Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy
CLB
1L-Speaking
Interacting with Others
Global Citizenship
Real-World Task
Greet others and say your name at a volunteer group at your school.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Basic employment vocabulary: job, money, pay, work, skills
Context:
- Volunteering is common in Canada to give service to the community, to meet others, and to build job skills.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- volunteer
- for pay/for free
- school
- student
- greetings: hi, hello, good morning
- name
Sample Grammar:
- Present simple: My name is… (learned as a phrase)
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Introductions usually include a greeting and your name.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- Volunteering is a good way to help others and to meet other people. It is also a good way to put Canadian experience on your resume.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Always greet each learner as they come into class, using a variety of greetings and building over time: hi, hello, good morning/afternoon/evening, it’s nice to see you, and so on.
- Begin each class by going around the room and having a simple conversation with each learner: Hi, how are you? I’m fine, thanks. It’s nice to see you today. Have learners repeat the conversation with a partner.
- Learn a simple pattern and practice with a partner: Hi, my name is ______. I am from ______.
- Copy own name and name of your own country of origin.
- Read your name and country of origin out loud to a partner and listen to them read.
- Learn a simple dialogue between a learner and an instructor and practice with a partner: Hi, I’m your teacher. My name is Sara. What is your name? Hi, my name is Farzana. I am from Syria.
- Change the names in the dialogue to fit the class, and have a learner role-play the teacher and repeat the dialogue with their classmates.
- Discuss as a class: what is a job? Elicit that it is work for pay. Then discuss: what is volunteering? Teach learners that many people in Canada volunteer to help others, to meet people, and to get skills. Ask about volunteering in their country of origin.
- Use vocabulary cards with words and clear pictures to practice the vocabulary. Play games such as Bingo, matching, Memory, and Go Fish with the vocabulary cards.
- Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
- Read a very short simple instructor-made story about volunteering at the food bank. Read the story to learners, and then choral read and echo read the story. Have learners find 1-2 vocabulary words in the story. Read and practice the story multiple times over the course of the lessons.
- Listen to a short dialogue about volunteering. Practice the dialogue with a partner and perform for the class.
- Complete a very simple instructor-made online form for volunteering (e.g. on Google Forms) by typing your name and clicking on the word volunteer.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Introduce yourself to the class. Greet others and say your name and where you are from.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Greet others and say your name at a volunteer group at your school.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- Canada has a strong culture of volunteerism as a service to the community, as a way to meet other people, and as a way to get job skills.
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.
- There may be learners in the class who have accessed resources where volunteers often work such as the food bank. Always avoid judgemental language about accessing resources such as the food bank, and be mindful that learners who need resources like this might also like to be in a position to help others.
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.
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:
- Invite someone who volunteers to speak to the class about what they do and why. This could be yourself or another instructor at your school or organization.
- Arrange for a volunteer experience for the learners and elicit an LEA (Language Experience Approach) story following the experience.
Realia:
- Online form
- Posters of organizations that have volunteers in your local area
Units and Modules:
- Tutela (Archway): Introduction to Volunteering: CLB 1L/2L
- Tutela (Archway): Volunteering at a Foodbank: CLB 1L/2L
- Tutela (OCDSB): Taking Part in a Neighbourhood Clean Up: CLB 1 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
Lessons and Activities:
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Reading Skills Stories
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Adults Learn to Print
- Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB 1L
- Tutela: Foundation L-CLB 2L Phonics Curriculum
- A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.
Multimedia:
- Tutela: ESL Image Bank: Community
- Unite for Literacy: Community Matters
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.
