This paper outlines a theoretical and pedagogical proposal for teaching literacy in Spanish L1, contextualized in a freshman course, which is obligatory for entering to the university. As well, the proposal is exemplified by an application to two groups of students working with a genre family. This work was inspired in the educational linguistics based on Sydney School's genre and register theory developed in the frame of Systemic Functional Linguistics. The proposal was designed as one of the activities in an action-research project. The results in terms of student's literacy development was constructed by measuring average of progress and by qualitative observation of the texts produced in the teaching and learning processes. Results show significant student's development in the abilities taking in account. As conclusion, it's possible to consider that the application of this pedagogical proposal and the students' engagement in the process have had incidence in the evolution of student's literacy.