Ontario Secondary School Literacy, Grade 12
OLC4O
Ontario Secondary School Literacy, Grade 12
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.
Overall Curriculum 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 ofinformational, 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 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 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
- deomonstrate 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.
Course Content
| Unit | Length |
|---|---|
| Unit 1: Literacy Basics | 8 hours |
| Unit 2: Main Idea | 10 hours |
| Unit 3: Short Answer Response/Graphic Texts | 11 hours |
| Unit 4: Informative Writing | 13 hours |
| Unit 5: Narrative Texts | 11 hours |
| Unit 6: News Reports | 12 hours |
| Unit 7: Series of Paragraphs | 15 hours |
| Unit 8: Reading Log & Culminating Activities | 30 hours |
| TOTAL: | 110 hours |
Unit Descriptions
Unit 1: Literacy Basics
-This unit will introduce students to various reading and writing strategies to help prepare them for the future
units.
Unit 2: Main Idea
-Students will focus on the Main Idea task and complete activities for the final portfolio.
Unit 3: Short Answer Response
-Students will focus on how to write short answer responses and complete activities for the final portfolio.
Unit 4: Informative Writing
-Students will learn how to writing informative essays by doing a research and applying the MLA formats. These activities will be for the final portfolio.
Unit 5: Narrative Texts
-Students will read narrative texts and respond to questions about the readings. These activities will be for the final portfolio.
Unit 6: News Reports
-One the long writing assessment tasks, the news report, is a key element of this course. Students will learn the skills to write two polished news reports. These will form part of the final portfolio.
Unit 7: Series of Paragraphs Expressing an Opinion
-The other long writing assessment task, the series of paragraphs expressing an opinion, is a key element of this course. Students will learn the skills to write two polished essays. These will form part of the final portfolio.
Unit 8: Reading Log and Culminating Activity
-Students will read a novel and complete a reading log throughout their reading. As well, students will be asked to keep a reflective journal via video responses and a comparison portfolio.
Teacher and Learning Strategies
The students will experience a variety of activities:
Video presentations and technological aids (research) with videos embedded to enrich the course content and clarify concepts and skills being studied. Also the use of online pre-approved quizes and games to help a student become more familiar with the concepts and skills being studied.
Diagnostic and review activities (audio and video taping) can be student-lead or teacher lead to work as a review for students through audio and video made to share among each other to help reinforce the concepts and skills being studied.
Individual Activities
The teacher should provide a variety of individual assignments to expand and consolidate the learning that takes place in the whole-class and small group activities. Individual activities allow the teacher to accommodate interests and needs and to access the progress of individual students. The teacher plays an important role in supporting these activities through the provision of ongoing feedback to the students, both orally and in writing. Teachers are encouraged to includeindividual activities such as the following in the course:
Research is completed in an online environment by teaching the students first about plagiarism rules and giving examples of good sources to use. The students are not only limited to the online search for information, but have resources available by links on the Moodle page of information that has been scanned and uploaded.
Individual assignments are worked on at a student’s own pace. The teacher can support the student in these activities with ongoing feedback.
Oral presentations are facilitated through the use of video conferencing and video recording.
Practical extension and application of knowledge helps students develop their own voice, and gives them the ability to make personal connections, and connections to the world throughout their course. Students are given a variety or reading and viewing texts to give them many chances to
apply their new concepts, skills, and knowledge.
Ongoing project work is something that is valued in the earning of an English credit. The ongoing project can be submitted to the teacher for ongoing feedback in both written and oral work.
Reading students are able to read a variety of texts online. The students may print out the reading material to use it to highlight, take notes, and have with them when a computer is not available.
Written assignments are used to allow students to develop their skills in writing, comprehension, and communication. With the online format students submit their work, and have a chance to get feedback from the teacher, and submit their best work. This can be demonstrated with reading
responses, personal writing, report writing, essay writing, script writing, business and technical writing, and individual research assignments.
Reflective/Comparative analysis for students working in their portfolios, giving them an opportunity for self-reflection on their accomplishments, skills, and concepts learned over the year.
This can be accomplished with student and teacher conferences as well.
We grow up thinking of reading and writing as two of the classic ‘three Rs”, and once we learn how to do them well, many assume that there’s no need to think more of them. However, there are nuances to both.
This course explores what writers have known for centuries: there are many, many ways to write and read
Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting
Assessment: The process of gathering information that accurately reflects how well a student is achieving the identified curriculum expectations. Teachers provide students with descriptive feedback that guides their efforts towards improved performance.
Evaluation: Assessment of Learning focuses on Evaluation which is the process of making a judgement about the quality of student work on the basis of established criteria over a limited, reasonable period of time.
Reporting: Involves communicating student achievement of the curriculum expectations and Learning Skills and Work Habits in the form of marks and comments as determined by the teacher’s use of professional judgment.
Strategies for Assessment
Assessment practices can nurture students’ sense of progress and competency and information instruction. Many diagnostic tools, e.g. checklists and inventories, are used at regular intervals throughout the units to encourage students’ understanding of their current status as learners and to provide frequent and timely reviews of their progress. Assessment of student acquisition of listening and talking, reading and viewing and writing skills also occurs regularly through unobtrusive teacher observation and conferencing.
Units conclude with performance tasks, e.g., interviews and from essays that build towards and prepare students for the end-of-course culminating task in Unit Five. Teachers are encouraged to share goals with students early in the course and to connect unit learning experiences frequently and explicitly with big ideas, overall expectations, and performance tasks, i.e. check bricks; teacher-adapted generic rubrics available in many sources, including the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC) Profile, so
that they are more task-specific. The teacher might ask: “What does the criteria look like for this particular task?” Or “What does limited effectiveness look like?” The teacher could involve students in the discussion, modification, or creation of rubrics, and teach students to use rubrics as a learning tool that can support the writing process and practice.
Assessment Activities
- Homework assignments
- Individual conference meetings
- Diagnostic tests and writing tasks
- Outlining and planning sheets
- Completed Templates & Graphic Organizers
- Editing Checklists
- Reflections
- Oral presentations & Active Listening
- Essay Writing
- Evaluations
Evaluation
The final grade will be determined as follows:
- Seventy percent of the grade will be based on evaluation conducted throughout the course. This portion of the grade should reflect the student’s most consistent level of achievement throughout the course, although special consideration will be given to more recent evidence of achievement.
- Thirty percent of the grade will be based on a final evaluation administered at or towards the end of the course. This evaluation will be based on evidence from one or a combination of the following: a portfolio selection
(Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools. Ontario Ministry of Education Publication, 2010 p.41)
Team Work Evalutions (70%):
| Evaluation Item | Description | Category | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Literacy Basics | K, I, C, A | 10 |
| Unit 2 | Main Idea | K, I, C, A | 10 |
| Unit 3 | Short Answer Response | K, I, C, A | 10 |
| Unit 4 | Information Paragraphs | K, I, C, A | 10 |
| Unit 5 | Narrative Texts | K, I, C, A | 10 |
| Unit 6 | News Reports | K, I, C, A | 10 |
| Unit 7 | Series of Paragraphs Expressing an Opinion | K, I, C, A | 10 |
Final Evalutions (30%):
| Evaluation Item | Description | Category | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Culminating Activities | Reading Log (10%) Video Reflection (10%) Comparison portfolio (10%) | SUM | 30 |
| Weightings | |
|---|---|
| Course Work | 70 |
| Knowledge/Understanding | 17.5 |
| Thinking/Inquiry | 17.5 |
| Communication | 17.5 |
| Application | 17.5 |
| Final | 30 |
| Culminating Activities | |
Consideration for Program Planning
Planning Programs For Students With Special Education Needs
Classroom teachers are the key educators of students who have special education needs. They have a responsibility to help all students learn, and they work collaboratively with special education teachers, where appropriate, to achieve this goal. Special Education Transformation: The Report of the Co-Chairs with the Recommendations of the Working Table on Special Education, 2006 endorses a set of beliefs that should guide program planning for students with special education needs in all disciplines. Those beliefs are as follows: All students can succeed. Universal design and differentiated instruction are effective and interconnected means of meeting the learning or productivity needs of any group of students. Successful instructional practices are founded on evidence-based research, tempered by experience.
Program Considerations For English Language Learners
Ontario schools have some of the most multilingual student populations in the world. The first language of approximately 20 percent of the students in Ontario’s English language schools is a language other than English. Ontario’s linguistic heritage includes several Aboriginal languages; many African, Asian, and European languages; and some varieties of English, such as Jamaican Creole. Many English language learners were born in Canada and raised in families and communities in which languages other than English were spoken, or in which the variety of English spoken differed significantly from the English of Ontario classrooms. Other English language learners arrive in Ontario as newcomers from other countries; they may have experience of highly sophisticated educational systems, or they may have come from regions where access to formal schooling was limited. When they start school in Ontario, many of these students are entering a new linguistic and cultural environment.
The Role Of Technology In The Program
Information and communications technologies (ICT) provide a range of tools that can significantly extend and enrich teachers’ instructional strategies and support students’ language learning. ICT tools include multimedia resources, databases, Internet websites, digital cameras, and wordprocessing programs. Tools such as these can help students to collect, organize, and sort the data they gather and to write, edit, and present reports on their findings. Information and communications technologies can also be used to connect students to other schools, at home and abroad, and to bring the global community into the local classroom. Whenever appropriate, therefore, students should be encouraged to use ICT to support and communicate their learning.
Accommodations
Accommodations will be based on meeting with parent, teachers, administration and external educational assessment report. The following three types of accommodations may be provided:
- Instructional accommodations: such as changes in teaching strategies, including styles of presentation, methods of organization, or use of technology and multimedia.
- Environmental accommodations: such as preferential seating or special lighting.
- Assessment accommodations: such as allowing additional time to complete tests or assignments or permitting oral responses to test questions.
Other examples of modifications and aids, which may be used in this course, are:
- Provide step-by-step instructions.
- Help students create organizers for planning writing tasks.
- Record key words on the board or overhead when students are expected to make their own notes.
- Allow students to report verbally to a scribe (teacher/ student) who can help in note taking.
- Permit students a range of options for reading and writing tasks.
- Where an activity requires reading, provide it in advance.
- Provide opportunities for enrichment.