Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB 1L - Writing
Interacting with Others

Employment - Finding a Job

Real-World Task

Write a simple guided message to a friend to say thank you for helping with a job application.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Letter formation
Capital and lowercase letters

Context:

It is common to say thank you after someone has helped you, either orally or through a written message.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

Sample Grammar:

Spacing between letters and words

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Each word in a sentence refers to one spoken word.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

It is polite to write a thank you message after someone has helped you.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: What is a job? Do you have a job? Did you have a job before you came to Canada? How do you get a job? Does someone help you?
Discuss as a class: What do you say when someone helps you? Elicit from learners words like thanks, help, and friend. Use pictures of people helping others to support the concepts.
Use a gesture to refer to thanks, help, and friend (e.g. use the sign for thanks (hand coming away from the mouth), shake your own hands for help, and give yourself a hug for friend.) Use TPR (Total Physical Response) to practice the vocabulary. Call out a word and have learners respond with the correct gesture. After a few rounds, have a learner call out the words.
Read a very simple instructor-made story about helping a friend: Tomas is my friend. Tomas helps me. Tomas helps me get a job. Thanks, Tomas! Read the story to learners several times, and then choral read and echo read the story. Read the story again over several lessons.
Put the words from the story on the board. Give each learner a card with a word such as Tomas, friend, helps, me, and job. Have them match their word to a correct word on the board.
Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
Use vocabulary cards with words and clear pictures to practice the vocabulary. Play games such as Bingo and Go Fish. Do activities such as matching.
Copy 2-3 words from the vocabulary cards next to the correct picture.
Read a very simple, instructor-made thank you message to the class: Thanks! You helped me with my job. You are a good friend. Read it several times, and then choral read and echo read it. Have learners match a word and picture card to the correct word in the message.
Complete a template by copying a classmate’s name and 1-2 words to write
a very simple thank you message. Give it
to your classmate.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Copy 2-3 words to complete a guided message to say thank you to a friend for helping you with your schoolwork.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Write a simple guided message to a friend to say thank you for help with a job application.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Learners may not be familiar with sending a written message to say thanks, and thank-you messages may not have much meaning to learners at this level. Try using greeting cards (e.g. from the dollar store) to say thank you to learners for various things to teach the idea that the words have meaning.

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 2SLGBTQIA+, 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.
Learners who are women (all women, including transwomen), may not have had the opportunity to work in their country of origin. Teach learners that people of all genders can do any job in Canada.
When discussing jobs, include many jobs that are common for learners at this level to have, as well as jobs of people they may come into contact with, like cleaners, babysitters, gardeners, labourers, security guards, store clerks, teachers, doctors, or nurses.

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
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 nearby employment centre.
Visit a job fair.
Look at pictures of people doing different jobs. Have learners identify jobs they have done and would like to do.
Bring in items associated with different jobs, like a doctor’s coat, a hammer, a spatula, and so on. Have learners role play different jobs.
Copy job words to complete sentences to match a picture.
Have learners do different activities around the classroom for each other and the instructor. Practice saying “Thanks” or copying short, simple messages.

Realia:

Items associated with different jobs: doctor’s coat,
hammer, spatula, etc.
Thank you cards

Units and Modules

Lessons and Activities:

LINC 1 Classroom Activities Employment (p. 285-326)
(Not literacy but can be adapted)
Tutela (Archway): Personal Information: Numeric Focus: CLB 1L/2L
Tutela (Archway): Personal Information: Alphabetic Focus: CLB 1L/2L
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: People in Different Jobs
Unite for Literacy: People at Work