Real-World Task
Find your own name and the total amount payable on a highly simplified utility bill.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Numbers 0-9
- Whole round numbers to 100: 10, 20, 30 etc.
Context:
- Most people in Canada pay utility bills, possibly including heat, electricity, water, waste water, telephone, cell phone, and internet.
- In rental housing, some utility bills are included in the rent and some are paid separately by the tenant.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- bill
- heat
- water
- electricity/hydro/power
- telephone
- amount
- dollars
Sample Grammar:
- Format of numbers
- Question in the present simple: How much?
- Capitalization of names
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- A utility bill tells you how much you owe.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- If you don’t pay a utility bill on time, you may have to pay late fees.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Discuss with learners: what is a bill? What bills do you have to pay every month? Elicit common utility bills, such as heat, electricity/hydro/power, water, and telephone. If oral language is very low, introduce realia of various bills that learners may need to pay and elicit/practice the names of the bills.
- Using clear photographs, practice the vocabulary for different utilities. Use TPR (Total Physical Response): call out the name of a utility bill, and have learners respond by holding up the correct picture. If possible, use physical responses for each bill, such as miming talking on a phone for the phone bill or wrapping your arms around yourself for heat.
- Practice tracing and writing the numbers 0-9.
- Sing and workout to Count to 100 by 10s.
- Work with a partner to count clear objects on a sheet of paper and say or write the number.
- Sing and workout to Work Out and Count to 100.
- Listen to the instructor say a number between 0-9 and count out the correct number of objects (using pebbles, marker tops, or other small objects).
- Have learners move around the class, answering and asking “What’s your name?”
- Trace and then copy own name. Underline the capital letters used in the name.
- Out of a list of 3-4 names of learners in the class, find and circle your name. Underline the capital letters.
- Listen to a very simple instructor-made dialogue about paying a utility bill and how much it is. Practice the dialogue with a partner and perform the dialogue for the class.
- Listen to the instructor call out an amount, in round numbers, between 0-100, and circle the correct number on your sheet out of 3 choices.
- Practice reading the names of whole, round numbers between 0-100 with a partner.
- Read a very simple bill with a partner. Ask your partner: How much. The partner reads the amount. Switch roles with a different bill.
- Play some online numbers games to practice whole numbers and numbers 0-9.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Role-play with a partner paying a utility bill at the bank using a very simple bill with own name and amount on it and using play money.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Find your own name and the total amount payable on a highly simplified utility bill. Show comprehension by pointing to your name and saying the amount.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- In different places in Canada, utility bills can have different names, e.g. electricity/power/hydro. Different forms of heating are common in different places as well, such as natural gas on the Prairies and oil or heat pumps in Atlantic Canada. Use the vocabulary for your local community.
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.
- 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.
- Show learners that the size of an image on the screen can be adjusted.
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 are women may not have control of their own finances. Help learners to understand that in Canada all adults have access to their own money.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Learners who have experienced trauma or who have lived or are living in poverty may be triggered by discussions of money and finances. Learners who have lost their possessions or money may also be triggered by this topic. Be aware of this and be prepared to support learners as needed.
- 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:
- Choral read a very simple sentence and circle the appropriate utilities you pay each month: In my home, we pay: (circle any of: heat, water, electricity/hydro/power, telephone, and so on).
Realia:
- Play money
- Sample bills
Units and Modules:
- Tutela (CCLB): Reporting a Lost, Stolen, or Damaged Bank Card: CLB 1L/2L (Not the right level but can be adapted)
Lessons and Activities:
- Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB FL
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Adults Learn to Print
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Reading Skills Stories
- Tutela (Archway): Personal Information: Numeric Focus: CLB 1L/2L (Not the right level but can be adapted)
- Janis ESL ISSBC: Banking and Money ( Not the right level but can be adapted)
- A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.
Multimedia:
- YouTube: Work Out and Count to 100
- YouTube: Count to 100 by 10s
- Tutela: ESL Image Bank: Banking and Finance
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.
