Syllabus

Course Description
This is a blended course, English for Architecture and Urban Planning at Universidad Simon Bolivar. It is intended for the practice of the 4 skills of the language and the introduction of architectural and urban planning content. The whole course follows a task-content-based approach to language teaching, based on the tenets of the social constructivist theory of learning. Each unit has been designed as a Learning Object. During the course students will be analyzing the content and discourse of different architectural and urban planning online magazines to finally create their own.

General objective
By the end of the course, the participants will be able to use the English structures and vocabulary learned in ID2124 as well as the different pieces of discourse (oral and written) needed to design an online magazine about architecture and/or urban planning

Specific Objectives
At the end of the course, students will have practiced: At the end of the course, students will have discussed about the following topics:
 * 1. Language ||
 * vocabulary related to the content
 * reading authentic texts related to the content
 * recognizing different kinds of rhetorical patterns in readings, videos and recordings
 * writing introductions and summaries
 * writing descriptive and comparison and contrast paragraphs
 * listening to authentic videos and recordings related to the content
 * speaking about the course-related content
 * 2. Content ||

During the course, students will have the opportunity to:
 * the sections in content-related magazines and journals
 * the difference between online and printed magazines
 * the discourse used in the different sections and parts of a magazine (titles, logos, advertisements, letters to the editor, articles, podcasts, videos, entertainment).
 * the architectural and urban planning content contained in the different texts used in class.
 * 3. Skills ||


 * use different Webtools for learning (web pages, online platforms, blogs, text and voice chats, podcasts, drawing tools, interactive online Venn diagram creators, interactive online exercises, interactive online lessons, among others)
 * work in groups
 * create outlines, brainmaps, Venn diagrams
 * practice notetaking skills from written and oral texts.
 * develop autonomy in learning

Course Content
Click here for the timetable with the distribution of the content by week

Methodology
This blended course has been designed to give certain autonomy and flexibility to the students. Moodle will be used as the asynchronous center for communication, and it will be complemented with a wiki. The multimedia lab will be our meeting place, especially for students who do not have easy access to computers. **It is strongly recommended to attend classes f2f during the first 6 weeks**. However, if there were a special situation that does not allow the students to be in class, they can do the activities from other places, and not necessarily at the same time the lab session is taking place. Students only need to complete the activities assigned for each week (see Timetable). Using tailored made exercises and others found on the web, students, individually, and at their own pace, will practice the aspects of the language they need to work on. Students will also participate in group work, and these activities can be done at any time the groups decide to meet; in the case of the chat, previous invitation and agreement with the teacher will take place. Some activities will combine f2f and online elements, these activities will require students presence in the classroom. With the different activities, students will develop and practice vocabulary related to the content while they read authentic texts and listen and view authentic videos. Students will also be involved in peer and self-assessment of the work done.

Evaluation
The evaluation follows the principles of Alternative Evaluation. There will be teacher correction of class assignments as well as self and peer-correction. Rubrics and checklists will be generated to assess the different tasks. See Evaluation Plan section for details

Resources
For the online resources used in the course, see the Useful Links section.