Detailed Sample Task: Stage I
CLB 3 - Speaking
Getting Things Done
Getting Around and Transportation
Real-World Task
Ask a transit operator or passenger for information about a route and the time it will take.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Simple present
- Questions in the simple present
- Locations in the community: library, school, park, river, supermarket, clothes store, bank, pharmacy, and so on.
- Numbers to 60
- Basic knowledge of time
Context:
- Asking for information and directions, when using public transit in communities, and understanding the responses can be very helpful.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- polite expressions to interrupt someone: Excuse me, do you mind, can you tell me…
- route
- forms of transportation: bus, train and so on
- stop
- station
- Terminal
- transit operator
- passenger
- vocabulary related to time: minutes, hours, schedule
- question words: Where? When? Which bus? Does this bus go?
Sample Grammar:
- WH questions: Which, When, Where, How long
- Present simple for schedules: The bus comes at …, The train takes 25 minutes.
- Language for approximation: about, around, a few, not long
- Yes / No questions: Do I need to transfer? Does this bus go to the library?
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Structures of asking questions, providing answers and asking clarifying or confirming information
- Information about locations and directions are given sequentially, starting with your current location.
- Sometimes people include landmarks when they are giving directions.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- There are polite ways to interrupt someone and get their attention.
- It’s important to use polite tone when addressing transit staff or other passengers.
- It is normal to ask questions when navigating transit.
- Questions should be short and quick.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Discuss as a class: Have you ever used public transit in your country of origin? Do you use public transit in Canada? What forms of public transportation do you know? Which have you used? Do you ask directions when you are on public transportation? Have you ever been lost? Use visuals to support your discussion.
- Review task vocabulary and practice by playing games such as Bingo and Memory and completing activities such as fill in the blanks and matching.
- Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
- Read a very simple instructor-made story that includes information on routes to various locations in the community and the time it takes to get there. Match vocabulary words to the story and complete comprehension questions with a partner. Practice the reading as a class, matching the instructor on pronunciation, intonation and fluency. Practice multiple times over the course of several lessons.
- Listen to an instructor-made dialogue that includes a polite interruption and a request for information about the route and the time it will take. Discuss the polite interruptions. Practice with a partner and perform the dialogue for the class.
- With a partner, answer some simple comprehension questions about the dialogue, identifying the polite language,
the destination of the speaker, the transportation mode and how long it will take. - Give learners a very simple instructor-made map of a small community with 2-3 streets and cross-streets, a park, and a river. Using cards with route information, have partners trace the route to specific destinations.
- Spread out a large map of your community on a table and gather around to look at it. Elicit from learners what they already know about the map, including basic questions like what it is and what community it is for. Determine the routes of local transit that will allow people to get to different destinations on the map.
- Look at a basic transit schedule online. Practice asking and answering “Where”
and “What time” questions using the map used in the previous activity. This may need to be heavily supported by the instructor at first. As a class, create a “time it takes” chart from one location to another such as “the school to Main Street”, “the supermarket to the mall”,”the library
to the bank” and so on. - Review WH questions, focusing on “where” “does this train go to” and “how long” forms. Practice in other contexts as well.
- Work with a partner. Complete an activity creating a dialogue to use when going from one location in the community to another when you don’t know the route or the time it will take to get there. Use sentences from a word box to form the dialogue.
- Learners choose a location in the community that they would like to go to
and using the dialogue from the previous activity, create their own dialogue. Perform dialogues with a partner, both taking turns presenting their dialogue. As a peer activity, have other learners in the class fill in a chart identifying the location, the transport route and the time it will take. - Using a simplified map of your own community, give instructions to a partner on how to get to a community location such as a library, community centre, or mall.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Move around the class and ask classmates for information on the route and time it takes for them to get to school. Fill in a chart with the information.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Ask a transit operator or passenger for information about a route and the time it will take.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- Some learners may not come from places where it was safe to walk on the streets, and some may not come from cultures with the expectation that public transportation follows a strict schedule.
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.
- Read information from a screen.
Instructors can:
- Dedicate time to improve digital literacy for learners
- Make and/ or adapt digital materials.
- Introduce websites and/or apps that are relevant to the task(s).
- Support learners in finding, navigating and using websites, for example, finding a specific route
- Teach reading strategies such as skimming and scanning to find information on websites or apps.
- Introduce tools and apps that can aid learners in coping with communication. barriers, such as translation, pronunciation, text to speech, speech to text tools and so on.
- Share knowledge and strategies to ensure online safety.
- Refer learners to programs to improve their digital skills.
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.
- Show learners where to find information about subsidized transit passes in your area.
- Recognize that some learners may not feel safe walking in their community, possibly including those who are women or who are 2SLGBTQIA+. Help learners identify some strategies for safety, such as avoiding public transportation after dark, riding with a friend, staying in well-lit areas, or staying alert. Avoid assuming that everyone takes public transportation or walks or feels comfortable doing so.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Learners who have experienced trauma may not feel safe walking in their community. Help learners identify strategies for staying safe, but also recognize that the community doesn’t feel safe for everyone.
- 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:
- Walk to a nearby train or subway station as a class and look at the route maps, layout, and ticket machines.
- Take a short walk around the community as a class and create an LEA (Language Experience Approach) story about it.
Realia:
- Websites and apps for public transportation in your area
- Paper maps and mapping apps such as Google maps
Units and Modules:
- Tutela (CCLB): Getting Around the City: CLB 3/4
Lessons and Activities:
- LINC 3 Classroom Activities: Travel and Transportation (p. 471)
- Tutela: Taking the Bus
- Tutela: CLB 3 Module Plan: Transportation
- Tutela (OCDSB): Assessment Task: Finding Information about the Train or Bus or Subway: CLB 3
- Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB 3L (Not CLB 3 but can be adapted to work on phonics.)
- A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.
Multimedia:
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.
