Course Title/ Grade/ Course Type: The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course, Grade 12, Open
Ministry Course Code: OLC4O
Curriculum Document: Ministry of Education. The Ontario Curriculum, English, The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC), Grade 12, 2003.
Prerequisite: Students who have been eligible to write the OSSLT at least twice and who have been unsuccessful at least once are eligible to take the course. (Students who have already met the literacy requirement for graduation may be eligible to take the course under special circumstances, at the discretion of the principal.)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed to help students acquire and demonstrate the cross-curricular literacy skills that are evaluated by the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). Students who complete the course successfully will meet the provincial literacy requirement for graduation. Students will read a variety of informational, narrative, and graphic texts and will produce a variety of forms of writing, including summaries, information paragraphs, opinion pieces, and news reports. Students will also maintain and manage a portfolio containing a record of their reading experiences and samples of their writing.
Outline of Course Content
Unit 1: Summary Writing
In this unit, students will start strengthening their writing skills by looking at summaries. They will learn about the steps of summarizing and practice these steps by reading various short texts. Furthermore, they will learn about main ideas and making inferences while reading a text. Their assignment at the end of this unit will be reading and summarizing a given passage.
Unit 2: Opinion Writing
Students will analyze various social issues affecting our world today. They will learn about the characteristics of good opinion paragraphs, including hooks and strong persuasive arguments. Using understanding of opinion paragraphs, they will write a series of opinion paragraphs about a topic which will be given to you later as part of the assessments for this unit. By the end of this unit, they will have received feedback on several practice activities before writing your final opinion assessment.
Unit 3: Informational and Graphic Texts
Students will learn about different types of graphic organizers and will be able to read and analyze graphic texts. They will specifically focus on the issue of food waste around Canada. They will learn about the impacts of food waste and various innovative ways to fight against this issue. Using all the information they gather throughout the unit, they will write an informative text to educate the community.
Unit 4: News Article
Students will learn about the parts of a newspaper and a news article before analysing the structure of a news report. They will gather a greater understanding of how to identify events worthy of making news. Students will practice writing articles about different topics, use quotations properly, and broaden their vocabulary regarding reported speech. Students will then apply their understanding to read news reports effectively before creating their own news articles.
Culminating Activity
Final Mark will be determined following percentages:
70% Determined by the evaluations conducted throughout the duration of the course:
Products – Assignments, Essays, Journals, Portfolio
Observations – Presentations
Conversations – Conference with the Teacher
30% Final examination of the students and/or a Culmination Assignment