Detailed Sample Task: Stage II
CLB 7 - Reading Comprehending Information
Canadian Workplace Culture
Real-World Task
Read a short blog about “the invisible rules” at a workplace, especially how they impact members of equity-deserving groups.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- General knowledge of workplace norms in Canada.
- Knowledge of different kinds of workplace in Canada.
- Knowledge of how to interact with co-workers and employers in Canada.
Context:
- While all workplaces have written and clearly stated rules, there are also “unwritten” or “invisible” rules. These are usually connected to behaviour, influence and status in the workplace. They can be just as important, or more so, than official rules and can have a big effect on your job success.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- hierarchy
- imply/ infer
- implicit
- navigate
- mentor
- networking
- interpersonal
- violate a rule
- transparency
- open door policy
- observe
- norm
- code
- prejudice
- bias
Sample Grammar:
- Passive voice to state facts or rules, for example, “It is expected…”
- Relative clauses to provide description or explanation, for example, “Pay attention to individuals who…”
- Conjunctive adverbs to add details such as moreover, furthermore, similarly and so on.
- Word formation such as hierarchy/ hierarchical, diversity/ diverse and so on.
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Recognize cohesion links to interpret the relationship between ideas.
- Identify paragraph structure and relationship between paragraphs.
- Recognize a writer’s intent and purpose, including some inference.
- Identify the main idea and supporting details of different paragraphs to understand how a point is developed and argued.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- Understand cultural references to Canadian workplaces such as water cooler talk, “scent”-sitive workplaces.
- Recognize how a conversational tone is used in a blog post or article.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Elicit information about what “invisible” or “unspoken” rules of the workplace are.
- Learn vocabulary related to the topic and identify the meaning in context (in a blog example).
- Elicit more relevant/ known examples of unwritten rules such as in the classroom, on public transport and so on.
- Brainstorm possible written and unwritten rules in a workplace.
- Read different examples of blog posts to identify the writer’s purpose and specific details about workplace culture and unwritten rules.
- Consider possible consequences of not recognizing or unintentionally breaking the unwritten rules.
- Compare unwritten rules in Canadian workplaces and workplaces in learners’ home countries to develop intercultural awareness.
- Practice accessing and navigating blog sites, using tabs, links and so on.
- Identify web sources of articles on workplace culture.
- Scan a blog post or article for specific information about a topic related to workplace culture.
- Identify the main idea, key supporting details and tone in a blog or article.
- Watch a tutorial video on how to paraphrase an article and identify tips for paraphrasing.
- Practice paraphrasing specific information in paragraphs from an article on workplace culture.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Read an article about invisible rules in the workplace to identify the writer’s opinion and intent.
- Read a blog post about invisible rules in a workplace and identify the writer’s purpose and some specific details about how to recognize and play by those rules.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Read a short blog about “the invisible rules” at a workplace, especially how they impact members of equity-deserving groups.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- Unwritten rules in workplaces differ from country to country, culture to culture, and from workplace to workplace within the same country. Having discussions about those differences can help develop intercultural awareness.
- Consider how aspects of this topic apply to your own program or classroom practices. For example, do instructors hold learners accountable to unwritten or cultural rules without explicitly teaching them or without considering cultural differences?
Digital Literacy Strategies:
Successful completion of some tasks may require some baseline knowledge and digital skills.
Learners may need to:
- Locate, navigate and use websites.
- Evaluate online research results.
- Identify safe and reliable sources of information and news.
- Understand safe use of the internet and social media.
Instructors can:
- Introduce websites that are relevant to the task.
- Refer learners to programs to improve their digital skills.
- Support learners in finding, navigating and using websites.
- 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.
- Teach that race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, genetic characteristics and disability are all protected grounds under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
- Recognize that learners with disabilities and learners who are neurodivergent may need accommodations in the workplace; when possible, help learners of all abilities understand their rights in the workplace.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Some “invisible” rules or unspoken norms may relate to biases around class, gender, ethnicity and so on. Be aware that discussions of this topic could be traumatizing for learners who have experienced workplace discrimination or who could realize as a result of this topic that they have violated “invisible” workplace rules.
Strategies:
- Give learners advance warning of discussions of this topic.
- Make space for learners to feel safe and recover from the experience of sharing their experiences.
- Recognize and respect learners’ right to choose if, when and what they share about themselves.
- Teaching how to access information about workplaces and human rights. Sharing knowledge, skills and language about how to access resources can be empowering.
Resources
Outings, Guest Speaker Suggestions, Extension Activities:
- Invite an HR representative from a workplace to talk to learners about Canadian workplace expectations and employee recourse when facing bias.
- Practice follow-up conversations or emails to address an unknown or unfair unwritten rule.
- Practice giving advice to a peer about how to navigate a Canadian workplace.
- In an online course forum, write a post about an unwritten rule that learners have noticed or experienced in Canadian society, classrooms or workplaces.
- Use scenarios or case studies to discuss the “invisible rules” in the workplace to compare how they may affect two different people.
Realia:
- Blog posts or articles about workplace and employment, for example, What it’s like to navigate the workplace as a non-binary person – Canadian Business (archive.org)
- Slide presentations or videos about how to remove unconscious bias or conflict in the workplace
Units and Modules:
Multimedia:
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.
