Detailed Sample Task: Stage I

CLB 2 - Writing
Getting Things Done

Education & Learning

Real-World Task

Complete a short message with a few words to your child’s teacher to inform them that your child will leave early to go to an appointment.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Some basic vocabulary related to school: teachers and reasons for absenteeism such as sick and appointment
Personal Information: name, child’s name, class/ grade, teacher’s name
Knowledge of the expectations for parents to inform the school or classroom teacher if your child is going to be absent.

Context:

In Canada, people inform places where they are expected, when they will not be there, for example school, work or doctor appointments. In the case of appointments, if the business is not informed, sometimes there may be a fee for missing the appointment.,
In Canada, for the protection of children, parents often need to inform the school or child’s teacher if they will be absent. In this way, the school and teacher know whether to be expecting them in school or not. Often, if there is no communication from home about an absence, the school will be contacting the emergency contacts to ensure the child’s safety.
While the task is to write a message, this task could also be extended to an email or text message. Some teachers have preferred methods of communication.
Basic information would be the child’s name and class or grade and the parent’s name and/or signature.
There is a common format to write messages with greetings and closings.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

absent
name
grade or class
Dear
Sincerely
Reasons for absence: sick, appointment, vacation and so on.
tomorrow/ next week/ days of the week

Sample Grammar:

Personal pronouns: he/she/they and so on
Simple present: She is sick; He has an appointment and so on
Simple future: She will be absent.

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Beginning recognition of appropriate words and phrases for salutations
Beginning recognition of common text formats for specific purposes such as messages

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Beginning awareness of social conventions for specific circumstances

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: Have your children ever missed school? What were the reasons? Did you tell the teacher or the school? If not, did the school call you? In your country of origin, do you need to tell schools that your children will be absent?
Label pictures of circumstances why a child might miss school with vocabulary words copied from vocabulary list.
Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
Listen to short audio texts, instructor-made if necessary, describing in very simple terms, a phone call from a parent to a school telling them their child would be absent. On a handout or digital document, put a ✔ ️next to the pictures of the reasons.
Review images of the reasons for absences with the sentences describing the reasons below; such as He is sick, She has a doctor’s appointment. He has a dentist’s appointment. They have a stomachache. She is on vacation. and so on. Copy the sentences under the pictures.
Match pictures and sentences of reason for absence.
Read a simple instructor-made story of a student who will miss school. May is absent today. She has a dentist appointment, Her mother calls the school. Jose will be absent tomorrow. He has an eye appointment. His mother writes a message to the teacher. After several versions, learners will complete simple comprehension questions.
Introduce/review personal pronouns. Have learners collect personal information on a partner and report to the class. Her name is Malika. She is from Congo. She likes bananas.
Complete a worksheet on personal pronouns.
Practice the simple present, explaining that these are actions that are happening now or always such as “It is sunny today” or “She is a girl.”
Review days of the week as well as today and tomorrow. Practice writing days as well as today and tomorrow next to calendar images of different events.
Read some simple messages and select the correct answer from a set of simple true / false statements about the messages. The messages have the openings and closing as well as the child’s name/ grade or class and the reason for the absence.
Discuss with the class what grades or classes their children are in and their teachers’ names.
Practice as a class “My name is ; I am in class 2. My teacher is Ms.Hamid.” Create a list for each ;learner for their children, their grades and their children’s teacher’s names.
Read messages to a partner and have the partner fill in a message template. Practice spelling names for each other: “Hamid is H-A-M-I-D”.
Review appropriate openings and closings for a message
Show images of reasons for absence and have learners write the applicable sentences next to the images.
Practice simple future with “will”. Explain that “future” means happening after now. Their children may be absent tomorrow or next week and we would use “will” in that message instead of the present. Complete other worksheets with the simple future. (Note: This is a CLB 3 skill. If it is too challenging, use “is absent tomorrow/ next week” instead.)
Have learners complete a message template with “Dear”, their child’s name, their class or grade, the reason for the absence and “Sincerely”
Practice these activities online with a simplified email template or a simple text message.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Using a picture prompt, have learners complete a message template with some words in a word bank to help.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Using a picture prompt with time/day of absence, learners complete a message template.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

In some countries, parents may not be familiar with contacting schools in the event of absences. Ensure learners are aware of the “Safe Arrival: programs and that school will attempt to contact the parents or guardians if the school is not aware of the absence.
Be aware that learners will have varying degrees of comfort with writing messages, using texts or email. Suggest that they speak with their children’s teachers about the best way for them to communicate about their children.

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
Send and receive text messages and messages on other texting apps.
Send and receive email messages

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:

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:

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.
Dealing with authority can be triggering for learners who have experienced trauma, especially for learners who have been in unsafe situations or have been in a political regime.

Strategies:

Give learners advance warning of this topic and be aware that there may be learners who require support.
Make sure that learners are always aware of the purpose of any activities that include forms and be ready to provide support if needed.
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
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:

Practice similar activities for reporting an absence for work or for missing an appointment that has already been scheduled.
Practice messages for absence by having learners write messages to their instructor.

Realia:

Sample email templates from schools
Calendars

Units and Modules:

Tutela (CCLB): A Child’s Education: CLB 1L/2L (Not CLB 2 but can be adapted.)
Tutela: Communicating with a Child’s Teacher CLB 3 ( Not the correct level but can be adapted.)

Lessons and Activities:

Tutela: Writing a Note to a Teacher about Medication
Tutela: A Note about Absence- Assessment Task CLB 1/ 2
Tutela (Archway): Dates and Days: CLB 1L/2L ( Not CLB 2 but can be adapted.)
A search of NLCG ( nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia:

Tutela: ESL Image Bank: Education