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 analyse challenging literary texts from various periods, countries, and cultures, as well as a range of informational and graphic texts, and create oral, written, and media texts in a variety of forms. An important focus will be on using language with precision and clarity and incorporating stylistic devices appropriately and effectively. The course is intended to prepare students for the compulsory Grade 12 university or college preparation course.
English University - 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
ENG3U
Ravi Sharma (ravi@mylearningoasis.com)
Course Type
University
Grade Level
Grade 11
Course Development Date
June 10, 2021
Course Outline
Oral Communication
In this unit students will explore and examine strategies to listen and comprehend oral texts. They will, with evidence that include oral and visual cues, interpret the texts. They will make connections with other texts, their personal experiences, and the world around them. They will analyze oral texts with a particular interest in how they communicate information, ideas, issues and themes and the response of the audience/listener. Audio-visual aids will be employed. 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.
Students will examine strategies to determine if the oral text has a bias and the perspective of it and expand on their opinion. Students will also indulge in meta-cognition to examine if their personal opinion about a bias in the oral text is based on the student’s bias itself. They will look at the impact these biases may have on culture, belief, identity, and biases. They will look at how culture, belief, identity, and other social aspects such as the need for readership may have influenced the biases in the oral text. Students will look at strategies to identify these biases.
On the presentation-of-ideas front, Students will explore a variety of non-verbal cues, including facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact, and use them effectively to help communicate their meaning with considerations to the sensitivity to audience needs and cultural diversity.
Students will rank the strategies they find most useful and in what situation, bearing in mind that not “one size fits all”. They will do a self- evaluation on what their individual weaknesses and strengths are and explore ways to mitigate their weaknesses.
Expected Hours of Instruction: 25 Hours
Reading And Literature Studies
In this unit students will explore and examine strategies to listen and comprehend written texts. They will, with evidence that include visual cues to interpret these texts, starting with the picture on the cover. As an exercise, students will read the synopsis at the back of the text (in the case of fiction) to try and predict the story and the cultures it will traverse. They will be introduced to effective strategies for reading-comprehension.
They will, with evidence, interpret the texts. They will make connections with other texts, their personal experiences, and the world around them. They will analyze the texts with a particular interest in how they communicate information, ideas, issues and themes. They will explore strategies and features that texts used to communicate meaning. Students will rank the strategies they find most useful and in what situation, bearing in mind that not “one size fits all”. They will do a self- evaluation on what their individual weaknesses and strengths are and explore ways to mitigate their weaknesses.
Expected Hours of Instruction: 25 Hours
Writing
Students will explore a variety of ways to generate ideas for writing tasks. This may include but not limited to considering the target audience and demographic. They will then look at how to gather supporting ideas and organize them in a meaningful way. They will examine different ways to write to different audiences by taking into consideration tone, language, voice, diction, subtlety, and reader’s bias. They will explore a variety of resources for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and all tools necessary to convey their ideas effectively.
Students will examine a variety of skills they have in listening, speaking, reading, viewing, and representing, and explain how these skills help them write more effectively.
Expected Hours of Instruction: 30 Hours
Media Studies
Students will explore how media texts can target various demographics for particular purposes. Students will examine strategies to interpret media texts to decipher their explicit, implied, and hidden messages. In some cases, even the subliminal messages to a target audience within the larger audience. Students will examine the biases and inherent biases in some media texts. They will look at various conventions and/or techniques that influence the media industry. They will look at how different media forms convey messages and influence the audience.
Expected Hours of Instruction: 30 Hours
Project
Students will be expected to complete a project/presentation, which integrates all of the aspects of this course. They will make a presentation to the class. It is worth 15% of the course.
Expected Hours of Instruction: 8 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 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 having 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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