Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB 2L-Writing
Reproducing Information

Indigenization

Real-World Task

Copy a simple Indigenous recipe.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Basic food vocabulary: flour, milk, eggs, meat, salt, oil and so on
Whole round numbers to 500, e.g. 350.

Context:

Learning about food is a good way to learn about another culture.
Indigenous cultures in Canada are an important part of Canadian culture.
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:

recipe
cooking words: add, mix, roll, bake, cook, fry
fraction words: half, quarter, third
recipe words: cup, teaspoon, tablespoon
specific ingredient words depending on the recipe such as: baking powder, berries, salmon, dried meat, and so on

Sample Grammar:

Imperative voice for instructions

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Recipes are given with ingredients first and then steps, in order, for how to make the dish.
Recipes in Canada include specific amounts of most ingredients.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Learning about food is a good way to share in someone else’s culture.
Recipes can be very important to families as they often are passed down through generations.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: what is your favourite food? Elicit many different foods from the learners and write them on the board. Choose one or two foods and ask how to make them. Write down the steps.
Let your learners know that writing out the steps of how to make something food related is called a recipe. Discuss as a class: Does your family have any special recipes that a mother/father or a grandmother/grandfather passed down to you?
Set out measuring cups and measuring spoons. Let learners handle each. Discuss the name and how much each one is. Ask learners to explain a half and a quarter.
Give learners a worksheet with a few empty cup measures, teaspoon measures, and tablespoon measures. Ask them to colour in half a cup, a quarter of a cup, and so on. Approach this approximately, and do not try to teach fractions mathematically.
Read a very simple instructor-made story, illustrated with very clear pictures, about sharing a sandwich between friends. First, the character shares half their sandwich with a friend, then they share their remaining half a sandwich again to get a quarter.
Give learners a sheet of paper with a large picture of a sandwich on it. Have them cut out the sandwich and then give “half” to a friend.
Read a simple instructor-made story about Indigenous foods in Canada. Read the story to learners, then choral read and echo read the story.
Do vocabulary, sentence structure, and comprehension activities based on the story.
Use vocabulary cards with clear words and pictures to learn expanded food vocabulary, including the words that will be in the assessment task. Play games such as Go Fish (create a “deck” of multiple sets of vocabulary cards, deal five cards to each learner, have learners take turns asking if someone has a card, if yes, they can make a pair and put it face up in front of them, if no, they draw a card from the middle pile. The learner with the most pairs at the end wins.).
Listen to a very simple Indigenous recipe and complete a cloze activity.
Use TPR (Total Physical Response) to practice cooking vocabulary, using actions to respond to the prompts, such as: add, mix, roll, bake, and fry. Have learners take turns calling out the prompts.
Read a very simple recipe and answer simple comprehension questions.
In a group or as pairs, share some simple ingredients and amounts for a favourite recipe.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Copy a simple Indigenous recipe, using a different recipe from the assessment task.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Copy a simple Indigenous recipe.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Indigenous cultures are an important part of Canadian culture. Sharing food is a good way to learn about another culture.
Many cultures, including Indigenous peoples, pass recipes down through generations.

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.
Type information to appear on screen.

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.
Show learners that the size of an image on the screen can be adjusted.

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:

Use diverse representations of people in all your learning resources and images, including people who are 2SLGBTQ+, 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.
Use authentic Indigenous recipes from Indigenous people.
Be aware of food allergies, food restrictions, and basic food safety if sharing food in the class.

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 share information about food from their culture.
Try making a very simple Indigenous recipe as a class, if you have access to what you need. Other recipes may also be used to practice the vocabulary and concept of following a recipe.

Realia:

Measuring cups and spoons
Samples of food
Sample recipes

Units and Modules:

Lessons and Activities:

The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Canadian Indigenous Content
The Granddaughter Who Was Eaten by a Big Fish: CLB 2/3 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Reading Skills Stories
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Adults Learn to Print
Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB 2L
Tutela: Foundation L-CLB 2L Phonics Curriculum
LINC 2 Classroom Activities: Food and Nutrition (p. 401-424) (Not literacy but can be adapted)
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia: