Detailed Sample Task: Stage II
CLB 5 - Reading Comprehending Information
Global Citizenship
Real-World Task
Find information about one or two local volunteer opportunities with organizations supporting newcomers.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Some knowledge of what volunteering is.
- Some knowledge of common volunteering sectors or positions.
- Some knowledge about the benefits of volunteering and the importance placed on volunteer work in Canadian society.
Context:
- Volunteering is a great way to give back to the community, meet new people and learn and improve English. Some volunteer organizations support newcomers, which can be a great opportunity for other newcomers.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- translate
- interpret
- settle
- orient / orientation
- support
- commit
- donate
- guide
- navigate
- fundraising
- network
- integrate
- social connections
- community
Sample Grammar:
- Zero conditional sentences to talk about situations where people can volunteer: “If you have experience/ time, you can help newcomers navigate…” and so on
- Present perfect to talk about experience: “Have you arrived in Canada in the last 5 years? Have you studied English?” and so on
- Relative clauses to add detail, such as “newcomers who require support”, “donations that help newcomers” and so on.
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Using headings to find specific information.
- Recognizing related words to understand information, for example, “commit-commitment”, “donate-donation” and “interpret-interpreter”.
- Inferring or deciphering meaning from context.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- Importance of volunteering in Canada.
- How volunteering can benefit newcomers.
- Expectations related to volunteer jobs.
- Similarities to paid employment in terms of time commitment and so on.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Brainstorm ideas about volunteering with classmates: Has anyone volunteered before? Is anyone volunteering now? What volunteer opportunities can you think of? What are some benefits to volunteering?
- Learn vocabulary related to volunteering. Complete fill-in-the-blanks or other similar activities. Read example sentences with volunteering-related vocabulary.
- Read brochures or websites about local organizations seeking volunteers and identify the vocabulary.
- Learn present perfect to talk about experience. Tell classmates about experiences you have had in Canada.
- Learn about choosing volunteer experiences that match your skills and experiences.
- Read about experiences people have had in Canada.
- Look at possible volunteer opportunities and work in pairs or groups to match people to a suitable opportunity, based on their experience.
- Learn about zero conditional sentences to show truths and facts related to cause and effect. Match two halves of zero conditional sentences together to form sentences.
- Read about using headings on a website or a brochure to find specific information. Look at authentic or instructor-adapted examples of volunteer websites or brochures and identify the headings and the information they introduce.
- Read about places to find out about volunteer opportunities, for example, on websites, at community centres, on social media.
- Read authentic or instructor-adapted examples of volunteer job postings.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Read information on a website or from a brochure about local volunteer opportunities and answer comprehension questions.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Find information about one or two local volunteer opportunities with organizations supporting newcomers.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- Ensure learners know that many of the expectations around volunteer jobs, such as punctuality and reliability, are the same as paid employment.
- Have learners share about their experiences volunteering in their own countries, or other charitable work, such as donating money, zakat, dāna and so on, to develop intercultural awareness.
- Discuss how volunteering can contribute specifically to learners’ local community, considering specific groups or situations in the local community.
- Teach about non-profit organizations that offer support to specific groups, such as 2SLGBTQIA+ refugees, children with special needs, single mothers and many other groups.
Digital Literacy Strategies:
Successful completion of some tasks may require some baseline digital knowledge and skills.
Learners may need to:
- Locate, navigate and use websites.
- Evaluate online research results.
- Interpret information from online sources, such as statistics, graphs or charts.
Instructors can:
- Introduce websites that are relevant to the task(s).
- Support learners in finding, navigating and using websites.
- Teach reading strategies, such as skimming and scanning, to find information on websites.
- Share knowledge and strategies to ensure online safety.
- Refer learners to programs to improve their digital skills.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:
Instructors can:
- Use diverse representations of people in all your 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.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Discussions of newcomer displacement, trauma and struggles for integration may be triggering for learners who have experienced the same thing. Make space for learners to feel safe and recover from the experience of sharing their experiences.
Strategies:
- Give learners advance warning of discussions of this topic.
- Allow learners choice:
- the choice to share or not share their own experiences
- the choice to work alone or to work with others
- the choice to take care of themselves
- the choice to step out of the learning environment
- Learners have the right to choose if, when and what they share about themselves.
- Make space for learners to feel safe and recover from the experience of sharing their experiences.
- Giving learners the knowledge, skills and language to access resources can be empowering.
Resources
Outings, Guest Speaker Suggestions, Extension Activities:
- Invite a guest speaker from a local non-profit organization to speak to learners about volunteer opportunities.
- Organize an outing to a local settlement centre, community centre or similar to learn about the resources they offer.
- Write an orientation guide/ “Welcome to Canada” guide for other newcomers.
- Browse different websites to find multiple volunteer opportunities and compare them to find one that suits each learner.
- Practice filling out an application form for a volunteer job.
- Recommend volunteering to a peer as a way to gain work experience or contribute to the community in Canada.
Realia:
- Authentic websites for local charities and non-profit organizations
- Settlement.org: Volunteer
- Together Project
- Government of Canada: Newcomer services
- Volunteer Canada
Units and Modules:
(Adapt for the CLB level you teach)
Lessons and Activities:
(Adapt resources for the CLB level you teach)
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.
