Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB 3L-Writing
Getting Things Done

Education and Learning

Real-World Task

Complete up to 15 items on a form to register a friend or family member for an Indigenous dancing class.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Basic personal information words: first name, last name, middle name, address, phone number
Name of own community and province or territory
Days of the week
Time formats

Context:

Indigenous culture is an important part of Canadian culture.
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:

extended personal information words: area code, postal code, email address, town/village/city, province
register
attend
Indigenous
dancing
community centre
other vocabulary that could be used for classes to register for such as painting, basketball or a language class

Sample Grammar:

Capital letters for proper nouns such as names, addresses, and communities
Format for addresses and postal codes

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Planning your writing to fit the space given on a form
Writing clearly on a form
It is common to fill in a form to register for a class.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

You can meet other people and learn more about Canadian culture by taking recreational classes.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: who are Indigenous Peoples in Canada? Elicit from learners that Indigenous Peoples are the first peoples in Canada and that there are many different Indigenous Pultures in Canada with their own cultures, beliefs, and languages.
Look up on Native Land or Whose Land to find out the Indigenous Peoples in your local area. Learn the names of Indigenous Peoples in your area and copy them onto a sheet.
Watch What Does Indigenous Mean? and discuss the video together. Elicit from learners what the video is about: what does the word Indigenous mean? What are the 3 groups of Indigenous Peoples in Canada (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis)? Ask learners if they have heard the words “Native” or “Aboriginal” before and echo the video that those words are not used anymore. Watch the video again. Ask learners if they have any questions and discuss their questions.
Discuss as a class: have you ever taken a class at a community centre or library before? What kinds of classes can you take? Have you ever taken a dance class, either in Canada or in another country?
Watch What is a Powwow? and discuss the video together. Before watching the video, explain what a powwow is (a social gathering with dancing, singing, and drumming to celebrate Indigenous cultures). There is a lot of advanced vocabulary in the video, but focus mostly on the dancing, drumming, and regalia (the special clothing). Make a list of the dances together on the board to help understand the video (fancy dance, grass dance, jingle dance, men’s traditional, women’s traditional). Watch the video again. Ask learners if they have any questions and discuss their questions.
Fill in a practice form with basic personal information questions: first name, middle name, last name, address, and phone number. Complete a checklist to check your work that includes capitals, clear printing, and fitting the space given.
Complete an online practice form (e.g. an instructor-created form on Google forms) with the same information.
As a class, look at a full set of personal information for an example person that includes first, middle, and last name, address, town/village/city, province/territory, area code, phone number, and email address. Discuss and identify each part of the personal information.
Give learners a worksheet with personal information. Draw a line to match the type of personal information (e.g. postal code) to the information itself.
Write out 2 full sets of personal information on the board and divide the class into two teams. Give one person from each team a fly swatter. Call out a type of personal information (e.g. middle name or email address). The first person to swat the correct information gets a point for their team.
Complete an extended personal information form.
Discuss as a class what kind of information you need to give when you sign up for a class at a community centre.
Do skill-building activities to review days of the week and time formats to assist in choosing appropriate classes to register for.
Read a completed application form for a class in Indigenous dancing with extended personal information and choices on time and day of the week and work with a partner to answer comprehension questions.
From a list of possible choices for classes and activities, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, choose a class that you are interested in and available for. Part 1 of the activity can be choosing a class that you are interested in and Part 2 may be to choose the day and time of the class based on the options available. Fill out a simple form to register for the class.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Complete up to 15 items on a form to register yourself for a class in Indigenous cooking, using your own personal information.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Complete up to 15 items on a form to register a friend or family member for an Indigenous dancing class, using information given.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Indigenous culture is an important part of Canadian culture, and learning about Indigenous Peoples, culture, and history is an important part of learning about 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.
Read information from a screen.

Instructors can:

Dedicate time to improve digital literacy for learners.
Make and/or adapt digital materials.
Introduce websites and/or apps 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 or apps.
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:

As much as possible, use authentic Indigenous sources to teach about Indigenous cultures.
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.
Some events and programs may have registration fees so ensure that there are a mix of free and paid choices in authentic teaching materials,

Trauma-informed Strategies:

Possible Trauma Triggers:

Learners who have experienced trauma, especially at the hands of a government or other authority, may be triggered by filling in forms.
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:

If possible, visit an Indigenous cultural event as a class.
Invite an Elder or another Indigenous person to class to talk about their culture.
Visit a recreation centre, or obtain a guide, to explore the programs that are available to register for in your area. Learners can choose programs they are interested in and fill in registration forms, either on paper or online.

Realia:

Examples of paper forms or online forms
Community centre websites or events schedules

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)

Lessons and Activities:

Tutela (OCDSB): Assessment Task: Filling Out a School Registration Form: CLB 3 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB 4L
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia: