English (ENG1D)
Course Description
This course is designed to develop the key oral communication, reading, writing, and media literacy skills students need for success in secondary school and daily life. Students will read, interpret, and create a variety of informational, literary, and graphic texts. An important focus will be on identifying and using appropriate strategies and processes to improve students’ comprehension of texts and to help them communicate clearly and effectively. The course is intended to prepare students for the Grade 10 applied English course, which leads to college, or workplace preparation courses in Grades 11 and 12.
For Ministry Guideline Click Here
| Units | Descriptions | Length (Approximately) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | The Taming of the Shrew Act-by-act study guides, summary, pre-reading, during reading, and after reading activities/worksheets/handouts, suggestions for performance and extended learning, taking an in-depth look at; plot summary, themes, imagery. As well as students will be analyzing power, gender, familial, and social relationships. Students will be watching the movie in class on a certain day, and will be assessed through a presentation, class debate, essay, and finally to end of the unit, a unit test. |
25 hours |
| 2. | The Outsiders This unit will consist of activities revolving around themes presented in the novel. Students will be working on journal entries, in-class worksheets, presentation, class discussion, essay, and a unit test. The journal entries will be written from prompts provided. “Tuff Time” is journal-writing time where students will be expected to write for 5-10 minutes. The attempt is to expose students to several writing activities throughout the unit. The entries will vary from questions in regards to one character, a theme, an issue, or an event. The journals are mostly creative and personal; answering prompts that deal with the novel, movie and the self. The students will have the freedom to express their own identity through pieces in the portfolio; journals, artwork, and anything else they wish to submit. Students will be watching the movie in class on a certain day. |
30 hours |
| 3. | Poetry This unit is designed to allow students to explore the world of poetry with enough guidance and as little restriction as possible. Students will be asked to look at a wide variety of poetry and explore its content and form, to experiment with their own words and ideas through various writing activities, and to read poetry aloud within the class in a “Poetry Slam” celebrating the beginning of their adventures within the poetic world. The unit starts out with the generation of a working definition of what poetry is, moves on through a number of form poetry to free verse poetry and comes back to other semi-structured types of poetry. It involves a variety of reader response activities that allow the student to bring their own influences to the meaning of the text. This unit also involves a wide variety of activities that have students explore different types of form and free verse poetry. The unit concludes with an assignment on poetry analysis, writing and presenting their own poems, and finally with a unit test. |
25 hours |
| 4. | Media Analysis The unit explores the impact and influence of mass media and popular culture by examining texts such as films, songs, video games, action figures, advertisements, CD covers, clothing, billboards, television shows, magazines, newspapers, photographs, and Web sites. These texts abound in our electronic information age, and the messages they convey, both overt and implied, can have a significant influence on students’ lives. For this reason, critical thinking as it applies to media products and messages assumes a special significance. Understanding how media texts are constructed and why they are produced enables students to respond to them intelligently and responsibly. Students must be able to differentiate between fact and opinion; evaluate the credibility of sources; recognize bias; be attuned to discriminatory portrayals of individuals and groups, such as religious or sexual minorities, people with disabilities, or seniors; and question depictions of violence and crime. To develop their media literacy skills, students should have opportunities to view, analyze, and discuss a wide variety of media texts and relate them to their own experience. They will have opportunities to use available technologies to create media texts of different types. Students apply the knowledge and skills gained through analysis of media texts as they create their own advertisement, and present it to the class |
20 hours |
| Final Evaluation includes Culminating Task (2 Hrs),Final Exam review(6 Hrs) and Final Exam (2 Hrs) | 10 hours | |
| Total | 110 hours | |
Overall Curriculum Expectations
By the end of this course, students will:
- Listening to Understand: listen in order to understand and respond appropriately in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes.
- Speaking to Communicate: use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
- Reflecting on Skills and Strategies: reflect on and identify their strengths as listeners and speakers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful in oral communication situations.
By the end of this course, students will:
- Reading for Meaning: read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, informational, and graphic texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning;
- Understanding Form and Style: recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning;
- Reading with Fluency: use knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently;
- Reflecting on Skills and Strategies: reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading.
By the end of this course, students will:
- Developing and Organizing Content: generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience
- Using Knowledge of Form and Style: draft and revise their writing, using a variety of literary, informational and graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience;
- Applying Knowledge of Conventions: use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively;
- Reflecting on Skills and Strategies: reflect on and identify their strengths as writers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful at different stages in the writing process.
By the end of this course, students will:
- Understanding Media Texts: demonstrate an understanding of a variety of media texts;
- Understanding Media Forms, Conventions, and Techniques: identify some media forms and explain how the conventions and techniques associated with them are used to create meaning;
- Creating Media Texts: create a variety of media texts for different purposes and audiences, using appropriate forms, conventions, and techniques;
- Reflecting on Skills and Strategies: reflect on and identify their strengths as media interpreters and creators, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful in understanding and creating media texts.
Assessment & Evaluation of student performance
Assessment is regular and continuous and is used for the improvement of teaching and learning and not for grade reporting. Assessments will be based on both formative and summative processes.
Formative assessments are learning practices that provide important feedback to student progress. Examples include homework and quizzes.
Summative assessments form a foundation for final mark allotment at the end of the unit, term and final evaluation.
Formative assessments are learning practices that provide important feedback to student progress. Examples include homework and quizzes.
Summative assessments form a foundation for final mark allotment at the end of the unit, term and final evaluation.
Evaluation will be done after teaching by using summative assessment strategies on particular ‘chunks’ of work.
An achievement chart will be given to students at regular intervals and the purpose of the charts is to provide feedback to students in relation to content and performance strands.
An achievement chart will be given to students at regular intervals and the purpose of the charts is to provide feedback to students in relation to content and performance strands.
Assessment and evaluation in this course will reflect provincial curriculum expectations and will incorporate the use of the four categories of the Provincial Achievement Chart with each category weighted as follows:
| Knowledge and understanding | Communication | Thinking Inquiry and Problem solving | Application |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% |
Unit Tests, Written assignments, presentations, Classroom Observations and Classroom conversations.
Pass Percentage