Detailed Sample Task: Stage II
CLB 5 - Reading Comprehending Instructions
Digital Literacy
Real-World Task
Follow instructions on how to recognize a phishing scam.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Some knowledge about emails, texts and social media.
- Some knowledge of important financial and personal information, such as SINs, bank account numbers, and so on.
Context:
- A scam is a dishonest way to get money. Scammers often use basic information about you to trick you into giving more information. A phishing scam is when someone pretends to be an individual or company you know.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- phishing
- scam
- financial
- pretend
- impersonate
- unknown
- urgency/ urgent
- pressure
- false/ fake
- suspicious
- encrypted
- legitimate
- hyperlink
- identity theft
- prepaid credit card
- cryptocurrency
Sample Grammar:
- Imperatives, including negative imperatives, for example, “Never click on a hyperlink in an email from an unknown sender.” or “Don’t send personal information by text.”
- Zero conditional, for example, “If you receive an email from an unknown sender, don’t click on any hyperlinks.”
- Relative clauses to add information, for example, “emails that ask for personal information” or “callers who pressure you” or “messages that seem suspicious”.
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- Recognize the purpose of an official instructional text.
- Recognize and interpret texts with formatting, such as headings, subheadings and bullet points.
- Recognize parallel structure in texts to deliver similar information.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- Recognition of content, language and discourse formats related to social interaction texts or business/ service texts.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Elicit what a scam is and kinds of scams that learners have heard of.
- Learn vocabulary related to scams. Match vocabulary to meanings.
- Read example sentences or sections of a text on scams and answer comprehension questions on the vocabulary.
- Review/ learn what an imperative is, how it’s formed and that it is used to give an instruction.
- Identify examples of imperatives in example sentences or texts.
- Practice giving instructions for simple everyday processes using imperatives.
- Learn about common formatting for headings, subheadings and bullet points.
- Identify examples of headings, subheadings and bullet points in example sentences or texts.
- Learn that headings give the main idea of a text or section.
- Practice reading headings and predicting what information would go with the heading.
- Learn about the zero conditional to talk about rules for different situations. Match different “if statements” to possible results.
- Practice writing rules for the classroom using the zero conditional, for example, “If you are sick, email the teacher.”, and so on.
- Read examples of instructional texts about how to avoid scams and identify the scams described in the text and how to avoid them.
- Read scenarios of scams, for example, “You receive an email from an unknown sender with a hyperlink.” and practice giving your classmates instructions about what to do in that situation.
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Read about how to recognize and avoid a text message phishing scam and answer comprehension questions.
- Read a text giving instructions about how to recognize and avoid an email phishing scam and answer comprehension questions.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Follow instructions on how to recognize a phishing scam.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- Emails, text and social media are common ways to communicate in Canada in daily life, workplaces and learning environments. Ensure learners recognize some typical ways that these communications are written to help them identify scam emails that are not written in the usual format and style.
Digital Literacy Strategies:
Successful completion of some tasks may require some baseline knowledge and digital skills.
Learners may need to:
- Have an email address and be able to navigate email proficiently.
- Send and receive text messages.
- Locate, navigate and use websites.
- Scan online resources to find information.
- Identify safe and reliable sources of information and news.
- Understand safe use of the internet and social media.
Instructors can:
- Teach learners to recognize online scams and phishing through messaging on social media platforms, email or phone calls.
- Use digital tools, such as translation or pronunciation tools, to support language learning and foster autonomous learning.
- 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.
- Share knowledge and strategies to ensure online safety.
- Refer learners to programs to improve their digital skills.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:
Instructors can:
- 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.
- Recognize that learners with disabilities and learners who are neurodivergent may need accommodations in the workplace; when possible, help learners of all abilities understand their rights in the workplace.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Discussions of scams, fraud, and theft may be triggering for learners who have experienced trauma, especially those who have lost their homes, possessions, and or money. Make space for learners to feel safe and recover from the experience of sharing their experiences.
Strategies:
- Learners who have experienced trauma benefit from having choice.
- Give learners advance warning of discussions of this topic.
- Allow learners choice:
- 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
- Learners have the right to choose if, when and what they share about themselves.
- Make space for learners to feel safe and recover from the experience of sharing their experiences.
- Giving learners the knowledge, skills and language to access resources can be empowering.
Resources
Outings, Guest Speaker Suggestions, Extension Activities:
- Invite a police officer or similar to talk about staying safe from different kinds of scams.
- Learn about other kinds of scams and how to protect yourself and family members from these scams.
- Practice giving advice to friends and family members about how to stay safe from scams.
- Watch videos about scams and answer comprehension questions about how to avoid being scammed.
- Learn how to block and/ or report numbers, email addresses and so on and practice doing so with unknown callers or senders.
Realia:
- Authentic articles or consumer blogs about recognizing and avoiding scams
- Authentic news articles or videos about scams
- Ontario.ca: How to Recognize a Scam
- Government of Canada: Frauds and Scams
Units and Modules:
- Avenue Course Builder: Select the themes “Banking and Financial Services” and “Digital Citizenship”, and CLB 4, 5 and 6 for units related
to internet safety and scams (adapt for the CLB level you teach).
- CLB 4 Identifying Job Scams (Achev/NLOC)
- CLB 5 Protecting Your Identity (Avon Maitland District School Board)
- CLB 5 Avoiding Scams and Fraud (CCLB)
- CLB 4 Internet Safety (New Language Solutions)
- CLB 3 Internet and Phone Scams (TCDSB)
- Tutela: CLB 6, Recognizing and Avoiding Scams
Lessons and Activities:
(Adapt resources for the CLB level you teach)
Detailed Sample Task
This exemplar is aligned with the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) and is designed to guide and inform your lesson and module planning. Consult the Canadian Language Benchmarks English as a Second Language for Adults for detailed performance descriptors at this benchmark and skill.
The information in this document is not exhaustive and can be expanded on. As well, you can use more learner-friendly language in your materials and assessments.
This is NOT a lesson or module plan.
