Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB FL - Speaking
Interacting with Others

Health and Wellness

Real-World Task

Greet a receptionist at a medical clinic; give name and time of appointment.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Numbers 0-12
Basic knowledge of time

Context:

When you arrive at a clinic, or for any scheduled appointment, you need to check in with the receptionist.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

clinic
doctor
receptionist
patient
greetings: hello, hi, good morning
My name is…
times on the hour (e.g. 1:00, 2:00, etc.)

Sample Grammar:

Simple present: My name is…

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

When you arrive at a clinic, you greet the receptionist and say your name and the time of your appointment.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Greetings are polite and friendly.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Practice greetings at the start of every class. Greet each learner and be greeted in turn. Vary the greetings over time to include hi, hello, and good morning / afternoon. When learners are comfortable with these, add how are you?
Practice introductions: What is your name? My name is… Ask each learner in turn and practice each class until they are comfortable with it. Have learners mingle and greet each other, asking What is your name?
Put up a clear photograph on the board or screen of the reception area of a clinic that includes a patient, receptionist, and a doctor in the background. Ask learners where this is. Point to each of the people and ask who they are. Elicit or teach the words doctor, patient, or receptionist.
Sing and work out to Count by 1s to 10.
Practice numbers 1-12. Count objects and say how many there are. Listen to the instructor call out numbers and count out that number of objects.
Trace and copy numbers.
Count objects on a sheet and trace and copy the number.
Listen to the instructor say a number and write it down on a personal whiteboard.
Discuss as a class: what time is it? Check if any learners wear watches. Look at a digital clock and practice reading the time. For very new beginner learners, stick with times on the hour: “4 o’clock” or “It is 4 o’clock”
Do activities to practice the time.
Role-play a clinic: have one learner play the part of the doctor, another the receptionist, and the rest of the learners are patients. Give them each a card with the time of their appointment. Have learners come in, greet the receptionist, and say their time. The receptionist sends them in to the doctor, whom they also greet. Repeat until learners are comfortable.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Greet the instructor, say your name, and say what time class starts.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

In a role play, greet a receptionist at a medical clinic; give name and time of appointment. Use a prompt card for the time; if the learner cannot read the time,
tell it to them orally first.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Different cultures place different values on punctuality.
Punctuality is very important in Canada, especially for work, school, and appointments. Teach learners to come 10 minutes early for appointments.

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.

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.

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.
Make sure learners know that medical care in Canada is free.
Make sure learners know that they have the right to privacy, and that anything they tell a doctor or nurse will not be told to a family member or spouse without permission. Recognize that this fear of their family information being divulged is exacerbated when there is a need for interpreters. Interpreters, depending on the size of the community, can often be a known member of their cultural group. Learners need to be aware that as part of their job as an interpreter, they are bound by confidentiality.

Trauma-informed Strategies:

Possible Trauma Triggers:

Learners who have had bad experiences with medical care or with lack of medical care, or learners who have been through serious illness or the serious illness of a loved one, may find this topic triggering.
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:

Visit the receptionist area of a clinic (arrange it with them first) and then elicit an LEA (Language Experience Approach) story from the learners about what they saw.
Role-play other appointment scenarios to practice.
Practice time regularly, starting with on the hour, and gradually introducing half hours. Focus on important “times” in learners’ lives such as the start of class, the end of class, what time they wake up, what time they go to bed, what time their children start school or what time they start work. Have learners copy short and simple time lines for their days.

Realia:

Digital clock
Stethoscope (play) or nurse’s cap for role-playing

Units and Modules:

The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Visiting the Doctor: CLB FL/1L

Lessons and Activities:

LINC 1 Classroom Activities: Health and Safety (p. 366-404)
(Not literacy but can be adapted)
Tutela: Following Medication Instructions: CLB FL/1L
Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB FL
Tutela: Foundation L-CLB 2L Phonics Curriculum
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Reading Skills Stories
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Adults Learn to Print
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia:

YouTube: Count by 1s to 10
Tutela: ESL Image Bank: Health