Real-World Task
Read 2 or 3 highly familiar words about a local Acadian French cultural cooking class like the day and time.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Letter formation: capital and lowercase letters
- Days of the week
- Numbers 0-12
Context:
- Classes usually are scheduled for a day and time.
- There are many Acadian people in Canada, especially in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
- This task reflects the intention to include all people in Canada in the themes. The language skills in this task could be applied to other contexts.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- Acadian
- French
- cooking
- class
- learn
- People
- days of the week
- o’clock
Sample Grammar:
- Simple sentences with is: The class is on Tuesday. The class is at 3:00.
- Capital letters for days of the week
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Numbers can refer to time.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- There are many different cultures in Canada.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Discuss as a class: Who lives in Canada? What languages do they speak? Elicit from the learners that there are people from many different cultures in Canada who speak many different languages. Go around the class and identify where you are from and what languages you speak.
- Discuss as a class: What are the official languages in Canada? Elicit English and French. Teach learners that there are a group of people in Canada called Acadians who speak French. Use visuals to support your discussion.
- Practice counting to 12. Sit in a circle and count. Then count again, clapping the right number of times for each number, so eventually you are clapping 12 times. Invite learners to stand up and stand in groups. Ask each group to count how many people are in their group.
- Trace the numbers 1-12.
- Work with a partner. Count objects and write the number.
- Every day, during class, draw attention to the time using a large digital clock. Practice reading the time. Practice times using worksheets with digital clocks showing whole times (i.e. 2:00, 3:00, 4:00).
- Listen to the time (whole hours only) and repeat back what time it is or circle a picture of a digital clock with the correct time.
- Sing the Days of the Week Song (Addams Family Tune).
- Trace and copy 1-2 days of the week (e.g. Monday and Tuesday). Draw attention to the capital letter at the start.
- Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
- Discuss as a class: How do you learn a new skill? Do you learn from a friend or family member? Do you learn from a class?
- As a class, read a very simple sentence about a cooking class, illustrated with clear photographs: Cooking is on Tuesday. Cooking is at 4:00. Give learners cards to match to words in the sentence on the board and have them match their card to the correct word.
- Read a very simple instructor-made story about going to a cooking class: Jane is learning to cook. Jane goes to class. The class is on Tuesday. The class is at 4:00. Read the story several times over several days and do different comprehension activities such as matching cards to words in the text, choral reading, pointing to target word (Tuesday) and time (4:00), and telling the story in your own words.
- Work with the same 2 days of the week, Monday and Tuesday. Give learners a card with each day. Call out one of the days and have learners hold up the correct card. You can scaffold this activity by colour-coding the cards so that one is red and one is blue.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Read 2 or 3 highly familiar words about a local Acadian French cultural cooking class like the day and time. Use 1 of the 2 days you’ve been practicing, e.g. Monday. Demonstrate understanding by saying the day and time out loud.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Read 2 or 3 highly familiar words about a local Acadian French cultural cooking class like the day and time. Use the other of the 2 days you’ve been practicing, e.g. Tuesday. Demonstrate understanding by saying the day and time out loud.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- There are many different cultures in Canada and many different languages spoken in Canada. The Acadian people have been in Canada since the 1600s and are some of the earliest European people to come to 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.
- Use familiar apps, social media platforms and web pages.
- 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.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:
- Teach learners there are many different cultures in Canada, including their own.
- 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.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Learners who have experienced discrimination based on their culture may be triggered by discussions of minority cultures in Canada, or they may feel empowered by learning that there are many cultures in Canada and that all people have the right to no discrimination.
- 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:
- Listen to an Acadian song.
- As a class, read an Acadian recipe or try an Acadian food.
- Practice finding Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and other provinces with large Acadian populations on a map of Canada.
- Look at the day and time of other routine activities such as coming to class, going to the grocery store, eating dinner or going to bed. Practice days and time and write specific activities and times on a calendar.
Realia:
- Acadian flag
- Acadian foods
- Videos of Acadian music
- calendars
- clocks
Units and Modules:
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Starting a New English Class: CLB FL/1L
Lessons and Activities:
- Tutela (Archway): Dates and Days: CLB 1L/2L (Not the right level but can be adapted)
- Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB FL
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Adults Learn to Print
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Reading Skills Stories
- Tutela: Foundation L-CLB 2L Phonics Curriculum
- A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.
Multimedia:
- YouTube (CBC): Thousands Gather to Celebrate Acadian Roots
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.
