Detailed Sample Task: Stage I
CLB 2 - Writing
Getting Things Done
Health and Wellness
Real-World Task
Make a follow-up appointment at a family doctor choosing the date and time.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Basic greetings and polite phrases
- Knowledge of dates/months of the year, days of the week and numbers 1-31
- Time basics
- Personal Information such as name, address, telephone number and email address
Context:
- In Canada, people must usually book appointments in advance. In many cases, except for specialist appointments, there is choice in when the appointment is scheduled.
- Making and confirming medical, or other, appointments is a frequent, necessary life skill.
- Being able to make appointments and follow up appointments promotes independence in interacting with the healthcare system.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- appointment
- follow-up
- doctor/family doctor
- clinic/office
- receptionist
- date/time
- morning/afternoon
- days of the week
- basic times – on the hour and half hour
Sample Grammar:
- Basic requests: “Can“ , “I need” ,
“I need a follow-up appointment.” ,
“Can I make an appointment please?” - Choosing with “or”: “Monday at 10:00
or Tuesday at 2:00?” - Confirming with simple present: “Tuesday at 2:00 is good.”
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Recognize short, formulaic dialogues
for appointments - Understand the sequencing of appointment booking:
Greeting-→ request-→ offering
choices-→ confirming
information–→ closing politely.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- In Canada, appointments are usually made in person or over the phone with
a receptionist. - It is polite to say please and thank you.
- Receptionists may speak quickly. It is important to ask to speak more slowly,
or clearly and to confirm the information.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Discuss as a class: When was the last time you visited the doctor? Did you have an appointment? Who made the appointment? How did you (they) make the appointment? How do you make appointments for the doctor in your country of origin?
- Show a picture of a receptionist at a doctors’ office. Ask” Who is this?” Practice the vocabulary item: receptionist, focusing on pronunciation. Explain that the receptionist greets people at the doctors office and makes appointments for the doctor. Elicit what questions the receptionist would ask. (name, contact information, date, day, time, and so on.)
- Use vocabulary cards with clear pictures and words to practice the key vocabulary. Play games such as Bingo, matching, and Memory.
- Incorporate phonics activities based on the vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
- Practice a short, simple instructor-made dialogue: “Good morning. How can I help you? Hello. I need to make a follow-up appointment. Sure. Monday at 3:00 or Tuesday at 10:00? Tuesday at 10:00 please. What is your name and phone number? My name is Carlos and my phone number is 613-876-9853. OK. See you Tuesday at 10:00. Thank you.
- Write your own name and phone number using a template with the correct writing conventions.
- Review and practice days of the week and basic times with flashcards and various activities.
- Identify the different sections of the dialogue corresponding to the vocabulary items. Circle the days of the week and the times. Underline the name and phone number. Cross out the polite phrases.
- With a partner, perform the dialogue in front of the class. if comfortable with sharing your information. If not, can use instructor-made fake personal information cards. Switch roles between being the patient and receptionist. Substitute different days of the week and times.
- Listen to several dialogues of patients making appointments. Fill out appointment cards with the correct information.
- Listen to several different dialogies of people making appointments for different services such as dentists, doctors, school teacher and car repair, (pre-teach if necessary) In a chart, learners record the appointment information: Who is the appointment with, who made the appointment (name), what day and what time.
- Brainstorm a list, writing it on the board,
of places that would need to have an appointment if you visited. Be sure the list includes some government offices, schools, medical, dental and other healthcare related offices. Learners can then independently create dialogues making appointments at these places based on the previous dialogue. - Practice the present tense through “I need … to make an appointment, to buy some milk, to change my address and so on. “Thursday at 9:00 is good“, “ My new address is …. “ My old address is ….”
- Practice the present tense with other activities and worksheets. Explain that the present tense means happening now or always such as “It is rainy” or “My name is …” or “ A banana is yellow.”
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Make a follow-up appointment with a dentist’s office. Open and close politely. Give the appropriate personal information and choose a day and time.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Make a follow up appointment at a family doctor choosing the date and time
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- Different cultures have different approaches to medicine, health, and wellness. Additionally, many learners have experienced times when they did not have access to medical care. Help learners to understand the options in Canada, including western medicine,
and that when you need to see a doctor there are different options and that in most cases you need to make an appointment. - Learners may come from countries where other family members schedule appointments and take care of such family matters. Encourage learners to be more independent.
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.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Learners may have a fear of giving out personal information.
Ensure you have discussions about the appropriate and safe information to provide to businesses and organizations. - Accessing healthcare can be triggering for learners who have had traumatic healthcare experiences or who have not had access to healthcare. Be aware of any learners who need support.
- 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:
- Visit a medical clinic, if possible and speak with the receptionist.
- Invite a public health nurse or a settlement agency representative to speak to the class.
- Talk about routine describing what time of day you usually do some activities: I go to school in the morning, I watch TV at night, I brush my teeth before bed, and so on. Substitute times of days for time. Include activities that are done on specific days. I go to the mosque on Saturday, I go shopping on Monday, and so on.
Realia:
- Calendars
- Clocks
- Pictures of various offices that often require appointments
- Appointment cards
Units and Modules:
- Tutela: Ailments and Doctor’s Appointments – CLB 1-2
- Tutela: OCDSB’s Real World Task Bank – CLB 1/2: Health & Safety
- Tutela: Making an Appointment CLB 3-4
(Not CLB 2 but can be adapted) - CCLB: Dealing with Emergencies: CLB 1L/2L
Lessons and Activities:
- Tutela: Calling the Doctors’ Office L/S CLB 2
- Tutela: Reading an Appointment Card- Assessment CLB 2
- Tutela: Listening for Appointment Times at the Dentists’ Office- Assessment CLB 2
- Tutela: OCDSB Assessment Task: Understanding about Services Provided by Telehealth Ontario (CLB 3)
( Not CLB 2 but can be adapted) - Tutela: Making a Dentist Appointment- Speaking Assessment CLB 3 ( Not CLB 2 but can be adapted)
- Tutela: Getting help from various health professionals
- A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.
Multimedia:
- YouTube: Health Videos for ESL Beginners
- YouTube: ESL Directions: Health: Youtube video playlist
- Tutela: ESL Image Bank: Health
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.