Detailed Sample Task: Stage I

CLB 4 - Speaking
Giving Instructions

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Real-World Task

Give directions to a classmate on how to get to an Indigenous art exhibit.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Present simple
Local transportation options such as bus, train, subway, Uber and so on.
Familiar locations in the community: school, bank, community centre, grocery store, mall, hospital.
Some basic knowledge of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Context:

Canadians rely heavily on compass directions, more than in many countries. Instead of “Turn left” you’ll often hear “Head west” or “Go south”.

In western Canada the layout of cities can be highly structured. Streets run north–south and avenues run east–west. Numbers increase as you move away from the center.
Even in grid cities, people anchor directions to familiar locations such as “Past the mall”, “Across from the school”, “Next to the Tim Hortons” and so on.
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:

Imperatives for giving directions
Adverbs of sequence: first, next, then, finally

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Directions are given in order, starting from where you are and ending at the destination.
Connective words to signal chronology / sequence.
We use or to give options or alternatives.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Culturally appropriate non-verbal communication strategies.
Culturally appropriate strategies to convey politeness and respect.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: How do people get around in places where you have lived
or visited in the past? What types of transportation were available? How do you get around your community? Do you walk? Drive? Take public transportation?
Discuss as a class: How do you go somewhere new? Do you ask someone for directions? Do you use a map? Do you use an app? What kind of community events do you enjoy going to?
If there is a transit app in your community, access it as a class and project it onto the screen. Elicit from learners what they know about the app and if any of them have used it before. Have learners point out words they know on the app and make a list of these on the board.
Use vocabulary cards with words, pictures, and very simple definitions to practice the vocabulary. Do activities such as matching, filling in the blanks, and crosswords.
Review places in the community. Look at an instructor-made street scape and listen to directions to label the buildings in the street, e.g. Building A is the pharmacy. Building B is the bank. The pet store is next to the bank.
Review the different types of transportation in your community. Practice sentences describing taking different types of transportation to different places in the community. Take bus #12 to the shopping center. Take the subway to city hall and then an Uber to the hospital. Take the train downtown and so on.
Listen to an instructor-made dialogue between two neighbours discussing how to reach a place in your community. Look at a transcript of the dialogue. Highlight all of the vocabulary words. Underline all of the verbs in the dialogue. Circle any adverbs like first, then or next.
Read the dialogue several times with a partner and then perform your dialogue for the class. Practice with a focus on pronunciation, intonation and fluency.
Review using the imperative voice when giving directions. Look back at the dialogue and consider how many of the verbs you underlined were imperatives. Take word card sets of jumbled directions in the imperative voice. In pairs, re-order the word cards to create directions. Read the directions aloud.
Talk about giving alternatives for directions and how Canadians sometimes use modals like could, can and might when giving directions. These words do not indicate the person isn’t sure they are used to be more polite.
Review adverbs of sequence. Look back at the dialogue and discuss all of the adverbs you circled. Write a list of those adverbs on the board. Work with a partner. Give your partner directions on how to get to your home or to another familiar place in the community. Use adverbs of sequence for the steps.
Work with a small group. Look at a simplified community map with a starting point and a destination clearly marked.
Plan routes to get from the starting point to the destination. Explain your route to another group.
Work with a partner and complete a gap
fill activity. Each partner has an incomplete list of places and an incomplete list of directions. Ask each other questions to complete your information.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Role play giving directions to a new neighbour for how to get to the recreation centre.
Role play giving directions to a new classmate for how to get to the local library using a simplified map.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Give directions to a classmate on how to get to an Indigenous art exhibit.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Recognize and teach learners that Canada is a diverse place and
has people from many different cultures. Canadian culture includes the cultures of all people in Canada, including Indigenous Peoples.
Canadians tend to speak calmly and clearly when giving directions. When giving directions avoid overcomplicating them.
Sometimes Canadians soften instructions to be polite, such as
“You might want to turn here” or “It’s probably easier if you go this way”. This is not about how sure they are in the directions but more about being polite.

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.
Read information from a screen.
Navigate camera and microphone
Adjust volume on device

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.
Introduce tools and apps that can aid learners in coping with communication barriers, such as translation, pronunciation, text to speech, speech to text tools and so on.
Share knowledge and strategies to ensure online safety.
Refer learners to programs to improve their digital skills.

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:

Discuss how learners can apply for low-income transit passes
in your community.
Ensure that the images and cultural representations of Indigenous peoples are diverse and free from stereotypes and biases.
Raise learner awareness of the need for using appropriate language when discussing and addressing Indigenous peoples.
Celebrate Indigenous cultures.
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:

Learners who have experienced trauma and learners who are women may not feel safe on public transportation. Support learners in their decisions about how to protect themselves, but also discuss ways to make public transportation safer, such as staying in well-lit bus stops or platforms, not riding late at night, walking with purpose, or riding with a friend.
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:

Go on a field trip as a class on public transportation. Elicit an LEA (Language Experience Approach) story about the experience.
Have learners work together with a classmate to make a photo journal about a journey on public transportation. Have learners show their photos (e.g. project them onto the screen in the classroom) and talk about their journey.
Listen to a description of a trip on public transportation and match it to the correct route (out of 2 or 3) on a very simplified route map.

Realia:

Transit schedules
Transit route maps
Maps

Units and Modules:

Tutela (CCLB): Getting Around the City: CLB ¾
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Canadian Indigenous Content

Lessons and Activities:

Tutela: Using Public Transportation in BC: CLB 4
LINC Activities 4: Travel and Transportation (p. 495-528)
The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Canadian Indigenous Readers
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia: