This week we were instructed to develop a vocabulary activity for intermediate level English language students from either the skills-based or task-based lesson plans that we worked on as groups. I have chosen to create an activity based on the skills-based lesson plan that incorporates the vocabulary from the written text in the reading task called the Manitoba Memo. The Manitoba Memo provides information about the history of Aboriginal peoples in Canada and some of the hardships they continue to face as a result of policies like the Indian Act and the residential school system.

There are a lot of words in this document that would be unfamiliar to English language learners and some may be unfamiliar to native English speakers in Canada. As a result, the amount of new words contained in the text would cause comprehension problems for a lot of people. When working with this text with my group, we decided that the vocabulary list provided in the lesson plan was not particularly helpful and did not assist in understanding the overall meaning of the text. We thought that it would be better if a teacher who was using this lesson worked with their students to develop a new list based on the words that the class did not know.

For the purpose of this activity, I came up with a list of ten vocabulary words and created a crossword puzzle. I think that this activity would be best suited as a post-reading activity because it provides a review of the vocabulary and the definitions of the words. Students can use the words listed in the word bank that they were introduced to prior to reading the text. They can match them to one of the definitions below and write the word into the appropriate boxes.

Below, I have included a copy of the text from the Manitoba Memo and my vocabulary activity.