Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB 2L -Writing
Recording Information

Getting Around and Transportation

Real-World Task

Copy the address and the French name of the school where an event is taking place.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Numbers 0-100
Capital letters for proper nouns

Context:

Many communities in Canada have French schools.
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:

street
avenue
road
French
elementary school
junior high school / middle school
(use the word that is used in your community)
high school
names of local schools

Sample Grammar:

Format of addresses

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Addresses are all formatted the same way.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

There are often events held at schools. Sometimes these events are for the children and families of the school and sometimes they are public events.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: what kind of schools are there in your local community? Does anyone have children going to school in the local community? Brainstorm the schools on the board. Organize the schools into categories: elementary school, junior high school / middle school, high school.
Discuss as a class: what language is mostly used at your children’s schools? Elicit from learners if there are English-language schools, French-language schools, or any other bilingual schools in the community. Ask if any learner has a child in a French-language school. Note that schools have classes devoted to learning other languages such as French, English, or Spanish, but there is a language that the school operates in.
Make a list of local French language schools on the board. As a class, look at the website for one of these schools. Have a learner find the address of the school on the website.
Read a simple instructor-made story
about a French school in the community,
e.g. Louis is 10 years old. Louis goes to school. Louis goes to a French school. His family is French. Louis speaks French and English. Louis and the other children have a French teacher. They learn in French. Read the story aloud and then choral read and echo read the story.
Sing and workout to Work Out and Count to 100.
Listen to an instructor-made dialogue between two parents about their children going to school. Work with a partner to answer comprehension questions.
Call out numbers from 1-100 and have
the learners write them down. After a few rounds, have learners take turns calling
out numbers.
Work with a partner. Read a poster for a school event. Find the name of the school. Find the address of the school. Copy words from the poster to complete the name and address of the school on your paper.
Complete a jigsaw activity to put together addresses in the correct format.
Write your own name and address. Complete a checklist for capital letters,
clear printing, and spelling.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Copy the name of your own school or organization and the address.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Copy the address and the French name of the school where an event is taking place.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

French culture is an important part of Canadian culture. Some learners may also come from countries where French is spoken and may want their children educated in French.

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:

Have learners copy the name, address, and telephone number of their children’s school, or, if they don’t have children in school, a different personally relevant location in the community. Exercise could be extended to include copying the name of their children’ s teachers. Many Newcomers don’t know the names of schools, classes their children are in, or the contact information.
Listen to a French song.
Have a mini-French lesson or learn a few words from another language. Learners can share how to say some basic phrases
in their own language such as “Hello”, “My name is …” or “I like bananas”.

Realia:

Map of the community
School websites
Event posters

Units and Modules:

Tutela (CCLB): A Child’s Education: CLB 1L/2L

Lessons and Activities:

Tutela (OCDSB): Assessment Task: Asking for and Giving Directions in a Neighbourhood: CLB 2 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
Tutela (Archway): Personal Information: Numeric Focus: CLB 1L/2L
Tutela (Archway): Personal Information: Alphabetic Focus: CLB 1L/2L
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: