Detailed Sample Task: Stage I

CLB 4 - Reading
Comprehending Information

Banking & Numeracy

Real-World Task

Read an article about how large banks often sponsor different groups and organizations like Newcomers, sports teams or Pride by donating money.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Vocabulary related to community events such as festival, parade, community centre, volunteer, schedule, and so on.
Knowledge of community events, local companies and sponsorship.

Context:

Sponsorship in Canada is very common at many community and national events such as local multicultural events up to sponsoring the Canadian Olympic team. Sponsoring means a company gives money, support, or resources to a group or event. In return, the company may put its name or logo on events, programs, or teams.
Banks among other companies do sponsorship in order to support local communities, to show they value diversity, and to build a positive public image for their company.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

Sample Grammar:

Basic syntax including coordination and subordination of ideas.
Common everyday English spelling and punctuation rules and conventions for simple sentences.

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Connective words and phrases to show additions and examples.
Recognition of the main idea.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Common figures of speech, idioms and expressions specific to different situations.
Cultural references.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: Have you been to a community event, festival, or sports game in Canada? What was it like? What does sponsor mean? In your country of origin, do companies or banks sponsor events? What kinds of events? Why do you think companies give money or support to community groups? What local events do you know about in your local area? How can sponsorship help the community? Are there any problems with sponsorships?
Match the vocabulary words to images on flash cards. Then match the image and word to a third set of cards with a simple definition of the word. Add these new words to a vocabulary journal in a notebook or a digital document.
Sort words from the vocabulary list and other terms already known related to the topic of community events into categories such as events, costs, support, and so on.
In small groups, learners build a word map of terms related to the topic of community events, using categories such as event names, supports that would help the events and what benefits companies can get from sponsorship. Compare the word maps created and discuss the benefits of event sponsorship.

As a class, look at a paragraph about corporate sponsorship in Canada.
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.

Listen to a short instructor-made dialogue between two community event volunteers about the sponsorship of their event. Answer 3-4 questions about the conversation. Using a transcript of the dialogue, practice the conversation, focusing on pronunciation and fluency.

Review simple coordinating conjunctions such as and and but to connect simple sentences. Discuss as a class why we want to use coordinating conjunctions in writing. Look at an instructor-written paragraph about community events in Canada, which is made up of all simple sentences. Rewrite the sentences in a digital document with some of the sentences combined using coordinating conjunctions.

Review the grammar rules for making and using sentences with simple subordinating about the benefits to companies of sponsoring community events using a guided template with these kinds of sentences, such as “Companies like to support community events because it is good advertising.”

Read an instructor-adapted paragraph about corporate sponsorship of the Canadian Olympic team. Discuss how the ideas in the paragraph are organized and all connected to the main topic of the paragraph. Underline all of the coordinating conjunctions used in the paragraph and highlight all of the subordinating conjunctions in the paragraph. Circle any vocabulary words you find in the paragraph. Answer a set of true / false statements about the paragraph.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Read an article about local community events and the financial and volunteer support they need, to find the main idea
and several key details.
Read an article about a local Canada Day event and identify who sponsored the event and what support they provided.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Read an article about how large banks often sponsor different groups and organizations like Newcomers, sports teams or Pride by donating money to find the main idea and several key details.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

The idea of corporate social responsibility may be new for learners.
In many countries, banks may focus only on financial services.
Some learners come from places where 2SLGBTQIA+ topics are not openly discussed or accepted. Instructors should present Pride sponsorship as a common Canadian practice connected to inclusion and human rights. It is not necessary to dive into the deeper meaning of individual community events.
Learners may not be aware of how sponsorship visibility works. It helps to explain that companies sponsor events both to help and to increase visibility.
In some cultures, banks are not seen as community partners. Learners might be surprised that Canadian banks have a public role in supporting social programs, Newcomer services, or youth sports.

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.
Send and receive text messages and messages on other texting apps.
Send and receive email messages
Read formatted texts online, such as forms
Navigate and use online learning management systems (LMS) such as Avenue.
Recognize a phishing attempt of a scam message.
Evaluate online search results.
Open and read PDF attachments to email.

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.

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:

Recognize that issues related to economic disadvantage are often stigmatized. Instructors can work to reduce the stigma.
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.

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.
Some learners may come from countries where trust in banks is low due to corruption, instability, or economic crises.
Discussions of cultural events may be triggering for learners who have experienced discrimination.

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 event and look out for evidence of corporate sponsorship at the event.
Invite a guest speaker from a local bank or credit union to talk about their support of local community events.
Look at posters / websites for community events and circle any references, such as company logos, to identify corporate sponsorship.

Realia:

Bank brochures about community involvement
Event posters / flyers / websites
Photos of team jerseys / posters / awards with logos on them

Units and Modules:

Lessons and Activities:

Multimedia: