Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy
CLB 4L - Reading
Comprehending Information
Canada
Real-World Task
Read a letter or an email from a Francophone Canadian friend describing the region in Canada where they grew up.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Coordinating conjunctions: and, or, but, so
- Basic paragraphs
Context:
- Canada is a large and diverse country.
- There are many Francophone people in Canada (approximately 22% of the Canadian population speaks French as a first language).
- Francophone culture is an important part of Canadian culture.
- Francophone people can live anywhere
in Canada, but there are certain provinces / communities that have a larger Francophone population, such as Quebec, New Brunswick, and St. Boniface in Manitoba. - 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:
- provinces and territories of Canada
- community
- region
- forest
- lake
- river
- ocean
- farmland
- rural
- urban
Sample Grammar:
- Past simple
- Irregular past tense words
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- A writer usually states their main idea in the first sentence or two of a paragraph and then gives examples.
- A letter about a place will often use a lot of descriptive language.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- Learning about Canadian culture and traditions can help to connect with others and feel a part of Canada.
- Learning about where someone comes from can help you connect with them.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- As a class, look at a large map of Canada, like a wall map. Elicit from learners the names of all the provinces and territories they know and write them on the board. Fill in any missing provinces and territories. Give the class a set of sticky notes with the names of each province or territory. Have them label the map using any resource they can, including names on the map, Google maps, at atlas, and so on.
- Give each learner a simple map of Canada with each province or territory coloured a different colour. Avoid black and white line maps as they can be very difficult to read, especially the many islands. Have learners colour in the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic oceans. Have learners label each province and territory.
- As a class, sing The Canada Song by Nancy Kopman and / or This Land is Your Land (Canadian Version).
- Discuss as a class: What are different areas of Canada like? Elicit from learners a description of your own local region. Discuss: Has anyone travelled in Canada or lived in another province or territory? What is it like there? What do you know about other places?
- Review the task vocabulary. Use vocabulary cards with words, pictures, and very simple definitions. Practice the vocabulary by playing games such as Bingo, matching, Memory, Go Fish, and Charades.
- Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
- Listen several times to a simple description of one of the regions of Canada (e.g. Atlantic Canada, the Prairies, the North, and so on). Complete a cloze exercise while you’re listening.
- Discuss as a class: Who are Francophone people in Canada? Where do they live? What language(s) do they speak? Elicit what learners know about Francophone cultures in Canada.
- Watch a video about Francophone culture in Canada.
- Look at the map of Canada and locate areas with large Francophone populations, such as Quebec and New Brunswick, and also smaller communities in Nova Scotia (Acadian) and Manitoba.
- Look at photographs of a place and match the photographs to the right description.
- Review the past simple and complete worksheets to practice the past simple, including re-writing sentences in the past, filling in the blanks, and unscrambling sentences.
- Make a large wall chart of irregular past tense forms. Elicit forms from learners and review ones they don’t know. Play Bingo to practice irregular past tense forms.
- Read a simple instructor-made story about a Francophone community including a description of the place. Work with a partner to retell the story using the images from the story. Re-read the story and complete comprehension questions. Practice reading the story multiple times over several lessons, focusing on pronunciation, intonation and fluency.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Read a story about a Francophone family in New Brunswick. Answer questions to show understanding of main idea and details.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Read a letter or an email from a Francophone Canadian friend describing the region in Canada where they grew up. Demonstrate understanding by answering comprehension questions.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- Help learners understand that Canada is a large, diverse country, and that there are many cultures in Canada (including their own), but also that there are many Francophone 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.
- Read information from a screen.
- Navigate camera and microphone.
- Adjust volume on device.
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.
- 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 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.
- Use diverse representation of Francophone Canadians, including Acadians, Quebecois, and French-speaking Newcomers to Canada, many of whom come from African countries.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Learners who have come to Canada as a refugee may not have chosen Canada as a home so much as fled a place where they were in danger. They may have ambivalent feelings about living in Canada and learning about Canadian culture.
- Learners who have lost their homes may be triggered by discussions of childhood homes.
- 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:
- Try a French Canadian food, like poutine.
- Listen to a dialogue between two people talking about where they are from in Canada.
- Prepare a poster presentation about a region of Canada.
- Learn a few French words and/or words from another language.
Realia:
- Maps
- Images of regions of Canada
- Maple leaves
- Provincial and Territorial flags
Units and Modules:
- Tutela (CCLB): Socializing with Others: CLB 3/4 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
Lessons and Activities:
- Tutela (OCDSB): Assessment Task: Writing a Letter to a Friend about a Community Event: CLB 4
- Tutela: Email about a vacation: CLB 3/4 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- LINC 4 Classroom Activities Canada (p. 85-140) (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- LINC 4 Classroom Activities Jason’s email (p. 351) (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.
