Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy
CLB
4L-Writing
Reproducing Information
Banking and Numeracy
Real-World Task
Prepare a monthly budget using information from a template.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Parts of speech: nouns, verbs
- Numbers to 1000
Context:
- Budgets can be useful in ensuring you have enough money every week or month to meet your needs and responsibilities.
- Budgets can be useful planning tools to reach your financial goals.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- budget
- wants/luxury
- needs/necessity
- item
- income
- expense words: bill, utility, insurance, tax
Sample Grammar:
- Adjectives/adverbs of frequency: yearly, monthly, weekly, daily
- Format of numbers with decimals
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Budgets are usually laid out in rows and columns.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- Budgets are based on fact and do not usually include opinions or emotions.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Discuss as a class: How do you plan spending your money? What is a budget? What goes on a budget? What are the advantages of a budget? Have you ever done a budget before?
- Review vocabulary on the board: income, expense. Elicit from learners examples of common expenses and list them on the board.
- Discuss in small groups: What are needs or necessities? What are wants or luxuries? Have learners make lists of needs/ necessities and wants/ luxuries.
- Read a simple story about debt and discuss what the character can do.
- Brainstorm in small groups ways to save money. Have each group share their ideas with the class.
- Listen to a dialogue between a couple discussing their budget.
- Teach yearly/annually, monthly, weekly, daily. Have learners write sentences about what they do and how often they do it, e.g. I donate old clothes yearly. I pay my credit card monthly. I buy groceries weekly.
- Review prices with decimals. Use play money and coins to count out amounts given a price and to count money and then record how much there is.
- Read a budget and answer comprehension questions on main idea and details.
- Given information, work in a small group to make a budget for a family.
- Use a website or app to make a budget given information.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Copy items and costs into a chart that organizes information into categories such as wants/ luxuries, needs/ necessities, utilities, etc.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Prepare a monthly budget using information from a template.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- People from different cultures may have different expectations of how to manage their finances. Some may not have experience with banks or may not trust banks.
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 relevant to the task.
- Use familiar apps, social media platforms and web pages relevant to the task.
- Read information from a screen.
- Navigate camera and microphone.
- Adjust volume on device.
- Navigate forms.
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 relevant to the task.
- Support with clicking on appropriate fields for an online form.
- 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 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.
- Learners who identify as women may not have had access to their own finances. Make sure that all learners are aware of their rights in Canada and are aware of services and resources that can help them.
- There are often programs available to help learners with financial literacy and basic financial planning. Research programs in your area and share this information with the learners.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Learners who have lived or are living in poverty and learners who have lost their homes and possessions may find discussions of banking, money, or finance 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:
- Budgeting is an effective tool for financial planning, but budgeting alone will not “fix” poverty. Be sensitive to learners’ situations, avoid judgemental language, and avoid suggesting that there is a an easy solution to complex financial situations.
- 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 specializes in financial literacy to speak to the class.
- Have learners write suggestions for ways to save money and publish these suggestions as a pamphlet.
Realia:
- Sample budgets
- Budgeting websites and/or apps
Units and Modules:
- Tutela (CCLB): Reporting a Lost/Stolen Bank/Credit Card: CLB 3/4 (Not literacy or the right level but can be adapted)
- Tutela (CCLB Blended Modules): Reporting a Lost/Stolen Bank/Credit Card: CLB 3/4 (Not literacy or the right level but can be adapted)
Lessons and Activities:
- Tutela: Basic Banking: Module Plan and Assessment Tasks: CLB 4 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- Tutela: Banking and Money: CLB 3/4 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- Tutela (OCDSB): Collecting Information About Banks: CLB 4 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- LINC 4 Classroom Activities: Pre-Authorized Payment Plan Application Form (p. 70) (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:
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.
