Toronto District School Board

Northern Secondary School

English Department

Developed from: The Ontario Curriculum: Grades 11 and 12 English, Ministry of Education (Revised 2007)

Course Title: Ontario Literacy Course (OLC401)        

Course Type: Open                                                                                                                

Course Code: OLC401        

Credit Value: 1.0 Credit(s)

Textbook:   Various, Grade 10 Lit. Test Prep Book

Overall Curriculum Expectations            By the end of this course, students will:

Building Reading Skills

∙  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

∙  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

∙  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.

Learning Skills

This course requires students to work responsibly, both independently, as well as cooperatively in groups.  Attendance and punctuality, regular completion of homework and timely submission of all assignments will enhance success in this course.  Students are responsible for obtaining all missed work, and must provide a medical/court certificate for missed summative evaluations and culminating activities.  Plagiarism will not be tolerated---all student work must be original.

Teaching/ Assessment and Evaluation Strategies

This course employs a range of instructional strategies and both teacher-centered and student-centered cooperative techniques.  Accommodations/modifications may be made on an individual case basis.

Achievement Chart

Overview of the Achievement Chart in Percentages

PLEASE NOTE:  

A mark of 50 per cent represents both a pass in the course and the achievement of the literacy standard required for graduation.

Term Grades for Provincial Reports Throughout the Year

The grade for each term/reporting period is based on the evaluations that have been conducted to that point in the course and will be preliminary and tentative.  They will be based on the level of achievement to that point, but some of the overall expectations, strands, and units will not have been addressed.  The student’s grades will most likely change when the student’s entire work is evaluated by the end of the course.

Communication

Students may speak with teachers during class regarding any questions or concerns, or go to the English office in Room 313.  Individual computer mark records are available regularly and upon request.  Parents wishing to speak with teachers may call the school at (416) 393-0284 X 20090

Reading – 25%

Reading includes                   1)    Understanding directly stated ideas and information.

                            2)   Understanding indirectly stated ideas and information.

    3)   Making connections between personal knowledge and    

            experiences and the ideas and information in texts.

Writing – 25%

Writing includes:                   1)   Developing a good idea.

                           2)   Providing supporting details.

                           3)   Organizing and linking ideas and information.

                           4)   Using an appropriate tone for the specified purpose and  

                                                            audience.

                           5)    Using correct grammar and punctuation.

                           6)    Using correct spelling.

Building Reading Skills

Students need to be able to read and understand a variety of texts accurately for a variety of school and other real-life purposes. The competent reader, according to the OSSLT criteria, is able to read informational, narrative, and graphic texts4 with reasonable accuracy and proficiency, to understand directly and indirectly stated ideas and information, and to make connections between texts and his or her own experiences and knowledge. The competent reader reads for a variety of purposes, and is able to understand texts of varying levels of challenge.

Reading is an active process of thinking and constructing meaning from texts. Competent readers use strategies before they read, to preview the text and to activate their prior knowledge of the topic; while they read, to track and record ideas and monitor comprehension; and after they read, to consolidate and extend understanding. Competent readers know that reading plays a vital role in learning, opening the door to knowledge about themselves, others, and the world.

Building Writing Skills

Students need to be able to write competently for a variety of school and other real-life purposes. The competent writer, as defined by the OSSLT criteria, states and supports main ideas, organizes writing clearly and coherently, and uses the conventions of standard Canadian English.

Understanding and Assessing Growth in Literacy

This strand requires students to assess their growth in literacy. Students will set learning goals, monitor their improvement in literacy throughout the course, and confer with their teacher about their progress at regular intervals. Students will also maintain and manage a literacy portfolio containing their reading responses, pieces of writing, and a learning journal in which they record their goal-setting and self-monitoring activities during the course. Students will review this portfolio, both during the course and at its end, in order to assess their growth in literacy.

Evaluations During the Term: 70 Per Cent of the Student's Grade

Evaluations during the term will be based on a variety of teacher-assigned and student-selected reading and writing tasks and will take place towards the end of units.

Final Evaluation: 30 Per Cent of the Student's Grade

For the 30 per cent final evaluation, all students will independently demonstrate the reading and writing skills they have developed in this course and will reflect upon their growth in literacy skills.

This culminating demonstration of literacy knowledge and skills should be in the form of performance tasks that are designed to show the range of what students know and are able to do in reading and writing. The 30 per cent final evaluation should not be designed to replicate the OSSLT. To provide the optimum conditions for success, teachers should ensure that students have the opportunity to use the reading strategies they have learned to perform the reading tasks and to use the writing process to perform the writing tasks, demonstrating their skills under normal class conditions with sufficient time to allow them to do quality work.