TOSCON16 - TESL Toronto Spring 2016 Conference Meet Up: Idea Sharing for Multilevel Community Focused Lesson Planning Workshop Proposal This workshop will focus on the use of local event calendars and online community-based social networking sites, such as Meetup.com, to unite language learning and computer skills, as well as utilize authentic materials and tasks (realia) that spark interest and inquiry and promote integration into the newcomer’s/student’s community. The presentation will focus on a unit plan based on the theme of community and topic of computer literacy and website navigation that can be adapted for various levels and for a range of contexts, but with particular focus on a high-intermediate level (LINC CLB 5) classroom setting. Lesson plan ideas will integrate all language skill areas. The presenter will provide detailed plan suggestions; however, opportunities will be provided in the workshop for hands-on lesson planning, rubric building, and constructive feedback and level adaptation idea sharing. Attendee active participation is a must.

1. MEET UP: IDEA SHARING FOR
MULTILEVEL COMMUNITY FOCUSED
LESSON PLANNING
TOSCON16
Presenter: Hannah Richardson

2. WORKSHOP FOCUS
■ This workshop will focus on the use of local event
calendars and online community-based social
networking sites, such as Meetup.com, to unite
language learning and computer skills, as well as
utilize authentic materials and tasks (realia) that
spark interest and inquiry and promote integration
into the newcomer’s/student’s community.

3. OVERVIEW
■ INTRODUCTION
 Teacher Discussion
 Assimilation, Integration, & Multiculturalism
■ LESSON PLAN EXAMPLE
 Meetup.com
■ LESSON PLANNING
 Community Event Calendars
■ IDEA SHARE

4. DISCUSSION
■ How would you define assimilation, integration, &
multiculturalism?
■ Can the terms be used interchangeably?
■ What do you believe should be the goal for newcomers
within Canada?

5. BRAINSTORM
MULTICULTURALISM
ASSIMILATION
INTEGRATION
What comes to mind for each?

6. CULTURAL ASSIMILATION
 adoption of mainstream cultural norms
 loss of indigenous cultural distinctiveness
DOUBLE-CONSCIOUSNESS
 assimilation + integration
 retaining one’s own cultural identity

7. MULTICULTURALISM

8. Zahraa Daoud and her mother, Nada,
are living in a refugee centre in
Stralsund, Germany.
Photograph: Michael Danner for The
“I have tried to find a way to enjoy this life.”

9. LESSON PLAN
EXAMPLE
Meetup: Neighbours Learning, Doing & Sharing

10. DISCUSSION
■ Do you incorporate community events in the classroom?
■ Are you familiar with MeetUp.com?
■ www.meetup.com

11. LESSON PLANNING
Community Event Calendars

12. LESSON PLANNING
■ Work with a group.
■ Each group will be given a different
community event listing print-out from
Toronto.com.
■ Design a lesson plan.
■ You should include information about the
level you have chosen, the objectives,
competencies and skills focus areas of the
lesson and any assessment/feedback you

13. IDEAS
■ information jigsaw
■ presentations
■ getting to know you
■ invitations
■ making plans
■ directions
■ comparison
■ expressing opinion

14. IDEA SHARE

15. CONTACT INFORMATION
Presenter: Hannah Richardson
hannah.richardson@sheridancollege.ca

16. QUOTES
■ “Integration and assimilation don't necessarily mean the same thing,
even though we often argue, fuss and fight amongst each other as if they
did” (Hall, 1999, closing).
■ “Cultural assimilation means both adoption of mainstream cultural
norms and loss of indigenous cultural distinctiveness […] it should be
possible, and in my view necessary, to adopt mainstream cultural norms
while nonetheless retaining at least certain key features of cultural
distinctiveness” (Hall, 1999, para 1).
■ “Double-consciousness” is a concept introduced by W.E.B. Du Bois that
describes a synthesis of assimilation & integration, essentially integrating
within contemporary society while retaining one’s own cultural identity
(DuBois, 1982).

17. REFERENCES
DuBois, W. E. B. (1982). The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Signet Books.
Hall, Perry A. (10 April, 1999). (Structural) Integration vs. (Cultural) Assimilation: A
Distinction with a Difference [Draft]. Read at the 16th Annual Pan-African Studies
Conference, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana. Retrieved from:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/751.html
Kingsley, P. (30 April, 2016). ‘I've tried to find a way to enjoy this life’: Syrian refugees
one year on. The Guardian. Retrieved from:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/30/syrian-refugees-one-year-on-
patrick-kingsley