Real-World Task
Copy a shopping list of 4 to 5 items by copying food words from a picture dictionary.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Most capital and lowercase letters
- Some basic food vocabulary
Context:
- Many people write shopping lists to help them remember.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- list
- shopping
- groceries
- food items: milk, sugar, flour, apples, rice, bananas, bread, meat, and so on
- food items that are specific to each learner
Sample Grammar:
- Spacing between letters in a word
- Spacing between words
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Most lists are written vertically.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- A list can help you remember what you need.
- You can write a list for another person, such as a family member, so they can buy you what you need.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Discuss with learners: what do you like to eat? Where do you buy food? Who buys the food in your family? When do you buy food (every day? on the weekend?)?
- Ask each learner: what is your favourite food? Make a list on the board. Use the information on this list to make vocabulary cards for learners, e.g. injera, pilaf, tacos, hummus, and so on.
- Using vocabulary cards with clear pictures and words, practice food vocabulary. Call out the names of food and have learners hold up the correct card.
- Have every learner choose a favourite food from the food cards. Sit in a circle. Have the first learner say their favourite food and hold up their card, e.g. rice. The next learner says their own favourite food and the favourite food of everyone who has already spoken, e.g. meat, and Abdi likes rice. They can use full sentences or words and gestures.
- Review letter formation. Every day, review and practice three letters. Have learners write in sand trays, air-write, trace, and copy.
- Incorporate phonics activities using vocabulary items and other vocabulary related to the task.
- Practice vocabulary and mousing skills by playing the food vocabulary game on Games to Learn English: Food.
- Read Fruits to the class from the Unite for Literacy website. Have learners read the story themselves on a computer or tablet. Show them how they can play the audio for the story.
- Read Let’s Eat Fruits and Veggies to the class from the Unite for Literacy website. Have learners read the story on their own on a computer or tablet while they listen to the audio.
- Trace and then copy food words. Practice spacing between letters and words.
- Look at a flyer from a grocery store. Find and match food cards to items in the flyer. Circle your 3 favourite foods in the flyer and copy them to a list.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Write a list of 4 to 5 food items you like to eat by copying food words from word cards.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Write a shopping list of 4 to 5 items by copying food words from a picture dictionary or word cards.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- Food is highly personal and cultural. Make sure to include the foods that learners in the class like to eat. Discuss whether and where they can buy that food in Canada.
Digital Literacy Strategies:
Successful completion of some tasks may require some baseline knowledge and digital skills.
Learners may need to:
- Have keyboarding and typing skills.
- Locate, navigate and use websites.
- Type information to appear on screen.
Instructors can:
- Dedicate time to improve digital literacy for learners.
- Make and/or adapt digital materials.
- Introduce websites that are relevant to the task(s).
- Support learners in finding, navigating and using websites.
- Show learners that the size of an image on the screen can be adjusted.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:
- Use diverse representations of people in all your learning resources and images, including people who are 2SLGBTQ+, Indigenous, Francophone and of other cultures, and people who have disabilities or who are neurodivergent. Consider this diversity as you choose names for characters in stories you create as well.
- Include foods from many different cultures.
- Food is expensive in Canada, and many learners struggle to be able to afford food. Always treat food with respect in the class, and discuss strategies for saving money at grocery stores, such as finding less expensive stores, using coupons, buying things on sale, buying in bulk and freezing or sharing with a friend, bringing food from home instead of buying it at a restaurant, and so on.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- When teaching about Canada, you may teach about things that are triggering to learners who have experienced trauma. We can’t know what the triggers might be and what seems commonplace to us may have a triggering component for learners. Be aware of this and be prepared to support learners as needed.
- Learners who have experienced or are experiencing food scarcity, hunger, or famine may find discussions of food triggering.
Strategies:
- Give learners advance warning of this topic and be aware that there may be learners who require support.
- Learners who have experienced trauma often benefit from having routine. Create a safe and supportive classroom environment by establishing familiar routines, repeated activities, and model friendly and non-evaluative interactions.
- Learners will benefit from positive relationships established in the classroom with the instructor and peers.
- Learners who have experienced trauma benefit from having choices.
- Allow learners choice:
- the choice to work on a different topic
- 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
- Allow learners choice:
- When learners have shared personal distressing or traumatic experiences, make space for learners to feel safe and recover from the experience of sharing their experiences. Follow the activities which may make learners feel vulnerable with routine, predictable and comforting activities.
- Giving learners the knowledge, skills and language to access resources can be empowering.
Resources
Outings, Guest Speaker Suggestions, Extension Activities:
- Visit a grocery store or, if possible, a farmer’s market. When you return to class, elicit an LEA (Language Experience Approach) story from the learners and read this together.
- Make a booklet for each learner of their favourite foods. Have learners cut pictures out from flyers and paste them into the booklet and copy the names of the foods.
- Create a poster for the classroom of the classes’ favourite foods.
Realia:
- Grocery store flyers
- Plastic foods
Units and Modules:
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Eating Fruit: CLB FL/1L
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Making Fruit Salad: CLB FL/1L
- Tutela: Going Grocery Shopping: CLB 1L (Not at level but can be adapted)
Lessons and Activities:
- Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB FL
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Reading Skills Stories
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Adults Learn to Print
- A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.
Multimedia:
- Games to Learn English: Food
- Unite for Literacy: Fruits
- Unite for Literacy: Let’s Eat Fruits and Veggies
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.
