TIES offices will be closed from Saturday, November 9 to Monday, November 11 in honour of Remembrance Day.

Teaching Resources

PBLA Module Bank

Calling all LINC instructors and administrators! TIES is currently completing the development of multi-level PBLA modules and assessments for use in your online classroom. These materials are free to access: simply click on your desired format (Word or PDF) to download below.

Each module contains:

  • A module plan
  • List of resources
  • Ideas for skill-building and skill-using activities
  • Multi-level assessment tasks
  • Answer keys
  • Links to online assessment tasks hosted in Google Forms

This page will be updated regularly, so check back in the future for additional modules! If you have any questions about these resources, please contact whitneyloewen@immigrant-education.ca.

Looking for Literacy assessment tasks and resources? Check out our Literacy Centre of Expertise Resource Bank!

CLB 3-4
CLB 4-5
CLB 5-6
CLB 7-8

Introduction

With the Indigenous Voices in the Classroom (IVC) project, TIES aims to address the historic prejudice and discrimination that has silenced Indigenous people in every region of Canada and alienated our Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

Building on the knowledge and experience shared by Indigenous Elders and community members from across southern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, TIES has created comprehensive lesson plans for CLB 2, CLB 4, and CLB 5/6 learners in the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program. This curriculum was first piloted in LINC classrooms at TIES and Centre for Newcomers in August 2019.

The Need

With the advent of residential schools, Indigenous ways of being, knowing, speaking, and sharing were systematically erased in the classroom. While strides have been made in recent years to bring Indigenous voices back to the table, Indigenous Canadians still endure the silencing and the stigma that those racist views inflicted, and are not considered equal partners in Confederation.

This historic alienation has resulted in a lack of healthy vocabulary around Indigenous people and traditions, and many non-Indigenous teachers lack the confidence to address Canada’s historic atrocities in the classroom, often avoiding the issue completely. As such, when newcomers arrive in Canada, unless they are exposed to sensitive, culturally aware instructors who prioritize bringing Indigenous voices into their classroom, they risk total ignorance of their new country’s original inhabitants for lack of opportunities to interact with those communities or learn about them. This risks their indoctrination into the well-worn prejudice that so many Canadians share.

Action

By bringing Indigenous voices and faces into the LINC classroom, Indigenous stories and storytellers become tangible and real and shed the stigma of being the faceless “other.” By learning from real people and their stories, newcomers can build knowledge and insight into the successes and challenges that these communities face today. When these relationships are built, teachers and administrators are empowered to introduce Indigenous history and culture to newcomer classrooms with more frequency, insight, and sensitivity. Newcomers are encouraged to build relationships with Indigenous communities and can avoid the traditional societal prejudice affecting Canadian society today.

To reach these goals, Indigenous Curriculum Developer Suzanne Clavelle-Christensen worked with Indigenous Elders and community members from across southern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. As these community members shared their stories and knowledge with Suzanne, over 600 pages of CLB-appropriate lesson plans for LINC and ESL learners were developed.

To download the curriculum booklet for each project, please click the following:

CLB 2 | Canadian Indigenous Culture
CLB 4 | Indigenous Voices in the Classroom
CLB 5-6 | Reconcili-action

Project Contacts:

Whitney Loewen, Manager, e-Learning and Special Projects
The Immigrant Education Society
Ph: 587-392-4177
E: whitneyloewen@immigrant-education.ca

Suzanne Clavelle-Christensen Lead Curriculum Developer
The Immigrant Education Society
E: suzanne.clavelle@gmail.com

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Land Acknowledgement

TIES is located on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region, which includes the Blackfoot Confederacy comprising the Siksika, Piikani and Kanai First Nations, the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda including the Chiniki, Bearspaw and Wesley First Nations. The City of Calgary is also home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III.