Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB 2L - Reading
Interacting with Others

Global Citizenship

Real-World Task

Read a short message from a friend who volunteers at a seniors’ residence.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Basic greetings
Present simple: be

Context:

Many people in Canada volunteer.
Volunteers in seniors’ residences often help out by talking, playing games, or doing activities with the residents.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

Sample Grammar:

Present simple

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Messages usually begin with greetings and end with a closing

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Friends often send each other messages.
Volunteering is a good way to help others in the community and to meet new people.
There are more and less polite ways of talking about someone’s age. Many people in Canada don’t like to be called old.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Show the class photographs of people of different ages. Elicit words from learners such as child, boy, girl, teenager, adult, man, woman. Write these words on the board.
Add photographs of younger and older people and teach the words old, senior, and retired. Discuss the more polite terms to use for an older person, such as senior.
Discuss as a class: Where do older people live in Canada? Where do older people live in your first countries? Discuss options in Canada such as living in their own home, living with family, and living in a retirement home or seniors’ residence. Note that many learners may be judgmental about the fact that there are many seniors in Canada who live in homes as opposed to living with family. It can be helpful to tell them that in many cases, it is the parents who do not want to live with their children and grandchildren. They want to maintain their independence.
Discuss as a class: Who has a job? Who had a job in the past? What do / did you do?
Discuss as a class: What is a volunteer? Talk about the benefits of volunteering, such as helping the community, meeting other people, and getting work experience.
As a class, look at websites for seniors’ residences in your community. Invite learners to identify words they can read. Look at the pictures together and talk about what happens in a seniors’ residence.
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.
Clap out the syllables for the words in the vocabulary list. Sort vocabulary cards into categories for one, two, or three syllables.
As a class, read simple sentences in the present simple about working in a seniors’ residence, e.g. I work with seniors. I volunteer. I help seniors. I play games.
Write the sentences onto strips and cut the strips to divide the sentences into words. Have learners work with a partner. Give each pair a strip to reassemble and read out loud.
Read a simple message from a friend
about volunteering. Read the message to the class and then choral read and echo read the message. Circle the greeting in the message. Match vocabulary cards to words in the message.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Read a very simple message from a friend who is volunteering. Demonstrate understanding by answering very simple comprehension questions or circling pictures that match the information.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Read a short message from a friend who volunteers at a seniors’ residence. Demonstrate understanding by answering very simple comprehension questions or circling pictures that match the information.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Learners may come from cultures where seniors’ residences are not used or not common. They may come from cultures where multi-generational households are the norms. You can discuss advantages and disadvantages of different options for older people. Avoid making judgements about the best choices.
Some learners may have worked in seniors’ residences or may know people who work in seniors’ residences. You may need to clarify the difference between working and volunteering in a residence. Volunteers usually do not take care of the physical needs of the residents.

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:

Recognize that seniors live in a variety of living situations and give examples of different choices. Help learners understand that some retirement homes or seniors’ residences are very expensive, and it’s not everyone in Canada who can afford them.
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:

People who have lost family members or who are missing their own parents who are in other countries may be triggered by this discussion.
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:

Invite a retired person to come and meet your class and talk a little about their life.
If possible, arrange for your class to visit a seniors’ residence and complete an activity with the residents.

Realia:

Websites from seniors’ residences

Units and Modules:

Tutela (Archway): Introduction to Volunteering: CLB 1L/2L
Tutela (Archway): Volunteering at a Foodbank: CLB 1L/2L
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Following Bylaws: CLB 3L/4L (Not the right level but can be adapted)

Lessons and Activities:

LINC 2 Classroom Activities: How to Keep Out the Cold (p. 16) (Not literacy but can be adapted)

A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia: