Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy
CLB 4L - Writing
Reproducing Information
Health and Wellness
Real-World Task
From a short text about healthy living, make a list of suggestions for own use.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Fruit and vegetable words
- Physical activity and sport words: jogging, basketball, soccer / football, and so on.
Context:
- Following suggestions for wellness can help you to lead a healthy life.
- There is a lot of focus on health and wellness in Canada.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- health
- wellness
- tips
- breathing
- yoga
- stress
- self-care
- activity
- relaxation
Sample Grammar:
- Modal verbs: can, should
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Modal verbs are used to soften instructions and turn them into suggestions.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- Connecting with family or friends is an important part of wellness. Practicing wellness, such as taking a yoga class or joining a walking group, can also be a way to connect with other people.
- Self-care is important. Everyone needs to take time from their busy lives as parents, employees and learners to find time to do things they enjoy and relax.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Discuss as a class: What does health mean? What are ways you stay healthy? What kind of activities do you enjoy doing when you have some free time? Do you ever do anything alone? What do you do to relax? What is self- care? What activities would you like to do for self-care?
- Watch a slideshow presentation of the vocabulary and copy the vocabulary words onto cards with the correct pictures on them.
- Play games to practice vocabulary such as Bingo, matching, Memory, and Go Fish.
- Read a simple text about wellness.
- Discuss in small groups: what foods are healthy to eat? Write a list of suggestions in your group for healthy eating. Share this list with the class.
- Practice a dialogue between two friends who are discussing what they do to stay healthy. Include information about their diet, food habits, self-care and so on. Interview other classmates and then report back to the class what you’ve heard.
- Listen to a short presentation on wellness and complete a cloze exercise. Read through the completed text with a partner and circle all the modal verbs.
- Review modals: can, should, must and practice by filling in blanks, editing incorrect sentences, and writing sentences.
- Teach the passive voice with modals: can, should, must. Teach as a pattern: can be __________, should be __________, must be __________ for example “ we should eat lots of fruits and vegetables”, “ we can walk everyday in the park to exercise”, “we must get a check up at the doctor’s office to stay healthy” and so on.
- Practice passive modals. Elicit from learners what are things that can be done, should be done, and must be done.
- Write sentences about wellness using a modal verb (can, should) and a word bank. Share your sentences with a partner.
- Complete an editing activity with sentences using modal verbs. Find and correct the errors in the sentences.
- Look at an online program guide for a local recreation centre and find three wellness activities. Copy the information and share with a partner.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Complete sentence stems to write sentences about your own wellness and happiness. Share several with your classmates.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- From a short text about healthy living, make a list of suggestions for own use. Text to choose for should be up to 2 paragraphs.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- What is considered healthy food is different in different cultures. While most people agree that fruits and vegetables are healthy, other foods are seen in different lights. In particular, the role of oil or fat is different in different cultures. Avoid vilifying particular foods and focus on the common ground between the cultures in your classroom, giving learners the language to express their own opinions about wellness.
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.
- Navigate camera and microphone.
- 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.
- Teach reading strategies such as skimming and scanning to find information on websites.
- 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 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.
- Many communities provide subsidized access to recreation and sport programs, especially for children. Provide information about these programs and if possible put posters or pamphlets in the classroom.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Many people have experienced trauma about their own bodies, such as through violence, objectification, and shaming. Focus discussion on wellness and foster a non-judgemental classroom environment. Gently redirect any discussions that become body-shaming.
- 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:
- Visit a local recreation centre and go on a tour if possible.
- Take turns each day allowing learners to choose music for an (optional) five minutes of dancing.
- Learn a few gentle yoga poses each class.
- Go on a walk in the community around your school or organization.
- Bring a healthy snack to share with the class.
Realia:
- Recreation centre programs
- Healthy snacks
Units and Modules:
- Tutela: Fitness and Exercise: Module Plan CLB 3 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Staying Healthy: CLB 2L/3L (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- Tutela: Nutrition Module: CLB 2/3 (Not literally but can be adapted)
Lessons and Activities:
- Tutela: Canada’s Food Guide: Activities and PBLA Assessments CLB 4/ 5 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- Tutela: Mental Health for Everyone: Thriving through Transitions CLBs 3-8 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- Tutela: Physical Activity : CLB 4/ 5 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- Tutela: Mental Health: CLB 4/ 5 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- Tutela (OCDSB): Writing Assessment: Get Well Note: CLB 3 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- LINC 4 Classroom Activities (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- Tutela: A Sample Meditation: H5P CLB 3 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- 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?
- YouTube: Health Videos for ESL Beginners
- Tutela: ESL Image Bank: Health
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.
