Detailed Sample Task: Stage I

CLB 4 - Writing
Interacting with Others

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Real-World Task

Write a message to a friend to invite them to a Newcomers event on parenting teens in the community.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Basic vocabulary related to children, families and parenting practices.
Knowledge that different attitudes to parenting and different developmental stages of children, such as toddlers, children, teens, and young adults exist across different cultures.
Vocabulary to express days, dates, times.
Knowledge of how to email friends and family, including openings and closings for emails as well as different formatted aspects such as the subject line.

Context:

In Canada, many parents attempt to strike a balance between guidance and independence. The general approach encourages recognizing the child’s individuality, encouraging independence and self-confidence, and using positive discipline rather than physical punishment. Often, children are encouraged to express their feelings and opinions.
Physical punishment such as spanking
is discouraged by Canadian child development professionals. If people around the family suspect someone in a family is being physically harmed, the police or Child Protective Services could be called. Children could be removed from the home until an investigation is complete.
While these traits above reflect mainstream values, parenting styles vary greatly among different ethnic, religious, and immigrant communities. There is no single Canadian way to raise children.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

Sample Grammar:

Prepositions of time and place

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Appropriate phrases and expressions to invite a friend or family member.
Basic email writing conventions, including subject lines and opening / closing conventions.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Canadian social conventions of invitations.
Beginning ability to use resources
such as spell checkers.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss as a class: What are some rules or guidelines that you have for your children or that you had when you were a child? Have you noticed any differences in parenting practices in Canada to other countries in the world? What are the three most important parts of your parenting practices? What is the biggest challenge of being a parent? What advice would you give to a new parent?
Match picture flashcards to vocabulary word lists. Then in pairs match words and images to a third set of cards with definitions of the terms.
Listen to a short audio text, instructor-made if necessary, describing tips for parenting teens in Canada. Answer a set of simple multiple choice questions about the audio.
Take turns with a partner describing three important parenting practices from your own culture. Ask your partner one question about their parenting practices. Discuss and compare your approaches to parenting.
Read a paragraph about common parenting practices in Canada. Underline all of the comparative adjectives in the paragraph. Highlight any idioms in the paragraph. Circle all of the vocabulary words in the paragraph. Answer a set of multiple choice questions about the paragraph.
Listen to three people simply describing their parenting (Can be either classmates or a recording, instructor-made if necessary). Review 1 to 2 simple sentences about each person’s parenting practices and decide if the statement is true or false.
Read and analyze a model email with one main paragraph in which one Newcomer invites a friend to attend a workshop about parenting young children. In small groups, learners respond to questions with a discussion about what the main ideas of the paragraph are, and where those ideas appear in the order of the paragraph; what details are included in the paragraph; what examples are used in the paragraph; how the paragraph is ended.
Review the different prepositions used
to describe when and where events will take place, such as on, at, in and so on.
Complete a simple paragraph about various community workshops on parenting which have missing prepositions. Practice reading the paragraph aloud with a partner taking turns to read one sentence each.
Copy a short paragraph about a free parents and toddlers program in your community into a digital document.
As a class, look at one example of the copied text and discuss the presence of red or blue underlining to indicate an error. Share how to correct the error with help from the application. Review your own document and attempt to use the spellcheck function.
Look at a sample email as a class. Identify the parts of the email: subject line, opening, paragraph structure / body and a closing. Discuss how to write a subject line. Identify several different ways of opening and closing an email.
Practice writing emails to a friend to invite them to everyday activities such as going for coffee, a birthday party or a free conversation class. Learners include the day, date and time of the event. Share the email with a partner.
In pairs or groups and using several different templates, fill in the missing content of the emails, whether it’s the subject line, opening, body or closing.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Write an email to a family member to invite them to a community event to celebrate Canada Day / a community holiday event.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Write a message to a friend to invite them to a Newcomers event on parenting teens in the community.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

Most Canadian parents now share parenting duties such as feeding, bathing, helping with homework, and attending school events. Both mothers and fathers are expected to be actively involved in raising children.
In Canada, same-sex couples and single-parent families are legally recognized and supported. Canadian society generally supports inclusive, non-traditional family structures.

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.
Type information to appear on screen
Send and receive text messages and messages on other texting apps.
Send and receive email messages
Complete formatted texts online, such as forms
Navigate and use online learning management systems (LMS) such as Avenue.
Use a search engine to find information

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.
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:

Some learners may experience changes to gender roles when they come to Canada. 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.
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. Instructors can encourage discussion about gender roles with parenting.
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:

Discussions of families and family time may be triggering for learners who have experienced trauma, violence and war.
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
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 family resource centre. These community hubs often support parents with parenting workshops, playgroups, family support programs, and so on.
Attend a Multicultural family event or playgroup to observe or participate in a community event with families from different backgrounds.
Invite an Early Childhood Educator or parenting coach as a guest speaker to speak about Canadian parenting norms, respectful ways to correct children, child development stages, and so on.
Create posters to promote positive parenting across cultures. Share the posters with another LINC class and discuss parenting tips.

Realia:

Parenting books or brochure
Authentic chore charts
Children’s books, particularly those with messages about discipline and behavior

Units and Modules:

Tutela (OCDSB): Family and Community CLB 3-4
Tutela: Healthy Communities Curriculum CLB 2-4
Tutela: CLB 3 Module – Helping an anxious child
(Not the correct level but can be adapted)
Tutela: ESL Directions Family

Lessons and Activities:

Tutela: Talking about life events
A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.

Multimedia: