Detailed Sample Task: Stage I

CLB 3 -Reading
Getting Things Done

Community and Recreation

Real-World Task

Use a weather app to decide what clothing items to bring for a weekend away.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Name of own town / city for weather forecasts
Numbers 1-50
Weather vocabulary
Seasons
Clothing vocabulary – clothing suitable for particular weather such as warm sweater, t-shirt, shorts, rain jacket, light jacket and so on.
Days of the week
Navigating apps on a Smartphone

Context:

Many people check the weather forecast to plan what to wear and what to do each day. Many people also plan activities they would like to do based on the weather forecast such as barbecues, picnics or outdoor sports such as soccer or tennis.
The weather forecast helps people to know what clothing is suitable for the day or days ahead if they are making plans.
There are apps that can be used to check the weather and temperatures everyday.
Weather apps usually show the weather, temperature and day of the week.
This task requires some digital literacy skills but can easily be adapted using a weather forecast obtained in a different format such as an online forecast projected on a screen for the class, an audio or a paper based forecast.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

weather words: sunny, cloudy,
rain / rainy, snow / snowy, wind / windy
temperature words: hot, warm, cool,
cold
weather
forecast
temperature
degrees
weekend
bring
clothing vocabulary such as (rain)
jacket / coat, sweater, hat / cap, gloves, socks, boots, umbrella, t-shirt, shorts, shoes and so on.

Sample Grammar:

Present simple: It is… Sunday is rainy. Sunday is warm.
Simple future with “will” : It will be cloudy and cold. Sunday will be hot and sunny.
Giving reasons with “because”: I will bring an umbrella because it will be rainy.
Quantifiers such as a, some, my: I will bring my boots. I will bring a sweater.
I will bring some warm socks.

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

The weather word usually comes at
the end of the sentence, following the temperature word: Today it is cool
and rainy.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Knowing the weather helps you plan your day and what to wear.
The weather is a very popular topic for small talk in Canada.
The weather can change frequently in Canada.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

At the start of every class, elicit help
from learners to post the weather on
the board. Choose two symbols, one for
the temperature (hot, warm, cool, cold) and one for the weather (sunny, rainy, cloudy, snowy, windy). Write the weather in sentences.
As a class, look at a weather forecast online or on an app. Look at the symbols for the weather for today.
Practice the very simple dialogue: What is the weather (today)? It is…and… (e.g. hot and sunny / cool and rainy / cold and windy). Practice as a class and have learners choral answer, and then have learners practice the dialogue with a partner.
Use vocabulary cards with words and the same clear, familiar images on a white background to practice temperature and weather words. Do activities and play games such as matching, Bingo, Go Fish, and Memory.
Copy weather words to complete sentences: Today it is __________ and __________.
Discuss as a class: What season is it? What is the weather like during this season? What clothing do we wear? Look at the clothing vocabulary and categorize what season is most often associated with each season.
Ask the learners: What are you wearing today? Have the learners circulate the room and ask each other: What are you wearing?
Review and practice weather vocabulary and temperatures using degrees. Listen to the instructor say a weather and temperature word and circle the correct image on the page.
Look at a prompt card with a clear photograph of the weather and tell your partner about the weather: e.g. It is warm and cloudy.
Complete a weather journal for a week: Every day, circle the correct symbol for the weather and copy the word. Tell your partner the weather for today.
Listen to a simplified audio, instructor-made if necessary, of a short weather forecast such as “On Saturday, it will be sunny. The temperature will be 18 degrees. On Sunday, it will be rainy. The temperature will be 12 degrees.” Have learners identify the weather words and the temperatures.
Discuss as a class: What does “will <be>” mean? Elicit that this means that an action, in this case the weather is in the future… The future is any time after “now”. Give specific examples. “The class will end in 20 minutes”, “We will go home”, “We will have dinner at 6:00 PM” and so on.
Practice the future tense.
Look at several weather reports on cards. Have learners go around the class and tell their classmates what the weather will be.
Read a very simple instructor-made story about the weather and a person’s choice of clothing for an upcoming outside event. Read the story to the learners and then choral and echo read the story. In pairs, learners take turns reading the story to each other. Match vocabulary cards to words in the story. Read and practice the story multiple times over the course of several lessons.
Discuss the phrase beginning with “because”. The word answers the question “Why?” Review the story and determine why the person in the story chose the clothes they did for their event. Practice making sentences with “because”. I am wearing a sweater because I am cold.
I am eating an apple because I am hungry.
I was late for class because my bus was late. and so on.
Repeat the activity above where learners ask each other what they are wearing, followed by the question “Why?”.
Learners answer with “because ….”
Look at a weather forecast online or in an app, focusing on the upcoming weekend.
In pairs, have learners tell each other what the weather will be on Saturday and Sunday, including temperatures. Learners then choose the clothing they will wear.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Listen to the temperature (hot, warm, cool, cold), or the temperature in numbers, and weather (sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy, windy) and circle the correct information on the page. Match the temperatures and weather with the clothing items they need to wear.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Use a weather app to decide what clothing items to bring for a weekend away. Show comprehension by completing sentence stems using a word box.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Weather plays an important part in Canadian culture. In most communities in Canada, there is a significant range of temperatures from the hottest to the coldest days. Weather impacts the clothes we wear and the activities we do. Help learners to understand how to plan for the weather and what kinds of activities are done in different seasons 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.
Scan online resources to find information.
Read formatted texts online, such as forms

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.
Use digital tools such as translation or pronunciation tools to support language learning and foster autonomous learning.
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.
Teach learners that Canada is an inclusive, multicultural country.

Trauma-informed Strategies:

Possible Trauma Triggers:

Learners who have come to Canada as refugees may not have chosen Canada so much as they chose to flee a place where they were unsafe. Be sensitive when discussing Canada that not all learners will feel equally enthusiastic about being in a new country.
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:

Teach learners that Canada is an inclusive, multicultural country, and that all people have equal rights in Canada.
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:

In small groups, make a season poster. Cut out images from print outs or magazines to represent the season and copy the words for the season, temperature, temperature ranges, weather and appropriate clothing.
Visit a local second hand store or department store and note the changes in the clothing being offered for sale as the seasons change.
Create a calendar of the daily weather and an accompanying graph tracking the changes in temperature, Note the high and low temperatures for the week / month.
Explore weather in other parts of Canada and other countries, including the countries that represent the learners in the class.
Talk about the differences. Talk about what people in other
countries’ weather are relevant to their types of weather.

Realia:

Flashcards of weather words and clothing
Thermometers
Weather apps
Weather forecasts in newspapers

Units and Modules:

Lessons and Activities:

LINC 3 Classroom Activities
Tutela: Modified Weather Report for Multi-leveled Classes
Tutela: Weather CLB 1-4
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia:

Tutela: ESL Image Bank: Traditional Clothing