Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy
CLB 4L - Reading
Comprehending Information
Health and Wellness
Real-World Task
Read an article of up to 3 paragraphs about traditional foods being used in Indigenous cultures for healing.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Present simple
- Past simple
Context:
- Indigenous Peoples in Canada have traditional healing practices, and many people still use traditional healing practices today.
- Many learners come from cultures that use traditional healing practices.
- Food has a large impact on health and wellness.
- 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:
- Indigenous
- Peoples
- traditional
- healing
- specific words for traditional healing foods such as: cedar, sage, salmon, bison, saskatoon berries, and so on
Sample Grammar:
- Modal verbs: can
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Paragraphs usually begin with the main idea (often called a topic sentence) and are followed with reasons and / or specific examples.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- Learning about Indigenous cultures is a part of learning about Canadian culture.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Discuss as a class: What is medicine? What do doctors do? What is traditional medicine or healing? Do you have traditional medicine or healing in your culture?
- Discuss as a class: Who are Indigenous Peoples in Canada? Where do they come from? Where do they live? What language(s) do they speak?
- Use vocabulary cards with words, clear pictures, and simple definitions to practice the task vocabulary.
- Practice vocabulary using a variety of activities, such as matching, fill in the blanks, Bingo, Taboo (in which one learner describes a word without saying it and the other learners guess), crossword puzzles, putting the words in alphabetical order, and so on.
- Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
- Copy words from your vocabulary cards to fill in the blanks by clear photographs to complete descriptions of healing foods.
- Watch videos such as Popular Foods that Come From Indigenous Peoples or Indigenous Food Sovereignty (the language in this one is high but it has excellent information) and discuss traditional Indigenous foods in Canada. If learners find the language in the second video challenging, try supports such as slowing down the replay (through settings on YouTube) and putting on subtitles. Watch the video several times and pause and discuss key facts.
- Discuss in a small group: Is food important to your health? Why or why not? If yes, how? Make a list of foods that are healthy for you or that can help you if you are sick. Share your ideas from your group with the class. Respect that different cultures view different foods as healthy or unhealthy.
- Review the modal can and practice by filling in blanks, editing incorrect sentences, and writing sentences.
- Read a short, instructor-made or instructor-adapted article about Indigenous Peoples and food in Canada. Re-read the article several times over several days. Do a variety of comprehension activities such as underlining the main idea, circling examples, matching vocabulary words to pictures, answering comprehension questions, and retelling three facts from the article to a classmate.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Read an article of up to 3 paragraphs about traditional Indigenous foods in Canada. Demonstrate understanding by answering comprehension questions.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Read an article of up to 3 paragraphs
about traditional foods being used in Indigenous cultures for healing. Demonstrate understanding by
answering comprehension questions.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- People from different cultures may have traditional medicines. Avoid making any judgements on the efficacy of traditional versus western medicine and avoid making any medical recommendations.
- People from different cultures may view different foods as healthy or unhealthy. Avoid judgement on cultural food choices.
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.
- Use familiar apps, social media platforms and web pages.
- Read information from a screen.
- Scan online resources to find information.
- Read formatted texts online, such as forms or labels.
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.
- Refer learners to programs to improve their digital skills.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:
- Recognize that 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.
- 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.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Learners who have experienced trauma may find discussions of medical care triggering. Avoid asking learners about their own experiences with medical care including with traditional healing.
- 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:
- Invite an Elder to speak to the class.
- Read a story as a class such as from Canadian Indigenous Content
- Watch a video about Indigenous cultures such as
NFB: Evan’s Drum - Create a poster about different ailments and what some different cultures practice as healing, such as headaches, colds, or stiff joints.
Realia:
- Examples of traditional foods such as bison, sage, bannock, and so on
- Try making a simple Indigenous recipe such as bannock
Units and Modules:
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Going to a Powwow: CLB 3L/4L
- Tutela (ATESL): Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism: CLB 3/4 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Staying Healthy: CLB 2L/3L (Not the right level but can be adapted)
- CCLB: At the Walk-In Clinic: CLB 3/4 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
Lessons and Activities:
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Canadian Indigenous Content
- Tutela (NorQuest): Diversity and Inclusion Materials for the EAL Classroom: CLB 3-6 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- Tutela (TCDSB): Canada and Diversity
- 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: Health
- NFB: Evan’s Drum
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.
