Detailed Sample Task: Stage I

CLB 3 - Reading
Comprehending Information

Education and Learning

Real-World Task

Read a short, simple 5-7 sentence description of how Kids Help Phone is supporting youth like the unhoused, BIPOC or 2SLGBTQIA+ youth populations.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Vocabulary related to community support and mental well-being.
Knowledge of some problems faced by young people.

Context:

Children and youth can contact Kids Help Phone, a free service in Canada that helps young people when they feel worried, sad, stressed, or unsafe. Youth can talk to a trained counsellor for support. They can reach the service by phone or text at any time, day or night. The conversations are private and confidential, and the service supports young people across Canada.
This task reflects the intention to include all people in Canada in the themes.
The language skills in this task could be applied to other contexts.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

Sample Grammar:

Simple present verb tense for describing unchanging truths
Sentences which link cause and effect, such as “When I feel lonely, I call my sister.”

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Recognition of main ideas and text types.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Recognition of textual clues to interpret the purposes of a text.
Cultural references

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: What problems do you think young people have these days? How can we help them? Introduce Kids Help Phone. Before this class, did you know about Kids Help Phone? Why do you think it is important for youth to have someone they can talk to? When young people feel worried or stressed, who can they talk to? Why might some youth feel afraid to talk about their problems? Why is it important that the service is private and confidential? What kinds of problems do you think young people have today? Are there similar services for youth in other countries where you have lived? How can families help youth when they feel sad or stressed?
Use vocabulary cards with words, clear pictures, and simple definitions to practice the task vocabulary.
Practice vocabulary using a variety of activities, such as matching, fill in the blanks, Bingo, Taboo (in which one learner describes a word without saying it and the other learners guess), crossword puzzles, putting the words in alphabetical order,
and so on.
Create a class word bank for mental
well-being for youth vocabulary to use throughout the skill building activities and module. Copy the words into a vocabulary notebook or digital vocabulary journal.
In small groups talk about one helpful piece of advice that a friend or someone in your family gave you when you were younger. Explain in simple terms what the advice was and how it helped you.
Review a few phrases to describe mental well-being and self-care strategies, such as “When I feel lonely, I call my friends.” or “When I feel frustrated, I go to the gym and exercise.”
Arrange sentences from jumbled word cards to give simple advice to help a friend or family member feel better at a difficult time, such as “Call me if you need to talk.”
Use words from your vocabulary cards to fill in the blanks in sentences about mental wellbeing using clear images of youth in the community to support their understanding.
As a class, read a paragraph about Kids Help Phone. Focus first on pre-reading strategies such as looking at the title, images, and sub-headings to predict the topic and focus of the text. Next, use skimming and scanning strategies to review the entire paragraph. After reading the text aloud, work in pairs to create a
two-sentence summary of the text.
Review the paragraph above and identify the simple present verbs and discuss their use to describe the main characteristics of the Kids Help Phone service that are unchanging, such as “Your call is always confidential”.
Read a short, instructor-made or
instructor-adapted article about mental health services in your province. Re-read
the article several times over several days. Do a variety of comprehension activities such as underlining the main idea, circling examples, matching vocabulary words to pictures, answering comprehension questions, and retelling three facts from the article to a classmate. Copy the paragraph into a digital document or notebook.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Read an article of up to 2 short paragraphs about local mental well-being supports for youth in your community. Demonstrate understanding by answering comprehension questions.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Read a short, simple 5-7 sentence description of how Kids Help phone is supporting youth like the unhoused, BIPOC or 2SLGBTQIA+ youth populations.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

In some cultures, topics like stress, depression, or emotional problems may not be openly discussed. Mental health may be seen as private or shameful and families may prefer to solve problems within the family.
In many cultures, parents or elders are the main decision-makers for youth. Some learners may feel concerned about youth contacting services without parents and outside organizations advising children. Explain that the Kids Help Phone service listens and provides support; it does not replace family.
Newcomers may come from countries where government services are not trusted, so phone or text services may feel unsafe. Clarify that the Kids Help Phone service is confidential and meant to help youth feel safe.
Terms like BIPOC or 2SLGBTQIA+ may be unfamiliar or sensitive
for some learners. Learners may not know the vocabulary and furthermore, some cultures have different beliefs about gender and sexuality. Explain the terms briefly and respectfully and focus on the idea of support for all youth.

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
Navigate and use online learning management systems (LMS) such as Avenue.

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.
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.
Recognize and teach learners that Canada is a diverse place and has people from many different cultures. Canadian celebrations represent the different cultures of the different people in Canada.
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:

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.
Learners may have experienced discrimination, racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny or gender-based violence. Discussions of EDI may be triggering: be aware that there may be learners who need help, but it may also provide some comfort and support.

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:

Take a field trip to a local community resource centre. Many neighbourhoods have centres that provide youth programs, counselling referrals, settlement services, and so on.
Invite a guest speaker from a settlement agency or a youth worker to talk about common challenges youth face, how counselling works, and how families can support youth.
Poster Reading Activity: Learners examine community posters and answer questions such as: What service is this? Who can get help? When is it available?
Community Service Brochures: Look at brochures from libraries, community centres, health organizations and so on. Learners practice finding key information.

Realia:

Kids Help Phone Cards or Posters
Websites with mental health supports
Community Bulletin Board Posters including youth support programs, wellness workshops, counselling services, and so on.

Units and Modules:

Lessons and Activities:

Multimedia: