Course Code: EWC4U
Course Description
This course emphasizes the refinement of media arts skills through the creation of a thematic body of work by applying traditional and emerging technologies, tools, and techniques such as multimedia, computer animation, installation art, and performance art. Students will develop works that express their views on contemporary issues and will create portfolios suitable for use in either career or postsecondary education applications. Students will critically analyse the role of media artists in shaping audience perceptions of identity, culture, and community values.
Department: English
Course Type: University
Credit Value: 1.0
Grade: 12
Prerequisite: EWC4U, English, Grade 11, University
Curriculum Policy Document: English, The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12, 2007
Course Developer: Canadian Global School
Development Date: 2016-2017
Course Outline
Writer_s Craft EWC4U- Total Hours (100 Hours)
Unit One: Short Stories (35 Hours)
Unit Two: Short Non-Fiction & Personal Response (20 Hours)
Unit Three: Novel Study: The Kite Runner (25 Hours)
Students will read a longer work of fiction and participate in lessons and activities to become familiar with the era the novel takes place in, explore various themes, write a character analysis, create presentations and discussion topics where they will evaluated on observation and conversation and finally write a formal literary essay with focus on structure, developing a strong thesis and blueprint, using a variety of sentence structures in their writing, deeper analysis and finally integrating transition words and phrases to improve the flow and quality of their writing. There will be direct and constant feedback from the teacher throughout the process.
Drama: Hamlet 25 Hours)
Exam/RST (8 Hours)
This is a summative task assigned at the end of the course that brings together many of the expectations covered throughout the course and is created to assess and evaluate a student’s ability to demonstrate their understanding of the expectations through not only the product, but through conversation and observation.
Final Exam (2 Hours)
This is a proctored exam worth 20% of your final grade.
Resources required by the student:
- Laptop and/or personal computer (preferably with Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox as a web browser)
- Access to video recording and handwritten work scanning (mobile phone, tablet, iPad, webcams)
- Stable internet connection
- Adobe
Resources provided by Canadian Global School
- Access to Google Suites or Microsoft Education for word processing software and presentation software. (The school will distribute accounts to students).
- Supplemental Ebook materials for physics.
- Access to Canva for Education if needed.
- Access to Gizmos and Labster for their virtual laboratory simulations.
- Online calculator.
Note: This course is entirely online and does not require or rely on any textbook.
A scanner, smartphone camera, or similar device to upload handwritten or hand-drawn work
EWC4U-Writer's Craft, University Preparation
Overall Expectations:
By the end of this course, students will:
- Writing, Writers, and the Writing Life: demonstrate an understanding of writing as an art, a craft, and a career as they explore the work of a variety of Canadian and international writers.
Overall Expectations:
By the end of this course, students will:
- Exploring Ideas, Forms, and Styles:generate and experiment with ideas about writing content, forms, and styles;
- Drafting and Revising:organize, draft, and revise their writing, employing forms and stylistic elements appropriate for their purpose and audience;
- Editing, Proofreading, and Publishing: use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies to refine and polish their work;
- Collaborative Writing:collaborate in the writing process with peers by generating ideas, responding to peers’ work, and assessing peers’ work in a workshop setting.
Overall Expectations:
By the end of this course, students will:
- Metacognition:identify their strengths as writers and areas where they could improve, and assess the growth and development of their own writing style.
Strategies for Assessment and Evaluation of Student Performance
There are three forms of assessment that will be used throughout this course:
There are three forms of assessment that will be used throughout this course:
Assessment for learning will directly influence student learning by reinforcing the connections between assessment and instruction, and provide ongoing feedback to the student. Assessment for learning occurs as part of the daily teaching process and helps teachers form a clear picture of the needs of the students because students are encouraged to be more active in their learning and associated assessment. Teachers gather this information to shape their teaching environment.
Assessment for learning is:
- Ongoing
- Is tied to learning outcomes
- Provides information that structures the teachers’ planning and instruction
- Allows teachers to provide immediate and descriptive feedback that will guide student learning
The purpose of assessment for learning is to create self-regulated and lifelong learners.
Assessment as learning is the use of a task or an activity to allow students the opportunity to use assessment to further their own learning. Self and peer assessments allow students to reflect on their own learning and identify areas of strength and need. These tasks offer students the chance to set their own personal goals and advocate for their own learning.
The purpose of assessment as learning is to enable students to monitor their own progress towards achieving their learning goals.
Assessment of learning will occur at or near the end of a period of learning; this summary is used to make judgements about the quality of student learning using established criteria, to assign a value to represent that quality and to communicate information about achievement to students and parents.
Evidence of student achievement for evaluation is collected over time from three different sources – observations, conversations, and student products. Using multiple sources of evidence will increase the reliability and validity of the evaluation of student learning.
Teaching and Learning Strategies
Using a variety of instructional strategies, the teacher will provide numerous opportunities for students to develop skills of inquiry, problem solving, and communication as they investigate and learn fundamental concepts. The integration of critical thinking and critical inquiry skills will provide a powerful tool for reasoning and problem solving, and is reflected in a meaningful blend of both process and content.
- Students interact in student-paced and instructor-paced interactive, engaging instructional lessons.
- Students will be engaged when they are able to see the connection between the scientific concepts they are learning and their application in the world around them and in real-life situations.
- Opportunities to learn in a variety of ways- individually, cooperatively, independently, with teacher direction, through hands-on experiences, and through examples followed by practice.
- By accomplishing prompts on interactive lessons, students can reflect on different texts. In addition, constant communication with teachers ensures that the students understand complex topics and apply them in their writing. They can also accomplish other tasks through the use of: animations, videos, discussion forums, live chat and other interactive objects.
The Final Grade
| Percentage of Final Mark | Categories of Mark Breakdown |
| 70% | Assessments of Learning Tasks Throughout the Term |
| 30% | Rich Summative Task |
A student’s final grade is reflective of their most recent and most consistent level of achievement.
The balance of the weighting of the categories of the achievement chart throughout the course is:
| Writer’s Craft | Knowledge | Inquiry/Thinking | Communication | Application |
| 100% | 20% | 30% | 20% | 30% |
The Report Card
Student achievement will be communicated formally to students via an official report card. Report cards are issued at the midterm point in the course, as well as upon completion of the course. Each report card will focus on two distinct, but related aspects of student achievement.
First, the achievement of curriculum expectations is reported as a percentage grade. Additionally, the course median is reported as a percentage. The teacher will also provide written comments concerning the student’s strengths, areas for improvement, and next steps. Second, the learning skills are reported as a Needs Improvement, Satisfactory, Good and Excellent.. The report card also indicates whether an OSSD credit has been earned.
Upon completion of a course, Canadian Global School will send a copy of the report card back to the student’s home school (if in Ontario) where the course will be added to the ongoing list of courses on the student’s Ontario Student Transcript. The report card will also be sent to the student’s home address.
Program Planning Considerations
Cheating and Plagiarism
Canadian Global School commits to having policies for assessments that minimize the risk of cheating. We also commit to begin each course with refresher learning on academic integrity.
In the event of incidents of academic dishonesty, the student, Academic Director (and, in the case of students under 18, their parents) will be notified of the occurrence, of the consequence, and of the potential consequences of subsequent incidents.
Improper Citation
Grade 11 and 12
First Instance: A warning and an opportunity to redo the piece.
Subsequent Instance: An opportunity to redo the piece to a maximum grade of 75%.
Unaccredited Paraphrasing
Grade 11 and 12
First Instance: An opportunity to redo the piece to a maximum grade of 75%.
Subsequent Instance: An opportunity to redo the piece to a maximum grade of 50%.
Unaccredited Verbatim
Grade 11 and 12
First Instance: An opportunity to redo the piece to a maximum grade of 50%.
Subsequent Instance: A grade of zero. No opportunity to resubmit.
Full Plagiarism
Grade 11 and 12
First Instance: A grade of zero. No opportunity to resubmit.
Subsequent Instance: A grade zero. No opportunity to resubmit.
Instructional Approaches
Teachers will use a variety of instructional strategies to help students become independent, strategic and successful learners. The key to student success is effective, accessible instruction. When planning this course of instruction, the teacher will identify the main concept and skills of the course, consider the context in which students will apply their learning and determine the students’ learning goals. The instructional program for this course will be well planned and will support students in reaching their optimal level of challenge for learning, while directly teaching the skills that are required for success.
Understanding student strengths and needs will enable the teacher to plan effective instruction and meaningful assessments. Throughout this course the teacher will continually observe and assess the students’ readiness to learn, their interests, and their preferred learning styles and individual learning needs.
Teachers will use differentiated instructional approaches such as:
- Adjusting the method or pace of instruction.
- Using a variety of resources
- Allowing a wide choice of topics
- Adjusting the learning environment
- Scaffolding instruction
During this course, the teacher will provide multiple opportunities for students to apply their knowledge and skills and consolidate and reflect upon their learning.
Planning the Program for Students with Special Educational Needs
The teacher in this course is the key educator of students with special education needs. The teacher has a responsibility to help all students learn, and will work collaboratively with the guidance counselor, where appropriate, to achieve this goal. In planning this course, the teacher will pay particular attention to the following guidelines:
- All students have the ability to succeed
- Each student has his or her own unique patterns of learning
- Successful instructional practices are founded on evidence-based research, tempered by experience
- Universal design and differentiated instruction are effective and interconnected means of meeting the learning or productivity needs of any group of students
- Online teachers are the key educators for a student’s literacy and numeracy development
- Online teachers need the support of the larger school community to create a learning environment that supports students with special education needs
- Fairness is not sameness
The teacher will use the following strategies:
| Students with Special Educational Needs | |
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Planning the Program for Students with English as a Second Language
In planning this course for students with linguistic backgrounds other than English, the teacher will create a safe, supportive, and welcoming environment that nurtures the students’ self-confidence while they are receiving course instruction. Most English language learners who have developed oral proficiency in everyday English will nevertheless require instructional scaffolding to meet curriculum expectations. The teacher will adapt the instructional program in order to facilitate the success of these students in their classes. Appropriate adaptations and strategies for this course will include:
| Students with Special Educational Needs | |
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Supporting First Nations, Métis and Inuit Students
Canadian Global School will promote active and engaged citizenship, which includes greater awareness of the distinct place and role of Indigenous (First Nation, Métis, and Inuit) peoples in our shared heritage and in the future in Ontario.
Canadian Global School will:
- increase the focus in school strategic planning to promote the voluntary, confidential self-identification of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students as a means to enhance the success and well-being of Aboriginal students and to help close the achievement gap.
- continue to identify and share practices and resources to help improve First Nation, Métis, and Inuit student achievement and close the achievement gap.
- increase the training in our schools to respond to the learning and cultural needs of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students.
- provide quality programs, services, and resources at our schools to support First Nation, Métis, and Inuit student.
- provide quality programs, services, and resources at our schools who support First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students to help create learning opportunities that support improved academic achievement and identify building.
- provide curriculum links that facilitates learning about contemporary and traditional First National, Métis, and Inuit cultures, histories, and perspectives among all students.
- develop awareness among teachers of the learning styles of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students and employ instructional methods designed to enhance the learning of all First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students.
- implement strategies for developing critical and creative thinking.
- implement strategies for developing critical and creative thinking
- provide access to a variety of accurate and reliable Aboriginal resources such as periodicals, books, software, and resources in other media, including materials in the main Aboriginal languages in schools with First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students.
- provide a supportive and safe environment for all First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students.
The Role of Information and Communication Technology
ICT tools will be integrated into this course for whole-class instruction and for the design of curriculum units that contain varied approaches to learning in order to meet diverse needs and interests of the students in this class. At the beginning of this class, all students will be made aware of issues related to Internet privacy, safety, and responsible use, as well as of the potential for abuse of this technology, particularly when it is used to promote hatred. ICT used in this course will include:
| Information and Communication Technology | |
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Literacy, Mathematical Literacy, and Inquiry Skills
At Canadian Global School it is the responsibility of all of our teachers to explicitly teach literacy and inquiry skills. The following skills will be developed in each course delivered at Canadian Global
School :
Equity & Inclusive Education in the Learning Environment
At Canadian Global School we embrace multiculturalism, human rights and diversity as fundamental values. Bullying, hate propaganda and cyber bullying, racism, religious intolerance, homophobia and gender-based violence are still evident in
Healthy Relationships in the learning Environment
At Canadian Global School , every student is entitled to learn in a safe, respectful and caring environment, free from violence and harassment. The teacher will create a safe and supportive environment in the class by cultivating
Financial Literacy Connections
There is a growing recognition that the education system has a vital role to play in preparing young people to take their place as informed, engaged, and knowledgeable citizens in the global economy.
Environmental Education Connections
Although there are no specific environmental connections in this course, teachers will develop an environmental understanding fostered through
Ethics in the Learning Environment
At Canadian Global School teachers provide varied opportunities for students to learn about ethical issues and to explore the role of ethics in decision making.
Students will be able to easily connect their classroom learning to real-life activities in the world they live in by applying the abilities they have gained. Cooperative education and other work experiences will increase their understanding of career options in a variety of disciplines. Students will also have a better grasp of workplace procedures as well as the nature of the employer-employee relationship. Virtual High School will make every effort to connect students to Ministry programs in order to ensure that they are informed about programs and possibilities.
Central to the philosophy at Canadian Global School is the focus on experiential learning. Planned learning experiences in the community, including job shadowing, field trips, and hands-on experiences will provide our students with opportunities to see the relevance of their classroom learning in a work setting, make connections between school and work, and explore a career of interest as they plan their pathways through secondary school and make postsecondary plans.
It is critical that classroom practice and the learning environment comply with relevant federal, provincial, and municipal health and safety legislation and by-laws in order to provide a suitable learning environment for the Kanata Academy International teachers and students, including, but not limited to, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), and other relevant federal, provincial, and municipal health and safety legislation and by-laws (OHSA). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandates that all schools maintain a safe and effective learning and working environment for both students and staff.
Although Canadian Global School does not have an official school library, students are encouraged to use e-books, local libraries, GALE resource archives and Curriculum Video Digital resources to develop important research and inquiry skills.
Promotion of Careers
The knowledge and skills students acquire in this course will be useful in helping students recognize the value of their education and applications to the world outside of school and identify possible careers, essential skills and work habits required to succeed. Students will learn how to connect their learning in asking questions and finding answers to employable skills.
During this course the teacher will:
- ensure that all students develop the knowledge and skills they need to make informed education and career/life choices;
- Provide learning environment and online school-wide opportunities for this learning; and;
- Engage parents and the broader community in the development, implementation, and evaluation of the program, to support students in their learning
- Use the four-step inquiry process linked to the four areas of learning
- Knowing yourself – Who am I ?
- Exploring opportunities – What are my opportunities?
- Making decisions and setting goals – Who do I want to become?
- Achieving goals and making transitions – What is my plan for achieving my goals?
The teacher will support students in this course in education and career/life planning by providing them with learning opportunities, filtered through the lens of the four inquiry questions, that allow them to apply subject-specific knowledge and skills to work-related situations; explore subject-related education and career/life options; and become competent, self-directed planners.