Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB 4L - Reading
Comprehending Information

Canada

Real-World Task

Read a travel brochure about a Canadian city in a different region of Canada.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Present simple
names of provinces and territories

Context:

Canada is a large and diverse country.
The different regions of Canada have different local cultures, weather, food, and geographical features.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

geography
local
culture
climate
travel
visitors
specific words for that city, e.g. The Space Needle, The Halifax Citadel, The Forks, Chateau Laurier, and so on

Sample Grammar:

Comparative and superlative adjectives

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Brochures are often written in columns.
Photographs often have captions which explain the photo.
Travel brochures use a lot of descriptive language.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Learning about Canadian cultures and regions can help to connect with others and feel a part of Canada.

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.
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.
Work together in a small group to answer discussion questions about the region of Canada where you live, including the geography, weather, food, and culture.
Read a simple instructor-made or instructor-adapted story about the different regions of Canada. Read the story several times over several days to increase comprehension. Complete activities such as identifying unfamiliar words, finding vocabulary words in the story, completing comprehension questions, and reading to increase fluency.
Colour the different regions on a line map of Canada (e.g. The West Coast, The North, The Prairies, Central Canada, The Atlantic Provinces). Label the provinces or territories in each region.
As a class, sing The Canada Song by Nancy Kopman and / or This Land is Your Land (Canadian Version).
Look at photographs of a place and match the photographs to the right description.
Review coordinating conjunctions and, or, but, so.
Work with a partner to combine sentences about a region of Canada using and, or, but, so.
Review comparative and superlative adjectives. Look at a photograph of a group of people and make statements about the people, such as Alex is taller than Greg. Margaret is the tallest.
Discuss the region of Canada you’ll be focusing on for the assessment task. What is Geography like? Weather? Food? Culture? Find the region on the map of Canada and identify major cities in that region.
Read a short instructor-made article about the region in question written in columns. Discuss how to approach reading an article in columns. Identify key vocabulary words for that region.
Using different travel brochures, work in pairs and identify different vocabulary and phrases that describe geography, weather, food, and culture. Make short presentations for the class about the area in the brochure, including where in Canada it is located.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Read a travel brochure about a Canadian region that describes the geography, weather, and culture of that region. Demonstrate understanding by answering comprehension questions.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Read a travel brochure about a Canadian city in a different region of Canada. Demonstrate understanding by answering comprehension questions.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Help learners understand that Canada is a large, diverse country. Canada as a whole is a multi-cultural country, but there are also specific local cultures for the different regions of 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.
When discussing Canadian culture, make sure to include Indigenous cultures and Francophone cultures.

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.
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:

Work in a small group to create a travel brochure for your own community in Canada.
Work with a group to create a poster to describe a region of Canada.
Watch promo videos of different regions in Canada online and fill in a worksheet with the information showcased. Create brochures.

Realia:

Maps of Canada
Videos of a specific region of Canada

Units and Modules:

Tutela: Following Instructions: Canadian Citizenship: CLB 3/4 (Not literacy but can be adapted)

Lessons and Activities:

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)
Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB 4L
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia: