Real-World Task
Complete up to 5 labelled items of personal information to register for a Citizenship information session.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Recognize basic Canadian address and phone format.
- Understand the purpose of forms.
- Clearly print basic information.
- Be able to state personal information like name spelling and phone number.
- Knowledge of what common form fields are needed to register for an information session, such as name, address and phone number.
Context:
- In Canada, the federal government runs citizenship. There may be information sessions about how to become a Canadian citizen run by Service Canada or settlement agencies.
- Learners should be aware of the necessity to only disclose their personal information when absolutely necessary.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- first name
- family name
- address
- phone number
- optional
- check / checkbox
- date
Sample Grammar:
- Capitalization of proper nouns.
- Correct date format.
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Begin to recognize the layout and different parts of standard forms
(such as heading, instructions, and areas to complete). - Begin to recognize how to complete a checkbox or circle option on a form.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- Begin to recognize Canadian conventions for sharing personal information.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- As a class, discuss where the learners are from. Ask each learner “Where are you from?” Learners reply with I am from ___________. After practicing the exchange, have learners walk around the class and ask each other.
- Discuss citizenship: Make the connection between citizenship and where they are from. “You are from Syria, You are a citizen of Syria.” and so on. Discuss becoming a citizen of Canada. Ask what information they know. How many years do they have to live in Canada? Do they need to take a test? and so on.
- Discuss, in very simple terms, ways to find out important information like how to prepare for the citizenship test, filing taxes, and other community programs including community information workshops, settlement agency sessions and so on.
- Ask learners if they have ever signed up for a workshop or information session on any topic for themselves or their children or other family members? Which workshop? What information did they ask you when you signed up?
- Ask each learner for simple personal information, such as What is your first name? What is your date of birth? What is your phone number? For each learner, write on the board the information they provide onto a template like a simple form.
- Look at a picture of a person. Listen to an audio of them giving their basic personal information. Answer five true or false questions about the information.
- In pairs, practice asking your partner What is your first name? What is your date of birth? What is your phone number?
- Match vocabulary words about personal information to pictures.
- Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
- Discuss the basic rules for simple capitalization. Look at five sentences about a person in a photograph. Circle every mistake of capitalization in the sentences.
- Use an example of today’s date to write your own date of birth in the correct format.
- Practice writing the correct date format for five different days of the year, such as Labour Day, Victoria Day, Canada Day, the last day of class and so on.
- Look at pictures of two people. Listen to your instructor read five pieces of personal information about one of the people. Decide which of the two people in the photographs that you heard about.
- Using vocabulary cards complete a form with personal information for the person you heard about from the instructor.
- Look at a form where each piece of information has been entered in the wrong area. Using the blank form beneath, enter the information into the correct area.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Copy personal information into a simplified form template.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Complete up to 5 labelled items of personal information to register for a Citizenship information session.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- Some learners may experience changes to gender roles when they come to Canada. Perhaps gender roles have previously determined who completes forms and shares personal information. Address that in Canada, any person can complete their own forms. For some, this may be a welcome change, but for others it may be challenging. Address their concerns with sensitivity but teach that Canada is equitable and inclusive to people of all genders.
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 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.
- Some learners may have different views. You can be sensitive to their differing opinions, but all learners benefit from EDI, and all learners have the right to an inclusive and equitable learning environment.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma triggers:
- Refugee learners may not have had a choice in leaving their countries and coming to Canada; recognize that some learners may have mixed feelings about being in Canada. Allow learners to have their own opinions and feelings about Canada.
- 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:
- Form completion relay: In teams, learners “race” around the classroom to find information posted in different places to fill in a simple form.
- Complete simplified online forms to extend writing skills to include digital formats.
Realia:
- Simplified forms to apply for community programs and information sessions, such as Food Bank intake forms, Job seeking workshops and so on.
- Simplified forms to apply for subsidized activities at local community centres or schools.
Units and Modules:
Lessons and Activities:
- Tutela: Simple form CLB 1 Writing assessment
- Tutela: What Do I Like About Canada? CLB 1-3
- A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.
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.
