Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB 4L - Writing
Getting Things Done

Health and Wellness

Real-World Task

Complete a simplified new patient information form at a medical centre including current medications, allergies or other health concerns.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Numbers to 100
Personal information
Healthcare card number
Email address format

Context:

In Canada, new patients will need to complete simple medical forms when they visit a clinic or medical centre. These forms ask for basic information such as current medications, allergies, and an emergency contact to help health care providers give safe and correct care.
It is helpful to keep a list of the medications or supplements that you take as a list in your phone or in your wallet, as well as any medical conditions, to share with doctors, other medical professionals or pharmacists.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

first / last name
email address
phone number
date of birth
address
optional
check / checkbox
required*
emergency contact
parent / guardian
doctor
medications
allergies such as peanuts, penicillin and milk
high blood pressure, heart medicine, asthma, diabetes and so on

Sample Grammar:

Noun phrases: peanut allergy, back pain and so on
Capitalization of proper nouns.
Spelling awareness
Correct date format.

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Begin to recognize the layout and different parts of standard forms (such as heading, instructions, and areas to complete).
Begin to recognize how to complete a checkbox or circle option on a form.
Recognize the importance of writing legibly in forms, using correct spelling.
Recognize the importance of providing accurate and complete information when disclosing medical information.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Begin to recognize Canadian conventions for sharing personal information.
Healthcare forms are expected to be honest, complete and accurate.
Health information is confidential.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: Have you been to the doctor in Canada? Where did you see the doctor? Elicit words like doctor’s office, walk in clinic, emergency department and so on. What happened when you saw the doctor? Is this the same as in other countries where you have lived? How is it similar? How is it different? Have you filled in forms at clinics, doctor’s offices or other health care providers such as dentists? What is difficult about filling in these forms? Why do you think this information is needed?
Look at a form for a walk-in clinic in the community. Add sticky notes to the poster to label different parts of the poster with the vocabulary words.
Create a word bank for all the vocabulary words to use throughout the activities and later in the module.
Match the vocabulary words to images on flash cards. Then match the image and word to a third set of cards with a simple definition of the word. Add these new words to a vocabulary journal in a notebook or a digital document.
Look at a picture of a person. Listen to an audio of them giving their basic personal information. Complete five sentences with missing words to describe the person’s information.
Match vocabulary words about personal information to pictures.
Play a game where pairs of learners race to point out sections of a simplified form. Where are allergies? Where is the doctor’s name? Where is the address? and so on.
In pairs, practice asking your partner about a child, family member, or friend. What is their first name? What is their date of birth? What is their phone number? Who is their emergency contact? Who is their parent / guardian (if they are under 18).
Discuss some specific health information that might be asked for on a new patient form such as allergies, ongoing health challenges, medications and so on. Discuss what the purpose of an emergency contact is and who is a good person to list for this section in a form.
As a class, look at some common conditions that may need medications. Make a list on the board.
As a class, discuss the difference between required and optional information on a form. Include in the discussion that most likely the form will not move forward or submit if required information is missing. Look at a simple blank online form. Find all the required sections. On a printed version of the form, highlight each information field that is “required”.
In pairs, look at an instructor-created resource of several simple forms that have been filled in, with one mistake in each form. Find each mistake and circle it.
Listen to your instructor read five important dates in your LINC term such as the first day of class, the last day of class, days when class is cancelled and so on. Write down the dates using the correct date format on a handout next to the relevant event.
Complete different simplified forms to practice printing the information correctly. This can also be done for an online registration form, although care will need to be taken with entering learners’ private personal data. Exchange the form with a classmate and have the classmate check for accuracy.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Look at an instructor-created simple
form for a community health clinic.
On the form, there are 12 pieces of personal information. Each piece of information has a mistake in either the place it has been entered, the capitalization, or where the required information is blank. Using a blank form beneath, enter the information into the form correctly.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Complete a simplified new patient information form at a medical centre including current medications, allergies
or other health concerns.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Learners from some countries may have limited access to healthcare as well as different expectations or experiences with medical service providers. Instructors can build understanding of Canadian medical norms, such as different places to get different medical services including community clinics, walk-in clinics and pharmacies.

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.
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:

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.
Recognize that people who identify as women may not have had access to medical care. Make sure these learners are aware of their rights in Canada and the resources that are available to them.
Make sure that learners understand how to access medical care in Canada. Make sure learners understand what medical care is free, and that there is sometimes a cost involved in a prescription, and that there are ways to get help with those costs.
Some visits to the medical clinic can be for mental health. Recognize that mental health issues are often stigmatized and work to reduce the stigma.

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.
Learners who have experienced trauma may find discussions of health care triggering.
Filling in forms and dealing with authority can be triggering for learners who have experienced trauma, especially for learners who have been in unsafe situations or have been in a political regime.

Strategies:

Make sure that learners are always aware of the purpose of the form and be ready to provide support if needed.
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:

Take a field trip to a local community health clinic to see all the people who work there and their different roles.
Invite a guest speaker from a settlement agency to discuss the healthcare system in Canada and how to access services in different languages.

Realia:

Brochures about local health services
Websites from your provincial health organization describing how to register for a family doctor or find a walk in clinic
Simplified forms for local community clinics or other community centres
Simplified information about different services at local community health clinics

Units and Modules:

Lessons and Activities:

Multimedia: