Learning a language is a social, gradual, and recursive process. This requires flexible assessments that offer students choices while still upholding academic standards. The zine-making initiative responded to these needs, targeting the goals and standards of each particular course while integrating the flexibility that made possible the cross-curricular collaboration leading to the Zine Fest event.

Students in elementary-level courses explored various topics and wrote journals to reflect on cultural perspectives, establishing connections and comparisons between the target culture and their own. Using their journal entries, students selected the topic that resonated most with them (e.g., education, jobs, housing) and, working in pairs, followed a step-by-step process outlined in a task format. This was purposefully designed to scaffold the zine creation and writing process, ensuring that by the end of the task sessions in class, students had a final draft of their zine. The first assessment component, which focused on oral skills, took place before the Zine Fest. Students self-recorded Spanish explanations of the rationale behind their zine and its content. The second assessment occurred after the event and focused on written skills and reflection with both Spanish and English written components. Students were asked to debrief from the Zine Fest, further explaining, contextualizing, and connecting their work with that of their peers.

Students at the intermediate level wrote short stories in Spanish exploring social justice topics, such as the relationship between society and entertainment, patriarchy, work, indigenism, and the experiences of Hispanics and Latinxs in and from the US. These assignments were peer-reviewed and evaluated by the instructor, eventually forming the content base of their zines. The Zine Fest provided an opportunity for students to share their work with a broader audience and served as the foundation for their final oral presentation. Students analyzed and reflected on their peers’ work in groups of three, discussing the content and form of their zines and their connection to the message of their short story or the argument of their essay. Their presentation also included a reflection on a zine from another section or course that stood out to them.

Courses at both elementary and intermediate levels used rubrics to assess the zines and associated assignments. While there was variance in the standards of performance description due to the students’ varying levels of knowledge in the Spanish language, the rubric criteria remained largely the same between the two courses. For example, both courses had criteria for the use of vocabulary within the project. The elementary level course focused on “accurate and organized language with few mistakes” for mastery, while the intermediate level course looked for “sophisticated use of vivid and sensorial language that evokes a strong mental image for the reader” for students to achieve the highest marks. So, while the zine project itself was transformed to fit each course’s assignments and objectives, the rubrics allowed for an overall cohesive way to measure student achievement.

A project of this scale faced several challenges, including managing the physical media and materials that students used to create the zines, organizing the presentation space, and adapting the assignment to each course while meeting course-specific needs and goals. Coordinating 22 instructors across 29 sections to showcase the work of 382 students was a significant logistical undertaking. It required a high level of collaboration among the coordinators, which fostered fruitful exchanges of ideas and resources, as well as conversations around pedagogy within the Spanish Language Program.

The greatest challenge with so many moving parts was the time investment required, such as attending team meetings, fine-tuning details via email, and managing the logistics of the zine fest.

Despite the challenges, the project was highly successful in promoting student engagement, creative expression, and building a sense of community. Students were excited to see each other’s work and provide constructive feedback on that work. The hands-on nature of the project offered a break from the usual class activities and provided a relaxed learning environment for artistic self-expression. Instructors noted the importance of simplifying the tasks students were asked to complete during the Zine Fest in order to allow them more time to explore and enjoy each other’s work and promote more student interaction. Overall, this was a positive experience that they hope to adjust based on feedback as they emulate it again in the future.