Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy

CLB FL-Speaking
Interacting with Others

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Real-World Task

Practice the cultural greetings for classmates’ celebrations both in first languages and English.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Basic greetings: hello, hi, good morning
Names of own cultural holidays
Names of some Canadian holidays
Most lowercase and capital letters

Context:

It is common in Canada to acknowledge the cultural holidays of your friends or co-workers even if it is not your own cultural holiday.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

culture
holiday
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy New Year
other cultural holidays such as Christmas, Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah, Holi, and so on

Sample Grammar:

Capital letters for the names of holidays

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Most holiday wishes are expressed as complete phrases.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

It is polite and kind to greet people and wish them the best on their cultural holidays.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: what is a holiday? Give examples of holidays that learners might recognize, such as Eid, Diwali, or Christmas. Elicit other holidays from learners and make a list on the board.
Sit in a circle. Go around the circle and say your favourite holiday. Say the name of the holiday in your own language and in English if there is a different English name. Say the appropriate cultural greeting for the holiday in your own language, e.g. Eid Mubarak or Happy Holidays. As an instructor, make a list of the holidays and write down the appropriate greeting for the holiday in learners’ own languages, phonetically if necessary. Make a list for yourself of the English greetings for each of these holidays, researching in between classes if necessary.
Using word cards with clear photographs and/or symbols, practice the names of the cultural holidays celebrated by the learners in the class. Have each learner say the name of their holiday and teach the class how to say it. Call out the names and have learners hold up the correct card.
Once learners are comfortable with the names of the holidays, practice saying the greetings. Some greetings have common English translations, like Happy New Year. Other greetings are commonly used in Canada without a translation, like Eid Mubarak.
Using a list with clear pictures or symbols, play “Find Someone Who…” Give each learner a list of symbols and have them find someone in the class who celebrates that holiday. Have them report orally after the activity who celebrates which holiday.
Read a very short, simple, instructor-made story about a holiday or several holidays. Read the story aloud to learners several times and then choral read and echo read the story. Have learners match the right picture or symbol to the holidays in the story.
Practice writing lowercase and capital versions of t, h, c, and e. Trace the letters and then copy the letters.
Draw a line to match a lowercase letter to the correct capital for t, h, c and e.
Copy the name of a holiday using a capital letter at the beginning.
Listen to a traditional song for a holiday such as “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” If learners know the song and are willing, have them sing the song.
Review the names of holidays and the greetings. Teach learners the phrase, I celebrate ________. Have learners mingle together. One learner says, I celebrate_________. The other learner replies with the appropriate greeting.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Say the name of 2 cultural holidays and say the greetings. (This is similar to the assessment task; only one of the tasks can be used in the portfolio.)

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Practice the cultural greetings for classmates’ celebrations both in first languages and English. Note that learners are only assessed on English.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Cultural holidays vary from culture to culture, and the same basic holiday may be celebrated in different ways in different holidays, e.g. Christmas is celebrated in different ways in many different countries. Encourage learners to be open to learning about each other’s celebrations.

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:

Work to learn the name and greeting for a holiday for every learner in the class to make sure that all learners are included.
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.

Trauma-informed Strategies:

Possible Trauma Triggers:

Learners who have been discriminated against or persecuted based on their culture or faith may find this topic triggering. Learners who have been forced to flee their homes may also find this triggering. If the topic is triggering for learners, you can focus on a cultural (rather than religious) holiday in Canada, such as Thanksgiving.
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:

Have learners bring in a cultural object from home that is meaningful to them, such as a decoration for a holiday, or choose a picture of something online that is meaningful, and show it to the class.
Bring in treats from one of your own cultural holidays to share with the learners.
Create a class calendar that recognizes the cultural celebrations of the class.

Realia:

Holiday decorations
Greeting cards, such as greeting cards from the dollar store

Units and Modules:

Tutela (CCLB): Greetings and Introductions: CLB 1L/2L (Not the right level but can be adapted)

Lessons and Activities:

Tutela (Archway): Personal Information: Alphabetic Focus: CLB 1L/2L (Not the right level but can be adapted)
Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB FL
Tutela: Foundation L-CLB 2L Phonics Curriculum
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Adults Learn to Print
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Reading Skills Stories
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia:

ESL Image Bank: Traditional Clothing