Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB 4L - Speaking
Interacting with Others

Global Citizenship

Real-World Task

Introduce yourself to a local volunteer group for planting trees, offer to volunteer, and give reasons for volunteering.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Basic greetings: hello, hi, how’s it going, My name is…It’s nice to meet you
Present simple

Context:

Volunteering is very common in Canada.
There are many benefits to volunteering, including meeting people, service to the community, and Canadian work experience.
Tree planting is common in Canada as a way to offset carbon emissions and deforestation.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

volunteer/volunteering
polite phrases: I am interested in…/I’d like to…/Is it possible for me to…
organization
tree planting
experience
forest
Deforestation

Sample Grammar:

Complex sentences with because
Present perfect for experiences: I have worked/planted/done/volunteered…

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

You often introduce reasons with because.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Volunteering is a good way to meet other people and help the community.
Polite phrases and modal verbs such as could and would can help show respect.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: What does volunteering mean? Have you ever volunteered in Canada or in another country? What are the advantages or benefits of volunteering?
Discuss as a class: What is a forest? Who has seen a forest in Canada or another country? What is it like? Where can you go locally to see a forest in your community?
Put up a picture or several pictures of forests. If possible, choose local forests that have the same kinds of trees and vegetation as in your community. Elicit from learners as many words as they know about these pictures and make a list. Brainstorm with learners: why are forests important?
Discuss the vocabulary. Have learners copy words to complete a mini-dictionary of task vocabulary. Practice the vocabulary over several days by playing games and doing activities such as Bingo, Memory, matching, and Charades (act out a word silently and have your partners guess which word it is).
Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
As a class, explore a website, such as Trees Canada, that discusses tree planting. Navigate the website together and notice vocabulary words. Navigate to this section of the website: How to Plant a Tree. Read about how to plant trees.
Work with a small group to brainstorm the benefits of volunteering. Present your ideas to the class.
Review creating complex sentences with because. Practice completing sentence stems with because.
Write sentences about why you would like to plant trees. If a learner does not have any interest in planting trees, give them a different kind of volunteering to write about.
Review the present perfect. Practice saying things you have done in your life. Play “I never.” Sit in a circle. Have all learners stand up. One learner says something they have done, such as I have worked in a factory. Everyone who has never worked in a factory must sit down. Go around the circle. The last learner standing wins.
Listen to polite phrases and complete a cloze exercise. Write in words such as could and other vocabulary words. Read your completed sentences to a partner and compare.
Give half the class prompt cards with information about volunteering at treeplanting. Have the other half find a partner, introduce themselves, and practice using polite phrases to ask to volunteer and say why. Have learners speak to several different partners before trading roles.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Role-play a conversation with a classmate in which one partner is a potential volunteer and the other works for an organization that plants trees. Introduce yourself, offer to volunteer, and tell your partner why. Then switch roles.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Introduce yourself to a local volunteer group for planting trees, offer to volunteer, and give reasons for volunteering.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Some learners may be unfamiliar with volunteering. Share with learners how common it is to volunteer in Canada (according to Statistics Canada, more than 70% of adults in Canada have volunteered), and explain the most common reasons to volunteer: to help the community, to meet other people, and to gain work experience and skills.

Digital Literacy Strategies:

Successful completion of some tasks may require some baseline digital knowledge and skills.

Learners may need to:

Have keyboarding and typing skills.
Locate, navigate and use websites.
Use familiar apps, social media platforms and web pages.
Read information from a screen.
Navigate camera and microphone.
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.
Teach reading strategies such as skimming and scanning to find information on websites.
Introduce tools and apps that can aid learners in coping with communication. barriers, such as translation, pronunciation, text to speech, speech to text tools and so on.
Share knowledge and strategies to ensure online safety.
Refer learners to programs to improve their digital skills.

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:

When discussing volunteering, include a variety of different kinds of volunteering opportunities that might appeal to learners in the class.
Learners who have lived or who are living in poverty and learners who have experienced trauma may be less interested in green initiatives such as tree planting because they are more focused on survival. If learners are not motivated by planting trees, suggest other reasons that volunteering is beneficial, such as meeting people and getting Canadian work experience.
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.

Trauma-informed Strategies:

Possible Trauma triggers:

Learners who have experienced trauma may find it triggering to meet new people and request information, such as in this task. Help learners understand that they are practicing skills they might (but do not have to) use in the future, and that the person they’ll be speaking to is the instructor or another classmate.
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:

As a class, plant sun flowers or another fast-growing plant in little paper cups. Water each day and watch them sprout.
As a class, sprout carrot plants from carrot tops. Take a carrot top and put it in a cup with a little bit of water. Watch them grow roots over days and then plant.
Invite someone who has planted trees to come and speak to the class.

Realia:

Websites from tree planting organizations
Paper cups, seeds, soil

Units and Modules:

Tutela: Volunteering at the Foodbank: CLB 3L/4L
Tutela (CCLB): Caring for the Environment: CLB 3/4 (Not literacy but can be adapted)

Lessons and Activities:

Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB 4L
LINC 4 Classroom Activities Volunteering (p. 297-323) (Not literacy but can be adapted)
LINC 4 Classroom Activities Volunteer Heroes (p. 401-406) (Not literacy but can be adapted)
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia:

YouTube: What is Volunteering?
Trees Canada