Did you know that there are free, abundant and openly accessible Canadian resources and self-assessment activities just waiting for your learners? It is just a simple sign-up away. The CanAvenue.ca site was built for independent language and settlement learning. As there are no instructors on the site, there are no formal assessments or teacher monitoring of their activity. Learners choose activities and attempt them at their own pace.
The activities and resources on CanAvenue do not replace resources in formal LINC or ESL classes. These resources provide opportunities for independent learning. Students can inform their instructors of their progress or challenges as they desire. If LINC or ESL instructors become familiar with the CanAvenue resources, they may request that some of their learners work on targeted activities in their own time. The Canadiana activities described below could be used to raise learners’ knowledge of Canadiana as a whole in preparation for Canada Day celebrations.
In November 2024, I posted an introduction to the CanAvenue.ca resource as an independent language learning site. Since that time over 13,000 users have signed up. The site is maintained, and its materials are growing.
Instructor Role?
On CanAvenue, there are no teacher accounts as in Avenue. Everyone who enrols is a student. Instructors can enrol and join relevant CanAvenue courses to identify activities that may benefit their learners as remedial or additional independent study. Although instructors cannot view learner progress, the students can view their progress through a personal grade book. Instructors cannot request PBLA evidence from their students on CanAvenue as ePortfolio artifacts are not generated for learners on CanAvenue.
Activities to Raise Awareness of Canadiana
Essentially all materials on CanAvenue are Canadiana themed. A few specialized courses or modules such as pronunciation are more functional rather than theme based. In the following section, learners can choose interactive activities that inform them about a variety of Canadiana topics.
Extensive Reading Library
CanAvenue offers scores of original graded reader titles in several themes at the CLB 3 to 7 levels. Please note that extensive reading recommends that texts are one level below their reading level to allow for reading with ease to encourage overall comprehension and not reading for detail. The CanAvenue graded reader themes are:
- Canadian Celebrations: Learn about Canada’s festivals and holidays and discover how people across the country celebrate traditions in each book.
- Canadian Life: Fictional stories about how people have overcome challenges in Canada.
- First Nations: Stories about how the world was made and how the First Peoples came to live in it.
- National Wonders: Canada’s outdoors is explored, showcasing beautiful places including mountains, ice fields and colourful Northern Lights.
- Our Environment: Learning about Canada’s environmental challenges allows readers to explore the important issues affecting Canada’s environment and learn how they can help make a difference.
- Visit Canada: Readers can take exciting trips through Canadian cities through these readings.
Extensive Listening Library
CanAvenue offers the same themes and titles in its extensive listening collection. These are audio adaptations of the original graded readers. They are also suitable for CLB 3 to 7 levels. Both the extensive readers and listening audio clips have short quizzes for gauging comprehension. Of course these are optional.
Citizenship Courses
These courses allow learners to learn and practice Canadiana by reading and attempting self-assessing quizzes. As they are aligned with the Canadian citizenship test, they deal with historical, political and legal knowledge, which is especially valuable for preparing for citizenship applications. Activity types on these modules include H5Ps, SCORMs, Moodle Quizzes, Flashcards and glossaries.
English Practice Courses
Activities in these modules can include self-assessing H5Ps, SCORMs, Poodll Word Cards, Poodll ReadAlouds and Crosswords. These are like the Canadian Language Benchmark levels 2-7. Themes directly relevant to Canadiana are:
- Canada
- Canadian Culture
- Canadian Law
There are nine more themes in this section. Many elements are Canadian focused.
Canadian Music
In these modules learners can discover Canada through listening to popular Canadian songs, reading the story of musicians and singers, learning relevant vocabulary, reading the song lyrics and then attempting an optional quiz. They can practice new vocabulary and learn about Canadian culture at the same time.
Resources
CanAvenue, https://canavenue.ca
Allan, J. (Nov 2024). Independent Language Learning with CanAvenue https://blog.teslontario.org/independent-language-learning-with-canavenue
Image: BigStockPhoto.com
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