Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB 2L - Speaking
Giving Instructions

Getting Around and Transportation

Real-World Task

Give 1 very simple direction from the school / organization to your home.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Present simple
Forms of transportation: bus, train, subway, ferry, taxi, walk, drive
Some basic actions to practice the imperative such as stand up, sit down, close your eyes and so on.

Context:

Giving directions is an important skill.
Commuting is an important part of the day for many people in Canada.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

take (a bus, train, subway, taxi, ferry)
drive
walk
wait
turn
left
right
straight
names of buses, subways, or streets in own community

Sample Grammar:

Imperative voice

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Directions tell you where to go or what to do.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

You can give friends directions to visit you.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: how do you get to school? Make a list of ways to get to school or work on the board. Write down examples such as bus, train, subway, taxi, ferry, walk,
drive. Only use the words that are appropriate for your community. Give each learner a card to copy down the word for how they get to school. Have learners tape or magnet their cards to the board. Stack all the bus cards together, all the walk cards, and so on, to make a very basic bar graph. Ask learners questions: what is the most common way to get to school? What is the least common?
Review forms of transportation. Complete a matching exercise to practice forms of transportation vocabulary.
Practice transportation actions: take (a bus, train, subway, taxi, ferry), drive, walk, wait
(for a bus, etc.), turn (left or right). Together with learners, decide on a physical action for each word, such as standing holding onto a pole for taking a bus or tapping your foot while looking at your phone for waiting. Use TPR (Total Physical Response) to practice the actions. Call out a word and have learners respond with the correct action.
Have learners practice the imperative voice by using TPR in small groups and using familiar actions such as stand up, sit down, open your book, touch your nose, and so on.
Discuss as a class how to give directions to get somewhere from the school or organization. Use real examples from your community: How do you get downtown from here? or How do you get to the mall from here? Elicit specific 1-step answers, such as take the green line or walk down Main St. or take the train and get off at City Hall.
Work with a partner to explain how you get home from school each day. Practice with a partner and then take turns telling the class how you get home.
Have learners write words to complete sentences about how they get home.
Listen to short instructions about how to get to someone’s home. Circle a picture to show how they get home, e.g. I take bus #42. Indicate comprehension by circling the picture of bus #42 out of 3 choices.
Read a simple instructor-made story about taking public transportation. Answer comprehension questions about the transportation used. Circle pictures to show understanding.
As a class, explore a public transportation website or app. Practice putting in a destination and seeing how to get there.
Looking at handouts showing how to get from one location to another and practice giving the instructions to a partner.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Have learners interview each other about how they get to school each day. Learners respond with 1 to 2 steps.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Give 1 very simple direction from the
school / organization to your home.
Use 1 basic step, such as Take bus #3
or Walk down Summer St.

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 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.

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.
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.
Walk around your school, inside or outside, and have learners use vocabulary practiced in class to guide you from one location to another.
Create a simple map of local businesses or points of interest near your school, including learners’ homes if they are comfortable sharing, and use the map to practice simple directions.

Realia:

Maps
Public transportation apps or schedules

Units and Modules:

Lessons and Activities:

Tutela (OCDSB): Assessment Task: Asking for and Giving Directions in a Neighbourhood: CLB 2 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
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: