Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB FL - Writing

Health and Wellness

Real-World Task

Copy highly familiar words about self-care, such as sleep, eat and healthy food to accompany pictures.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Forming letters
basic food words: apple, orange, lettuce

Context:

Your health is impacted by your habits, such as eating healthy food, sleeping well, and exercising.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

healthy
sick
eat
food
sleep
fruit words: mango, pear, banana, melon
vegetable words: broccoli, spinach, beet, carrot, potato, sweet potato

Sample Grammar:

Spacing between words

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

It is easiest to copy a word directly beneath the word.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Spending time with people you like, such as friends or family, can be good for your health.
It can be fun to share exercising or eating healthy food with another person.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: what does sick mean? Elicit the meaning from learners.
If necessary, mime various forms of being sick, by putting your hands up to your head for a headache, placing your hand on your forehead for a fever, placing your hand on your stomach for any kind of nausea, and so on. Ask learners what does healthy mean? Ask how the learners stay healthy.
Use TPR (Total Physical Response) to practice sick and healthy. Call out one of the words and have the learners respond by miming.
Use vocabulary cards with clear pictures and words to practice fruit words. Play Bingo with very simple Bingo cards (e.g. 3×3) with fruit words.
Read Fruits to the class from the Unite for Literacy website. Have learners read the story themselves on a computer or tablet. Show them how they can play the audio for the story.
Review letter formation. Every day, review and practice three letters. Have learners write in sand trays, air-write, trace, and copy.
Use vocabulary cards with clear pictures and words to practice vegetable words. Have learners spread out their cards in front of them. Call out a vegetable word, and have learners respond by pointing to the correct card. After a few rounds, have a learner call out the vegetables.
Read Let’s Eat Fruits and Veggies to the class from the Unite for Literacy website. Have learners read the story on their own on a computer or tablet while they listen to the audio.
Discuss as a class: What fruits do you like? What vegetables do you like? What fruit and vegetables don’t you like?
Discuss as a class: What is sleep? Mime sleeping to teach the word. Ask learners about sleeping habits: what time do you go to bed? What time do you wake up?
Do you sleep well?
Read a very simple instructor-made story with the learners: I am healthy. I sleep well.
I eat food (fruits and vegetables). Read the story several times, and then echo read and choral read the story. Have learners copy
1-2 words directly beneath the story.
Review fruit and vegetable words using clear pictures. Have learners copy 2-3 fruits or vegetables beneath a picture and word.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Copy highly familiar words about self-care, such as sleep, eat and healthy food to accompany pictures. (Same as assessment task, but only one can be put in the portfolio. To change it for an assessment task, if needed, vary the vocabulary to be copied.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Copy highly familiar words about self-care, such as sleep, eat and healthy food to accompany pictures.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Ideas of what is healthy, especially around food, are different in different cultures. Respect all views around healthy eating and focus on the things that nearly everyone agrees on, such as fruit and vegetables.
Food is highly cultural. Include as many foods as you can that are eaten by the learners in the class.

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:

Note that many learners have lived in or are living in poverty or food scarce situations. Always treat food with respect. Recognize that many food choices are based on choosing foods that are inexpensive rather than foods that are healthy. Focus on foods that are generally inexpensive and readily available in your community.

Trauma-informed Strategies:

Possible Trauma Triggers:

Learners who have experienced poverty, food scarcity, or famine may be triggered by this topic.
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:

Always treat food with respect and avoid discussions of “good” food and “bad” food.
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:

If you have the facilities, create a dish together, such as a fruit salad or fruit skewers.
Bring in a healthy treat to share with the class, such as a vegetable platter.
If in season, visit a local farmers market to see the local fruits and vegetables.

Realia:

Grocery story flyers
Actual fruits and vegetables

Units and Modules:

The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Eating Fruit: CLB FL/1L
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Making Fruit Salad: CLB FL/1L
Tutela (CCLB): Grocery Shopping: CLB 1L/2L (Not the right level but can be adapted)
Tutela: Going Grocery Shopping: CLB 1L (Not at level but can be adapted)

Lessons and Activities:

Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB FL
Tutela: Foundation L-CLB 2L Phonics Curriculum
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Reading Skills Stories
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Adults Learn to Print
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia:

Unite for Literacy: Our Good Food
Unite for Literacy: Fruits
Unite for Literacy: Let’s Eat Fruits and Veggies
Unite for Literacy: Fresh from the Farm
Unite for Literacy: How Do You Stay Healthy?
Tutela: ESL Image Bank: Grocery Store