Real-World Task
Copy the name and phone number of your landlord.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Straight lines and curves
- Letter formation (either lowercase or capital)
- Forming numbers 0-9
Context:
- People who rent their home have a management company or landlord who is responsible for arranging the lease, rent, maintenance, and repairs.
- It is common to give your contact information to landlords and other companies that you work with.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- house
- apartment
- townhouse
- landlord
- name
- telephone number
Sample Grammar:
- Lowercase and capital letters
- Capital letters for proper nouns (names)
- Spacing between letters and words
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Some words have capital letters.
- There are spaces between words.
- It is easiest to copy directly beneath the text you are copying.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- You can call your landlord if there is a problem with the house/apartment.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Put large, clear photographs of different kinds of housing on the board, e.g. a house, a townhouse, a basement apartment, and several different kinds of apartment buildings. Try to use photographs that represent likely housing choices for learners in your community. Discuss as a class: Where do you live? Is this similar or different from their countries of origin?
- Give each learner a sticky note to place by the kind of housing where they live.
- Have learners repeat: I live in an apartment. I live in a house. I live in a townhouse. Point to each photo as you say the word. Try variations based on the learners in the class: Tranh lives in an apartment. Mariam lives in a house. Juanita lives in a townhouse.
- Use air writing and sand trays to practice letter formation: lowercase and capital letters.
- Trace lowercase and capital letters.
- Use a worksheet with only a few letters at a time to match lowercase and capital letters, eg. a to A.
- Ask the class: what is a landlord? Use simple, clear explanations, photographs, and miming to explain what a landlord is.
- Ask learners how much rent costs. Give learners play money. Role-play paying rent, with one learner playing the part of the renter and another learner playing the landlord.
- Trace numbers.
- Read a simple story about renting.
- Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Copy your own name and telephone number.
- Copy instructor’s name and telephone number.
- Copy the name and phone number of your landlord (same as assessment task).
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Copy the name and phone number of your landlord.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- Some learners may come from cultures where multigenerational families living together is the norm and may now be living in what is for them very unusual circumstances in Canada.
- Some learners, such as young learners or learners who identify as women, may not have any contact with their landlord or any control over their housing. Respect cultural differences, but make sure that all learners understand the rights of all people in Canada.
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.
- Type information to appear on 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:
- Recognize that learners who identify as women may not have much control in their housing situation. Be sensitive to cultural differences, but make sure that all learners are aware of the rights of people of all genders in Canada.
- Some learners may experience changes to gender roles when they come to Canada. For some, this may be a welcome change, but for others it may be challenging. Address their concerns with sensitivity but teach that Canada is equitable and inclusive to people of all genders.
- Recognize that housing is expensive in Canada, and that many learners may be in insecure housing situations. Try to choose images of housing that represent actual housing in your community that learners may live in.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Learners who have been forced to flee from their own land may be triggered by discussions of home and housing.
- Learners who have experienced trauma can be triggered by people in positions of authority; make sure learners understand their tenant rights and give strategies for making polite requests.
- 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 someone who is a landlord to speak to the class.
- Look at online housing ads for your community and as a class identify the rent for each one.
- Learn the names of common household problems, such as blocked drain, broken window, no electricity, and so on.
Realia:
- Housing ads
- Personal information cards
Units and Modules:
- Tutela (CCLB): Finding a Place to Live: CLB 1L/2L
(Not the right level but can be adapted)
Lessons and Activities:
- 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
- Tutela: Objects in the Home: CLB 1-2 (Not literacy or the right level but can be adapted)
- Tutela: Teaching the Mechanics of Writing and Letter Formation
- A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.
Multimedia:
- Tutela: ESL Image Bank: Housing
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.
