Detailed Sample Task: Stage I

CLB 4 - Writing
Reproducing Information

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Real-World Task

Create a short list of your rights and responsibilities from two paragraphs about Citizenship in Canada.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Vocabulary related to human rights such as freedom, speech, religion and so on.
Knowledge of the things you must do to follow the law and live safely in Canada, such as obeying the law, paying taxes, respecting other people’s rights, and following school and workplace rules.
Knowledge of Canada as a democratic country where the laws apply to everyone.

Context:

In Canada, human rights are protected by law at both the federal and provincial levels.
These rights come primarily from: the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Human Rights Act and provincial and territorial Human Rights Codes.
The Canadian Human Rights Act protects people from discrimination based on factors such as:
- race or ethnic origin
- colour
- religion
- age
- sex or gender identity
- sexual orientation
- marital or family status
- disability
Some core human rights in Canada include freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of association, democratic rights, mobility rights, legal rights, and language rights.
This task reflects the intention to include all people in Canada in the themes. The language skills in this task could be applied to other contexts.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

Sample Grammar:

Simple present tense for factual information
Coordinating conjunctions, such as and, but, so, or to connect ideas
An introduction to complex sentences

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Vocabulary needed to write about everyday topics
Spelling, punctuation and capitalization rules

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Strategies for effective note-taking
Resources such as spell-checking functions on the computer

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: What are human rights? What rights do we have in Canada? Can you list the rights we have? What rights do we Canadians have that some people in some countries may not have? Why are human rights important? What is our most important right in Canada in your opinion? Create a list on the board to refer to.
Discuss with the class the difference between rights and responsibilities. Look at a list of simple rights and responsibilities related to an everyday activity, such as learning English in LINC. Put each activity such as “You have a chance to speak and practice speaking English.” or “ We give everyone a chance to speak.” into the correct column in a table to show the contrast and relationship between rights and responsibilities. In other words, our rights exist because others take their responsibilities to us seriously and vice versa.
As a class, discuss the more abstract words from the vocabulary list. Provide learners with simple definitions and a chance to complete gap fill sentences with the appropriate words from the list.
Complete gap-fill sentences using the vocabulary words about human rights in Canada. Read the completed sentences aloud with a partner. Then working together, write five new sentences about rights in Canada using some of the vocabulary words.
Create a class word bank for human rights vocabulary to use throughout the skill building activities and module. Copy the words into a vocabulary notebook or digital vocabulary journal.
Listen to a simple, short audio text, instructor-made if necessary, about human rights in Canada. Answer a set of simple multiple choice questions about the audio.
Review simple coordinating conjunctions such as, and / but / so to connect simple sentences. Discuss as a class the purpose of coordinating conjunctions to connect ideas in speech and writing. Look at an instructor-made paragraph about rights in Canada, which is made up of only simple sentences. Rewrite the sentences in a digital document with some of the sentences combined using coordinating conjunctions such as “Everyone in Canada has the right to be treated fairly. You have the right to be treated fairly whatever your race, gender or age.” can be combined to show the connection between the ideas and to reduce repetition: “Everyone in Canada has the right to be treated fairly, and this is true for any race, gender, religion, or background.”
Review the use of the simple present verb tense to talk about facts. Complete a simple paragraph about rights and responsibilities in Canada which have missing verbs. Practice reading the paragraph aloud with a partner taking turns to read one sentence each. Copy the paragraph into a notebook or digital document.
Review the simple present tense with various activities and worksheets.
In small groups, talk about the three most important human rights in your opinion. Why are these rights important to you?
Review how to break down and understand complex sentences. Talk about how complex sentences can be hard to understand but discuss strategies for breaking sentences down into smaller parts and look for the main idea. Discuss tips like looking for signal words such as because, when , while and so on. Finally, talk about when you are taking notes you can use simple sentences to record the ideas to save time.
Practice reading compound and complex sentences about human rights in Canada.
In pairs, learners decide the main idea of each sentence and note down that main idea. Debrief the activity with the whole class.
In pairs, correct the spelling, punctuation and capitalization errors in a paragraph about human rights. Copy the corrected paragraph into a notebook or digital document. Discuss the importance of accurate spelling when you take notes.
As a class, look at one example of the copied text and discuss the presence of red or blue underlining to indicate a spelling or grammar error. Share how to correct the error with help from the application. Review your own documents and attempt to use the spellcheck function.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Take jumbled sentences about the differences between rights and responsibilities in Canada and put the words in the correct order. Copy the sentences into a digital format. Learners independently use the spellcheck function to check their sentences.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Create a short list of your rights and responsibilities from two paragraphs about Citizenship in Canada.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, genetic characteristics and disability are all protected grounds under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Some Newcomers may come from countries where human rights
are limited or not protected by law. Learners may be surprised or uncertain about the idea that everyone, regardless of gender, religion, or background has equal rights in Canada.
In Canada, rights also come with responsibilities. This means we
all have a responsibility to respect others’ freedoms, follow the law, and live peacefully.

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.
Type information to appear on screen
Send and receive text messages and messages on other texting apps.
Send and receive email messages
Complete formatted texts online, such as forms
Navigate and use online learning management systems (LMS) such as Avenue.
Use a search engine to find information

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.
Use digital tools such as translation or pronunciation tools to support language learning and foster autonomous learning.
Share knowledge and strategies to ensure online safety.
Refer learners to programs to improve their digital skills

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:

Teach learners that all people in Canada have the right to no discrimination.
Teach learners that many people still experience discrimination in Canada, but that there are things that can be done if you have this experience.
Teach learners that regardless of religious or political beliefs, the rights of all people are protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Some learners may have different views on EDI topics such as gender identity, sexual orientation and religious freedom. You can be sensitive to their differing opinions, but all learners benefit from EDI, and all learners have the right to an inclusive and equitable learning environment.

Trauma-informed Strategies:

Possible Trauma triggers:

Learners may have experienced discrimination, racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny or gender-based violence. Discussions of EDI may be triggering: be aware that there may be learners who need help, but it may also provide some comfort and support.
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:

Refugee learners may not have had a choice in leaving their countries and coming to Canada; recognize that some learners may have mixed feelings about being in Canada. Allow learners to have their own opinions and feelings about Canada.
Focus the discussion on the things that can be done to prevent, stop, or report discrimination. Focusing on what can be done about discrimination may help learners who have experienced trauma to not feel helpless.
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:

Take a field trip to city hall or another local municipal building to learn more about how local government works and how citizens can get involved, through voting, volunteering and so on.
Invite a guest speaker from a settlement agency to present information about your rights at work, housing, and in the community.
Invite a Community Liaison Officer as a guest speaker to discuss public safety, respecting laws, and how police work with the community.
Learners work in pairs to create a poster showing 3 rights and 3 responsibilities in Canada.

Realia:

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (simplified version where available) with key sections highlighted
Government of Canada Website printouts
Service Canada, or Immigration Canada pages showing how rights are protected.
Information related to provincial employment standards, from the Human Rights Commission, or multi-lingual brochures from multicultural centres.
Voting Materials: sample ballots, election pamphlets, or Elections Canada handouts explaining the voting process.

Units and Modules:

Tutela: Citizenship Resource: PDF Version and Audio Files

Lessons and Activities:

Tutela: What Do I Like About Canada?
Tutela: TCDSB Police Service – A Guide for Newcomers CLB 1-8
Tutela: Rights and Responsibilities of Canadian Citizenship CLB 3/4 H5P (Not correct level but can be adapted.)
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia: