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Learning card

The magic shoe


A key to approaching the transmedia form is to use narrative resources that allow us to see how stories of this type are structured. This activity seeks, through a narrative game, to encourage creation centred on different expressive resources: gestures, words, sounds, songs, verses, drawings, choreography, etc. An object is used as the motor of the story: the magic shoe. Each group tells the story about the shoe in their own expressive resource and will receive from other groups the stories made in the other expressive resources ​​to complete (expand) them in the group's own expressive resource. At the end, students will have a group of connected stories in several expressive resources.

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  • Writing


  • Interpret
  • Recognize and describe
  • Evaluate and reflect
  • Apply
Learning areas
  • Arts
  • Language
Card language
  • Spanish
  • English


3 (Variable)
135’ (Variable)
Number of participants
  • 14-16
  • 17-18
  • Different types of shoes for each group of 5 people (baby booties, sports shoes, ballet shoes, ladies' heels, old and broken shoes, etc.)
  • Sheets of white paper and pencils
  • Rotuladores y lápices de colores
  • Markers and colour pencils available for each group


Key questions
  • Does anyone know any stories where shoes play a central role? Think of movies, children's stories, novels, etc.
  • Why were the stories told based on the shoes?
  • Is there any other kind of clothing item that is used to tell stories? Is it more expressive? Hats?

The group is distributed into subgroups of 5 people, each group has sheets of paper available. Each group is assigned an expressive resource (word, sound, music, dance, drawing, gesture, etc.) and, from a bag where they have previously put the shoes, they choose a shoe. Each group will begin a story called "The magic shoe" based on the shoe they chose and tell it using their expressive resource. The story should be recorded on the paper and so it can be passed to another group to continue its development. This text must contain clear instructions for the other group to carry out the continuation of the story in their own expressive resource. For example, you must state at what time, in what place and under what conditions the story occurs, for example, what are the powers and limits of the shoe, what causes its destruction, under what conditions does it work and when does it not work, etc.

After 20 minutes the group is asked to put the story on the shoe and pass it on to another group so that they can continue the story. The group should keep the story and track the shoe, but use their own language to expand the story, this expansion may mean adding to what already exists in their own expressive resource or increasing the development of the story to make it move on or look into the past. What you cannot do is change the rules and conditions established by the group that started the story.

Every 15 minutes a group change will be made until at least 4 changes have been made and, therefore, the story is told in at least four different expressive resources. The key will be to have the basic text that brings together the whole story.

Once the round is over, the text and the shoe are given to a fifth group that will be in charge of presenting the story. For the final session each group prepares the presentation of their work before the rest of the group.

If digital tools are available, in extra class time or outside the school, it is suggested that the recording of the presentation be made into a video or video and performance or live performance can be combined. If you do not have that kind of resource, the presentation is live. The presentations can be between 5 and 8 minutes long, unless otherwise agreed.


The exercise can be evaluated in co-evaluation between the groups according to factors such as: appropriate use of the expressive resources, correctly following the rules defined in each story, ability to provide continuity between languages ​​and sections of the story.

References for professors
  • Perrault, Charles. Cenicienta.

    Barbie y las zapatillas mágicas (Barbie in The Pink Shoes, película 2013)

    Una pandilla de altura (Like Mike, película 2002)


G. Eduardo Gutiérrez. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia),

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