?
Suggest an element that inspires further research/reflection.

In Class: Discussion

After students complete their entries, conduct a class reflection in which ideas and themes that emerged during and after the telecollaboration experience can be discussed. Suggested guiding questions include the following:

What was the telecollaboration like? What insights emerged from this process? What is working across educational, geographical, and cultural contexts like?
How was creating your own poster different than reviewing those that were created by someone else? What kind of effect might this experience have for an individual who identifies as Latinx or another culturally, historically, racially/ethnically, and/or linguistically distinct community? How might this kind of activity be a response to stereotypes, generalizations, and/or misunderstandings about this community?
How might this kind of activity be a political act?
How might this kind of activity be a new form of communication and community-building?
What other ideas, themes, questions, or new understandings have come up for you through this experience?
What new insights have you gathered about your counterparts at C2, as well as about yourselves as members of Latinx communities?

Final Essay

Have students write a short (2-3 page) reflection on this Module. Invite students to review the rubric associated with this module. The essay should incorporate responses to the following questions in a narrative format:

Describe the telecollaboration experience and the new insights and themes that emerged through this collaborative work. How did participating in an exchange of perspectives and ideas with the students in C2 affect, alter, and/or deepen your understandings of the topics you have explored in this module?
Consider the earlier conversations you’ve had about the identity/membership(s) of the creators of print media compared to that of their audience(s). What is the difference between speaking to a community and speaking for a community? What is the difference between stereotyping people and inviting or inspiring them? Give examples from the experiences you’ve had during this module.
What does it mean to be “Latinx” in your school, your community, your city? How is this different than in other places? What makes someone “Latinx”?
What was the experience of creating a poster to represent yourself and your community like? What is still left unsaid, if anything, in an exercise like this?

Rubric: Final Essay

Print Media Final Essay Rubric

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.