Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy
CLB 4L - Speaking
Getting Things Done
Global Citizenship
Real-World Task
Speak to a local organization or charity about volunteering.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Yes/no questions in the simple present
- Information questions in the simple present
- Modal verbs: can, could, would
Context:
- Volunteering is very common in Canada.
- There are many benefits to volunteering, including meeting people, service to the community, and Canadian work experience.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- volunteer/volunteering
- polite phrases: I am interested in…/Is it possible for me to…/Can you give me more information about…
- organization
- charity
- shift
- Benefit
Sample Grammar:
- Polite requests with modal verbs: could
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- When finding out information about a volunteering opportunity, you often want to ask questions about where, when, and what.
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?
- Brainstorm as a class places in your local community where you can volunteer.
- Show the class a website for an organization that uses volunteers, such as Habitat for Humanity. Have learners show you how to scan and navigate the website. Use a think aloud if necessary to show learners what you think about when you’re scanning for information. Read together about ways to volunteer.
- Use cards with words, meanings, and pictures to practice vocabulary words. Do a variety of activities, such as matching, memory, and having learners explain their word to their group.
- Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
- Work with a small group to brainstorm the benefits of volunteering. Present your ideas to the class.
- Review questions with modal verbs such as Could I volunteer for your organization? Could you give me more information?
- 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.
- Discuss as a class: If you want to volunteer, what kinds of information do you need? Elicit from learners common questions, such as What do your volunteers do? When are the shifts? Where do your volunteers work? Could I volunteer with you?
- List polite phrases for the task on the board. Practice saying the phrases.
- Give half the class prompt cards with information about a location to volunteer (e.g. food bank, animal shelter, music festival, cultural event). Have the other half find a partner and practice using polite phrases and questions to find out more information. 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. Find out key information about the organization and then switch roles.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Speak to a local organization or charity about volunteering. Ask questions to determine what the volunteers do, where they volunteer, and when the shifts are. Use polite phrases.
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.
- Avoid using judgemental language about people who receive help from organizations, such as people who visit food banks or receive winter coats for their children.
- 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
- Allow learners choice:
- 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:
- Look for a volunteering opportunity for your class to participate in, such as a local park clean up or a shift at a foodbank.
- Invite a guest speaker who routinely volunteers to speak to the class, such as another instructor at your school or organization.
- Find out about volunteer shifts and then write them onto a schedule or calendar.
Realia:
- Websites from organizations that use volunteers
Units and Modules:
Lessons and Activities:
- Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB 4L
- LINC 4 Classroom Activities Volunteering (p. 297-323) (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.
Multimedia:
Detailed Sample Task
This exemplar is aligned with the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) and is designed to guide and inform your lesson and module planning. Consult the Canadian Language Benchmarks English as a Second Language for Adults for detailed performance descriptors at this benchmark and skill.
The information in this document is not exhaustive and can be expanded on. As well, you can use more learner-friendly language in your materials and assessments.
This is NOT a lesson or module plan.
