Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB 2L - Listening
Comprehending Information

Getting Around and Transportation

Real-World Task

Listen to an announcement at a train or subway station that gives the name or number of the train that is arriving and its destination.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Forms of transportation: bus, train, subway, ferry, taxi, walk, drive
Numbers 1-25

Context:

There are often announcements on public transportation that give important information.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

train / subway
station
names of subway / train stations or streets in your community
colours (red, blue, green, yellow, purple)
or names of train or subway lines in your community
arrive

Sample Grammar:

Present continuous

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Announcements often give important information about arrivals, departures, and delays.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

You can ask a transit employee for help.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Review forms of transportation with learners. Show them clear photographs of different forms of transportation and elicit the words they already know.
Give learners each a set of cards with words and clear photographs for forms of transportation. Ask questions to the class and have learners respond by holding up the correct card for them. Ask things like: How do you get to school? How did you get to Canada? How do you go shopping?
How do you go to the park?
Complete a matching exercise to practice forms of transportation vocabulary.
Have learners write words to complete sentences about how they get to school or different places in the community.
Teach the present continuous using clapping for each syllable, emphasizing the is and the –ing ending. Go around the class and have each learner say something that is happening right now, e.g. Rana is writing, Ahmat is sitting down, Rafi is drinking coffee, It is raining, etc.
Write words to complete sentences in the present continuous about things that are happening.
Read a simple instructor-made story about taking public transportation. Answer comprehension questions about the transportation used. Circle pictures to show understanding. Practice the story multiple times over several lessons.
Teach vocabulary for trains or subways, stations, and destinations, using information from your community as much as possible. If your community doesn’t have a train or subway, use a regional bus instead.
Listen to a series of announcements about trains that are arriving, noting the train and destination. Circle the correct pictures or words for each one.
As a class, explore a public transportation website or app. Practice putting in a destination and seeing how to get there.
Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
If numbers are used in your city / town / community, practice the relevant numbers.
As a class, look at a map of the train or subway system in your community (or the regional bus routes). Discuss the names and destinations of each route.
With a partner, practice reading short announcements that specify the train that is arriving and the destination. Each partner should repeat the arriving train and where it’s going.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Listen to an announcement that a train or subway is late and identify its name and destination. Show understanding by circling the correct information.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Listen to an announcement at a train or subway station that gives the name or number of the train that is arriving and its destination. Show understanding by circling the correct information.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Some learners may not have ever lived in a place where it was
safe for them to walk around their neighbourhood or take public transportation and may still not feel safe doing so in Canada. Some learners who are women may never have been able to walk around outside their home on their own.

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.
Read information from a screen.
Adjust volume on device.

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 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.
Discuss how to get a subsidized public transit pass in your community, if that is possible.
Discuss strategies for staying safer on public transportation.

Trauma-informed Strategies:

Possible Trauma Triggers:

Many learners who have experienced trauma, or learners who may be vulnerable such as learners who are women, learners who are 2SLGBTQIA+, or learners with disabilities, may not feel safe walking around in their neighbourhoods or in using public transportation. Discuss strategies for staying safer on public transportation.
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:

Look at a large-scale map together as a class. Drive a little car around the map to show how to get from one place to another.
Take a trip on public transportation as a class. Use planning apps to plan the trip together beforehand. After the trip, elicit an LEA (Language Experience Approach) story from the learners.

Realia:

Maps
Public transportation apps or schedules

Units and Modules:

Lessons and Activities:

Tutela (OCDSB): Assessment Task: Understanding Road Signs: CLB 2 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
LINC 2 Classroom Activities: Travel and Transportation (p. 425-467) (Not literacy but can be adapted)
Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB 2L
Tutela: Foundation L-CLB 2L Phonics Curriculum
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Reading Skills Stories
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia: