About the course
This course emphasizes the development of literacy, communication, and critical and creative thinking skills necessary for success in academic and daily life. Students will study the content, form, and style of a variety of informational and graphic texts, as well as literary texts from Canada and other countries, and create oral, written, and media texts in a variety of forms for practical and academic purposes. An important focus will be on using language with precision and clarity. The course is intended to prepare students for the compulsory Grade 12 college preparation course.
English - College - 11
Course Credit
1
Course Price
$ 550.00
Course Developer
My Learning Oasis
Prerequisite(s) (Text)
Grade 10 English, Academic(ENG2D)
Course Code
Department Head & Contact Information
ENG3C
Ravi Sharma (ravi@mylearningoasis.com)
Course Type
College
Grade Level
Grade 11
Course Development Date
June 10th, 2021
Course Outline
Oral Communication
In this unit students will explore and examine strategies to listen and comprehend oral texts, all this while taking notes in an effective manner. The objective here is to apply this skill set in real-world situations, which may include higher studies but in particular, the working environment. They will, with evidence that include oral and visual cues, interpret the texts. They will explore ways on how to communicate information, ideas, issues and themes and the response of the audience/listener, as may be the case in a work environment. Students will examine how blending of society by the movement of individuals from one place to the other enriches society itself. They will, in a fish-bowling-like manner, share their experiences of blending in a new society and together discuss how one can improve on the process. Students will listen to various speakers to hear how to use intonation in oral communication. They will also compare how different persons use different visual cues to convey their messages. For instance, they may look at two comedians from different networks and compare their strategies.
Expected Hours of Instruction: 37 Hours
Reading And Literature Studies
In this unit students will examine various kinds of literature and the different styles of presenting the same material. For instance, they will compare the same news about an incident from two different newspapers and look for the main idea in each. They will explore the writer's bias in each case and use a metacognitive process to, with evidence, prepare an unbiased report of the same incident. They will explore their own reading habits when reading for entertainment, reading for information, reading to prepare for a speech or debate, or reading for ‘passing an exam’. They will compare these habits with peers. They will look at how different writers write for entertainment, for instance, some fiction writers may use more conversations between the characters while some may prefer to describe the message conveyed between the characters. They will look at which techniques work best for longer stories and which for shorter ones. They will look at the blend of different approaches to writing and metacognize on their preference when reading a story. They will look at how well suited is the author’s style of presentation to the work he/she presented, be it fiction or nonfiction.
Expected Hours of Instruction: 48 Hours
Real World Writing
In this unit students will examine techniques for writing various kinds of literature, including technical writing, work of nonfiction, and work of fiction. They will explore strategies of listening to ideas, reorganizing ideas, eliminating the weaker ideas, deciding on the main idea, and building on each idea. They will recount stories by way of writing and compare their work to others with a constructively critical pair of eyes. They will then compare with professional authors and see where they may improve. They will explore writing tools like resume softwares, thesaurus, dictionaries, etc. to enhance and embellish their writing. They will explore the difference between writing for entertainment, writing to give information, writing to emphasize one’s view point, writing to lodge a complaint, writing to persuade an audience and writing to persuade a single individual.
Expected Hours of Instruction: 23 Hours
Final Exam
This is a proctored exam worth 30% of your final grade.
Expected Hours of Instruction: 2 Hours
Total: 110 Hours
Resources
The course material (class notes and necessary handouts) will be provided by the teacher.
The students will be required to have:
● Access to a library or the Internet to do research
● Access to internet as well as electronic devices for note taking and communication for those taking the class online
● Novels and movies that will be studied
Overall Curriculum Expectations
A. Oral Communication
A1: listen in order to understand and respond appropriately in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes;
A2: use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes;
A3: reflect on and identify their strengths as listeners and speakers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful in oral communication situations.
B. Reading and Literature Studies
B1: read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, informational, and graphic texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning;
B2: recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning;
B3: use knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently; B4 reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading.
C. Writing
C1: generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience;
C2: draft and revise their writing, using a variety of literary, informational, and graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience;
C3: use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively;
C4: 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.
D. Media Studies
D1: demonstrate an understanding of a variety of media texts;
D2: identify some media forms and explain how the conventions and techniques associated with them are used to create meaning;
D3: create a variety of media texts for different purposes and audiences, using appropriate forms, conventions, and techniques;
D4: 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.
Special Accommodations
Only Some students are able, with accommodations, to be part of a regular course curriculum and to demonstrate independent learning. These accommodations allow access to the course without any dilution of the knowledge and skills the student is expected to demonstrate. These required accommodations to facilitate the student’s learning will be identified in his or her IEP (see IEP Standards, 2000, page 11*). It is likely that IEP for many or all courses will reflect the same accommodations. The instructions and accommodations are geared to meet the diverse needs of learners.
The three types of accommodations that are going to be used are:
i) Instructional accommodations - changes in teaching/learning strategies facilitated by different styles of presentation; methods of organization; the use of technology and multimedia.
ii) Environmental accommodations - Certain classroom settings and preferential seating may benefit these students.
iii) Assessment: assessment procedures that enable the student to demonstrate his or her learning, such as Multiple Intelligence Theory, giving more time to complete tasks (see page 29 of the IEP Resource Guide, 2004, for more examples).
For students who require accommodations for only the mathematics courses, the assessment and evaluation of their achievement will be based on the appropriate course curriculum expectations and the achievement levels outlined in this document. The IEP box on the students’ Provincial Report Cards will not be checked, and no information on the provision of accommodations will be included.
* Taken from: Ministry of Education, Ontario. Extracted from The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: English, 2007; (Pg:- 28-30) Date of extraction: Sunday, March 14, 2021
Program Considerations For English Language Learners
Students from a variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. For many of these students, English is not their spoken language. They may be coming from highly sophisticated educational systems, while others may have come from regions where access to formal schooling was limited. These students offer a rich addition to the classroom experience by way of their background knowledge and experience. All teachers will assist with their English- language development. In mathematics the teachers will include appropriate adaptations and strategies in their instructions and assessments to facilitate the success of the English language learners in their classrooms. Some of these strategies and adaptations are: modification of some or all of the course expectations so that they are challenging but attainable for the learner at his or her present level of English proficiency, given the necessary support from the teacher.
Teaching/Learning Strategy
The key learning strategy at My Learning Oasis Elite Private School is Constructivism. This format facilitates learning by many techniques, most or all of which will be adopted in the classroom. The most dominant of these is group learning. The facilitator places students of different backgrounds in the same group so that they can feed off each other. Each may bring to the table a different reasoning strategy to facilitate problem-solving. Now, each student becomes a learner and a teacher at the same time, as he/she has to communicate his/her solution. This builds the students' knowledge base and by default, increases their confidence to speak in a crowd, albeit a small group at the beginning. The famous educationalist, Vygotsky, proved that by placing students in a group they function at the upper level of their zone of proximal development, each one scaffolding the other.
This strategy is further enhanced by the teacher asking leading questions as opposed to giving the answer outright, then allowing for group discussion. The students are encouraged to make connections between what they have learnt and their life experiences, then share with the group. The effect of this strategy is intrinsic motivation and learning. Each student develops an expanded appreciation of the topic at hand by seeing how it applies in different settings around the world by way of listening to their group members.
This Constructivist approach will be further accentuated by implementing “fish-bowling”. There are many ways to implement this technique. The one that will mostly be used will be by dividing up the larger problem (technical, mathematics, science, or otherwise) into smaller bits and have each student thoughtfully master one part. That student then teaches the group and facilitates a discussion reflection about the strategy (computational or otherwise) used in the solution. Each student in turn does this.
The above techniques enable students to reflect on the material learnt, make real life connections, and develop problem solving skills. One important by-product of the technique of Constructivism is that each student develops an appreciation of each other’s culture. This cultivates healthy people’s skill, which is not only important for the professional world but for life itself.
Constructivism lends itself well to students whose first language is not the language of instruction and who is new to the class. While other strategies will be used for students having difficulty with the English Language, this technique will definitely be used to enhance their English skill.
Assessment And Evaluation
At My Learning Oasis, course facilitators do not wait for a quiz or exam to determine how well a student is doing. Here, evaluation is an on-going exercise. The pedagogical techniques (refer to Teaching and Learning Strategies) used at My learning Oasis are perhaps the best techniques suited for on-going assessment, hence, they being an integral part of our delivery methodologies.
Concrete assessments are made through projects and assignments. However, the evaluation is based on “our flavor” of the Mastery Teaching technique. This ensures that the emphasis is on the quality of learning and NOT grading. Students' projects and homework will continuously be evaluated and re-evaluated with appropriate guidance to meet the school’s and Ministry’s expectations. At My Learning Oasis, we will work with the students until the projects meet a minimum of a B-grade, unless in extreme circumstances where the willful negligence of the students force lower grades. While this is a lot more taxing on the facilitator, it does not matter because My Learning Oasis is a Learner-centered institution NOT a Grade-Centered nor a Teacher-Centered institution.
Four categories of knowledge and skills are outlined in the achievement chart - knowledge and understanding, thinking, communication, and application. Student’s work is assessed and evaluated with respect to these categories, and that achievement of particular expectations is considered within the appropriate categories. A final grade will then be recorded for this course and if that grade is 50% or higher, a credit is granted to the student and recorded for this course.
The final grade for this course will be determined as follows:
● For material evaluated throughout the course, seventy percent of the grade will be assigned. This portion of the grade should reflect the student's consistency in his/her level of achievement throughout the course, although special consideration should be given to more recent evidence of achievement.
● Thirty percent of the grade will be based on a final evaluation, which is administered towards the end of the course
Final Exam: 30%
Grading for all course work, projects, presentation, participation, interim quizzes and exams: 70%
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