Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB 4L - Reading
Interacting with Others

Global Citizenship

Real-World Task

Read a message from a friend who attended a meeting in support of a new French school.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Email addresses
Past simple with regular verbs
Capitals and basic punctuation

Context:

Francophone Canadians have the right to have their children educated in French where numbers of students warrant.
Communities often hold meetings to discuss the community need for a new school.
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:

email words: email address, subject, dear, greeting, signature
French
meeting
community
support
approve
courtesy phrases: how are you doing? Thanks for your last email. It’s nice to hear from you.

Sample Grammar:

Coordinating conjunctions: and, or, but, so
Past simple with irregular verbs

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

An email contains an email address and a subject line.
An email contains a greeting, 1-2 simple paragraphs, and a signature.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

We use courtesy phrases to be polite and to connect with another socially.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: what language(s) do children in Canada speak in school? Elicit from learners that there are French and English schools, and, in some communities, bilingual schools which include another language, such as Spanish or Chinese. Have learners name French and English schools in your community.
Ask learners what the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is. Elicit from learners some of the frights and freedoms guaranteed by the Charter. Look at an instructor-made, simplified version of the right to minority language education. Read this right together and discuss what it means.
Discuss in small groups: is it important for children to be educated in their own language? Why or why not? Why is it possible to educate children in either French or English in Canada? Have groups report back to the class what they have discussed.
Review the parts of an email. Have learners match vocabulary cards to different parts of the email (eg. email address, subject line, greeting, signature).
Discuss as a class: how do you express support for something in the community? What words and phrases can you use? Read a simple instructor-made model paragraph expressing support for a new French school. Identify the words used to give support.
Read a model email together. Have learners identify the email address, subject line, greeting, and signatures. Have learners read the email again in small groups and underline polite phrases.
Review the past simple with regular verbs. Introduce the past simple with irregular verbs. Write a list of irregular past tenses on the board and elicit from learners as many as they know. Complete activities to practice the past simple with irregular verbs such as filling in the blanks and rewriting sentences in the past tense.
Write sentences in the past tense about what you did yesterday, last week, and last month.
Review coordinating conjunctions and, or, but, so and complete grammar activities.
Read an email from one friend to another and answer comprehension questions.
Have learners send emails to each other. Give each learner a peer checklist to record if their partner had a good subject line, greeting, and signature.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Read a short, instructor-made story about opening a new French school in the community. Identify the main idea and key details of the story.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Read a message from a friend who attended a meeting in support of a new French school. Demonstrate understanding by answering comprehension questions.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

People from different cultures may have different ways of staying in touch with each other. Recognize and value these ways while teaching that email is a common method in Canada and can be used for other purposes as well.
Many communities in Canada have both English and French schools. Some learners who speak French as a first or second language may wish for their children to be educated in French.
If possible, give them contact information for the relevant schools.

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.
Type information to appear on screen
Send and receive email messages
Navigate and use online learning management systems (LMS) such as Avenue.

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 how to move to different fields in an email.
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:

Show learners how to access accommodations online, such as changing font size, changing viewing size, using speech to text, or having the computer read what is written.
Teach learners that Francophone culture is an important part of Canadian culture.
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 been persecuted for their culture may be triggered by discussions of minority cultures and rights in Canada, or they may feel empowered to learn about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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 complete a “pen pal” project with each other or with learners from another class by writing emails back and forth for the length of the module.
Give each learner a “mail box” (an empty tissue box or a file folder with the sides taped shut can work well) and have them write their names and decorate their mailbox as they choose. Encourage learners to write postcards or letters to each other and deliver them to the mailboxes.

Realia:

Actual email or messages from classmates
Model email
Websites of French schools in your community

Units and Modules:

Lessons and Activities:

LINC Activities 4: Jason’s email (p. 351) (Not literacy but can be adapted)
Tutela: Email about a vacation: CLB 3/4 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
Tutela (OCDSB): Assessment Task: Writing a Letter to a Friend about a Community Event: CLB 4 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB 4L
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia:

Tutela: ESL Image Bank: Education
Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Graphics and Learning Resources (Language is high but instructors can use this to make a short, simplified version on minority language education rights.)
Guide to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Language is high but instructors can use this to make a short, simplified version on minority language education rights.)