Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy
CLB 4L - Reading
Interacting with Others
Global Citizenship
Real-World Task
Read a message from a friend about their experiences volunteering at a Francophone cultural festival.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Learners need to be aware of the two official languages in Canada, Indigenous languages and the diversity of other languages and cultures in Canada.
- Francophone culture is an important part of Canadian culture.
Context:
- Due to Canadian cultural diversity, it’s common for municipalities to host multiple cultural festivals reflecting their population’s diversity.
- People in Canada volunteer at cultural festivals for many reasons, including improving their resumes, gaining valuable experience, meeting others and helping the community.
- Cultural festivals often include food, dancing and music.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- Nouns related to community events (a festival, a food drive, an art show, a concert, a sports event, a silent auction, a fair)
- Verbs to express/ describe participation (take part in, volunteer, participate, organize, help, invite, co-ordinate)
- Nouns related to elements of an event (stage, food pavilion, concessions, vendors)
- Names of popular foods at a cultural event, such as poutine and tourtière at a Francophone event
Sample Grammar:
- Simple Past (regular and irregular verbs) to describe past events and activities.
- Subordinate clauses with because.
- Subordinate clauses (adjective clauses) with what, which and who to provide description or explanation.
- Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, so, or) to connect ideas.
- Sequencing adverbs to relate the order of events/ activities.
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Recognizing cohesion devices, such as sequencing adverbs Identifying paragraph structure.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- Common formulaic expressions used in friendly messages, such as greetings, expressions of interest, closings.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Learners match vocabulary cards with images to vocabulary cards with words.
- Learners read a message and identify the introduction, details and conclusions (e.g., by highlighting each part in a different colour).
- Learners read a message and find target connecting words.
- Have learners look at a map of a cultural festival and locate target vocabulary words.
- In small groups, learners discuss their experiences at a community event they attended: what did you see? do? eat?
- As a class, learners look at a map of Canada and locate the Francophone province (Québec), bilingual province (New Brunswick), specific Francophone communities (such as St. Boniface in Winnipeg), and places where Francophone Canadians live (everywhere).
- Give learners a set of 2 simple sentences; learners combine them using provided coordinating conjunctions.
- Cut up a sample message about an event into separate sentences. Have learners put the sentences in the correct order.
- Prepare a sample message with missing coordinating conjunctions or sequencing adverbs. Have learners write the missing words.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Read a recipe related to the cultural event addressed in class, such as poutine or tourtière for a Francophone event.
- Read a message from a friend about a trip to Québec.
- Read a brochure for a cultural festival.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Read a 1-2 paragraph message from a friend about their experiences volunteering at a Francophone cultural festival. Answer 8-10 comprehension questions that assess comprehension of the purpose, gist, some details, the organization and the format of the message.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- Francophone culture is a very important part of Canadian culture.
- There are French-language resources, supports and services available in many sectors and areas, including assistance with employment and accessing government services, across Canada.
- Anyone in Canada has the right to access government services in French.
Digital Literacy Strategies:
Successful completion of some tasks may require some baseline knowledge and digital skills.
Learners may need to:
- Look at a website.
- Read information from a screen.
Instructors can:
- Introduce websites that are relevant to the task(s).
- Demonstrate how to use digital supports for reading text on a screen, such as text to speech tools, or accessibility tools such as adjusting font size, contrast, or brightness
- Show learners how to send and receive text messages.
- Show learners how to find a website.
- Teach reading strategies such as skimming and scanning to find information on websites.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:
Instructors can:
- Use diverse representations of people in all learning resources and images, including people who are 2SLGBTQIA+, Indigenous, Francophone and of other cultures, and people who have disabilities or who are neurodivergent.
- Recognize and teach learners that Canada is a diverse place and has people from many different cultures. Canadian culture includes the cultures of all people in Canada.
- Introduce Indigenous cultural festivals, celebrations, holidays and events in the community.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Learners who have faced discrimination for being a minority group, in another country or in Canada, may find discussions of discrimination triggering.
- Give learners advance warning of this topic and be aware that there may be learners who require support.
Strategies
- Create a safe and supportive classroom environment by establishing familiar routines, repeated activities, and model friendly and non-evaluative interactions; learners who have experienced trauma often benefit from having routine.
- Recognize and respect learners’ right to choose if, when and what they share about themselves.
Resources
Outings, Guest Speaker Suggestions, Extension Activities:
- Watch a video for how to make a Francophone dish, such as poutine or tourtière.
- Visit a Francophone cultural centre.
- Visit a Francophone cultural event, such as dance or music.
- Invite a speaker to the class who can talk about an aspect of Francophone culture.
- Look at a website for a Francophone cultural festival and plan what to see and do.
Realia:
- Foods related to the cultural event that is addressed in class activities, such as for a Francophone event: poutine, tourtière maple taffy, or tire sur la neige
- Clothing related to the cultural event addressed in class activities, such as for an Indigenous or Francophone event, the sash of a Voyageur (Métis Sash)
- Video clips about community events, such as news clips
Units and Modules:
- CCLB: Socializing with Others CLB 3-4
- CCLB: Socializing about Food and Community Events CLB 4-5
- Avenue Course Builder: Theme: Canada
- People and Diversity, CLB 3-5
Detailed Sample Task
This exemplar is aligned with the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) and is designed to guide and inform your lesson and module planning. Consult the Canadian Language Benchmarks English as a Second Language for Adults for detailed performance descriptors at this benchmark and skill.
The information in this document is not exhaustive and can be expanded on. As well, you can use more learner-friendly language in your materials and assessments.
This is NOT a lesson or module plan.
