Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB 2L - Listening
Comprehending Instructions

Global Citizenship

Real-World Task

Listen to instructions of a few simple sentences about clearing the sidewalk in front of your home.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Present simple
Seasons: spring, summer, fall, winter
Weather words

Context:

In many communities in Canada, it is a bylaw to shovel the snow in front of your home.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

snow
ice
pile
shovel
clear
sidewalk
neighbour
types of housing: apartment, basement apartment, townhouse, house

Sample Grammar:

Imperative voice

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

We use the imperative voice to give instructions.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Some people help their neighbours by shovelling their sidewalk, especially for neighbours who are elderly or otherwise find it difficult to shovel snow.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Depending on the current season, start a discussion of the weather in winter. If it’s winter, ask: What is the weather like? Elicit snow and ice from the learners. Have learners describe winter weather. If it’s summer, ask learners who were in Canada during winter. Elicit descriptions of winter weather.
Show clear photographs of snow piled up in front of houses. Show a variety of pictures. Elicit words about the pictures such as snow, ice, pile, house. Show a picture of someone shovelling snow and elicit shovel and clear. Ask learners who have shovelled snow before.
Use vocabulary cards with words and pictures to practice the vocabulary. Use activities and games such as TPR (Total Physical Response), matching, Bingo, and Memory.
Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
If it is winter, look at an online weather forecast together and note which days you can expect snow.
Post large, clear photographs on the board of different types of housing during winter. Try to use photographs of the sort of housing where learners live in your area. Elicit from learners the names of the types of housing: apartment building, basement apartment, townhouse, house, etc. Ask learners who shovels the sidewalk for each type of housing.
Discuss as a class: Why is it important to shovel snow in the wintertime? Discuss reasons such as safety (preventing slips and falls) and access (allowing people to reach your home, such as the mail carrier, friends, or even emergency services). Tell learners that it is a bylaw, a type of city or town law, to clear the sidewalk of snow.
Use TPR to practice the imperative voice. Give learners basic instructions, such as stand up, sit down, pick up a book, touch a pencil, say hi to a classmate, and so on. After a few rounds, have a learner take over and give the instructions.
Discuss the two different sounds made by c: a hard c sounds like a k, and a soft c sounds like an s. Look at the words clear and ice and practice the different sounds.
Give learners a simple flag made out of an index card and a straw or popsicle stick. Write c / k on one side and c / s on the other side. Read out different words with c and have learners hold up the right side of the flag for the sound they hear.
Interview a classmate: What type of housing do you live in? Do you clear snow? Who clears the snow?
Read a simple story about bylaws and clearing snow.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Listen to a dialogue between two people in a home in which one asks the other to clear the snow. Answer simple comprehension questions.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Listen to instructions of a few simple sentences about clearing the sidewalk in front of your home. Answer simple comprehension questions.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Many learners may come from countries without snow and may be completely unfamiliar with the idea that you are responsible for clearing the snow around your home.
Learners who live in apartment buildings are usually not responsible for clearing the snow in front of their building.

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.

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:

If it is winter, go for a winter walk in the area around your school or organization. Practice winter words for the things you see.
As a class, write a story about the things you can do in the wintertime for fun, such as sledding/coasting, skating, skiing, or making snow angels.

Realia:

Snow shovel

Units and Modules:

The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Following Bylaws: CLB 3L/4L (Not the right level but can be adapted)
Tutela (CCLB): The Weather: CLB 1L/2L

Lessons and Activities:

LINC 2 Classroom Activities: How to Keep Out the Cold (p. 16)
(Not literacy but can be adapted)
Tutela: Speaking Assessment: Weather Safety: CLB 2 (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:

Tutela: ESL Image Bank: Community
Unite for Literacy: Community Matters
Unite for Literacy: A Blanket of Snow
Unite for Literacy: It’s Winter!
Unite for Literacy: Here Comes Winter
YouTube: Bob the Canadian: Let’s Learn English in the Snow (Language is very high but can be used with high levels of support)