Course Description

This course is designed to help students acquire and demonstrate the cross-curricular literacy skills that are evaluated by the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). Students who complete the course successfully will meet the provincial literacy requirement for graduation. Students will read a variety of informational, narrative, and graphic texts and will produce a variety of forms of writing, including summaries, information paragraphs, opinion pieces, and news reports. Students will also maintain and manage a portfolio containing a record of their reading experiences and samples of their writing (MOE, 2003, p.19).

Overall Expectations

Building Reading Skills

By the end of this course, students will:

•    demonstrate the ability to read and respond to a variety of texts;

•    demonstrate understanding of the organizational structure and features of a variety of informational, narrative, and graphic texts, including information paragraphs, opinion pieces, textbooks, newspaper reports and magazine stories, and short fiction;

•    demonstrate understanding of the content and meaning of informational, narrative, and graphic texts that they have read using a variety of reading strategies;

•    use a variety of strategies to understand unfamiliar and specialized words and expressions in informational, narrative, and graphic texts.

Building Writing Skills

By the end of this course, students will:

•    demonstrate the ability to use the writing process by generating and organizing ideas and producing first drafts, revised drafts, and final polished pieces to complete a variety of writing tasks;

•    use knowledge of writing forms, and of the connections between form, audience, and purpose, to  write summaries, information paragraphs, opinion pieces (i.e., series of paragraphs expressing an opinion), news reports, and personal reflections, incorporating graphic elements where necessary and appropriate.

Understanding and Assessing Growth in Literacy

By the end of this course, students will:

•    demonstrate understanding of the importance of communication skills in their everyday lives - at school, at work, and at home;

•    demonstrate understanding of their own roles and responsibilities in the learning process;

•    demonstrate understanding of the reading and writing processes and of the role of reading and writing in learning;

•    demonstrate understanding of their own growth in literacy during the course.

(MOE, 2003, pp. 20 - 26)

Outline of Course Content

Resources

Peterkin, P., ed. Literacy Power OSSLC. Toronto: Gage Learning, 2004.

Topic specific websites and articles are listed when required.

Teaching/Learning Strategies

The strategies used are varied to meet the needs and the range of learning styles encountered in any group of students and include the following:

•     Problem Solving

•     Reports

•     Independent Study

•     Guided Internet Search

•     Group Discussions

•     Textbook Use

•     Email

•     Independent Reading

•     Direct Instruction

•     Instant Messaging/Chat Room

•     Research

•    Verbal Discussion

Strategies for Assessment and Evaluation of Student Performance

Assessment is a systematic process of collecting information or evidence from a variety of sources that accurately reflect how well a student is achieving the curriculum expectations in a subject or course. The  primary purpose of assessment is to improve student learning. Assessment for the purpose of improving  student learning is seen as both assessment for learning and assessment as learning. In assessment for learning, teachers provide students with descriptive feedback and coaching for improvement. Assessment  as learning is achieved by helping all students develop as autonomous learners who are able to set individual goals, monitor their own progress and reflect on their thinking and learning. Information gathered through assessment helps teachers to determine a student’s strengths and weaknesses and serves to guide teacher feedback. (MOE, 2010, Ch. 4).

Evaluation refers to the process of judging the quality of student work on the basis of established criteria. Student evaluations are an assessment of learning focusing solely on a student’s achievement of the overall curriculum expectations in his or her course. Student marks are not averaged; instead, a student’s final mark is based on their most consistent effort with special emphasis on their most recent work.

CATEGORIES OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Considerations for Program Planning:

Teaching Approaches

Teachers will provide a wide range of activities and assignments that encourage understanding and mastery of the course curriculum. To make their programs interesting and relevant, they will help students to relate and apply the knowledge and skills gained in this course to issues and problems in the real world.

Planning English Programs for Exceptional Students

In planning courses for exceptional students, eSchool teachers will examine both the curriculum expectations for the course and the needs of the individual student to determine which of the following options is appropriate for the student:

•     no accommodations or modifications; or

•    accommodations only; or

•     modified expectations, with the possibility of accommodations

If the student requires either accommodations or modified expectations, or both, the relevant Information must be recorded in his or her Individual Education Plan (IEP).

Students Requiring Accommodations Only. With the aid of accommodations alone, some

exceptional students are able to participate in the regular course curriculum and to demonstrate learning independently. (Accommodations do not alter the provincial curriculum expectations for the course.) The accommodations required to facilitate the student’s learning must be identified in his or her IEP. If a

student requires “accommodations only”, assessment and evaluation of his or her achievement will be based on the appropriate course curriculum expectations and the achievement levels outlined in this document.

English As a Second Language and English Literacy Development (ESL/ELD)

Young people whose first language is not English enter Ontario secondary schools with diverse linguistic  and cultural backgrounds. Teachers will incorporate appropriate strategies for instruction and assessment to facilitate the success of the ESL and ELD students in their online course. These strategies include:

1.    modification of some or all of the course expectations, based on the student’s level of English proficiency;

2.   use of technology to provide a variety of instructional strategies

3.   use of a variety of learning resources (e.g., visual material, simplified text, bilingual dictionaries, and culturally diverse materials);

4.   use of assessment accommodations (e.g., granting of extra time, use of oral interviews)

Antidiscrimination Education

Learning activities and resources used to implement the course curriculum are inclusive in nature, reflecting diverse points of view and experiences. They enable students to become more sensitive to the experiences and perceptions of others.

The Role of Technology

Information and communications technology (ICT) provides a range of tools that can significantly extend and enrich teachers’ instructional strategies and support students’ learning. Teachers will use ICT tools   and resources both for instruction and for the design of curriculum to meet diverse student needs. ICT may be used to connect students to other schools, locally and abroad, and to bring the global community  into the local online classroom. Through internet websites and CD-ROM technology, students can now   access primary resources held in museums, libraries, archives, and public institutions across the country  and around the world. ICT resources allow secondary students to conduct more far-ranging and authentic research than ever before.

Applications such as databases, spreadsheets, word processors, and presentation software can be used to support various methods of inquiry. The technology also makes possible simulations of complex systems that are useful for problem-solving purposes or when field studies on a particular topic are not feasible.