Inglés

This course provides students with opportunities to hone their skills through a variety of assignments ranging from descriptive and personal writing, oral presentations, opinion writing, and multi-genre projects, to formal essays. Assignments allow for a variety of modalities: speaking, presenting, writing, creative representation (e.g. visual art, poetry, music).

• Students examine a variety of note-taking methods and select the method that works best for them as they take notes on the novel, short stories, and poetry that has been read.
• Students view a variety of video presentations to analyse delivery strengths and weaknesses that they can then apply to their own presentations.
• Various quizzes throughout the course allow students to develop their mastery of skills and topics and to then apply this knowledge to their assignments.
• Teaching videos illustrate topics such as literary devices, MLA formatting, and personal essay analysis.
• Interactive videos are used in the course to provide students with the opportunity to test their knowledge and also to direct student learning while viewing.
• Oral readings accompany poetry and prose excerpts to encourage the aural experience of literature.
• Interactives scattered throughout the course provide opportunities for students to check their knowledge and build their understanding of course content.
• Scaffolding longer writing assignments encourages students to work through the writing process and expects students to plan and revise their writing with teacher feedback at each stage to guide improvement in both the style and content of their writing.
• Reading Guides provided for the novels encourage students to engage with their chosen text, to develop their own questions and interpretations, and to consider varying perspectives.
• By reading and reflecting on texts in discussions posts and through communication with teachers, students conduct close readings of texts and are able to respond to complex topics in their writing.
• Students reflect on their learning, and plan for future growth, by completing reflections at the end of each unit.

Our theory of assessment and evaluation follows the Ministry of Education’s Growing Success document, and it is our firm belief that doing so is in the best interests of students. We seek to design assessment in such a way as to make it possible to gather and show evidence of learning in a variety of ways to gradually release responsibility to the students, and to give multiple and varied opportunities to reflect on learning and receive detailed feedback.
Growing Success articulates the vision the Ministry has for the purpose and structure of assessment and evaluation techniques. There are seven fundamental principles that ensure best practices and procedures of assessment and evaluation by Virtual High School teachers. VHS assessments and evaluations.

• are fair, transparent, and equitable for all students;
• support all students, including those with special education needs, those who are learning the language of instruction (English or French), and those who are First Nation, Métis, or Inuit;
• are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and, as much as possible, to the interests, learning styles and preferences, needs, and experiences of all students;
• are communicated clearly to students and parents at the beginning of the course and at other points throughout the school year or course;
• are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning;
• provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to support improved learning and achievement;
• develop students’ self-assessment skills to enable them to assess their own learning, set specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning.

For a full explanation, please refer to Growing Success.

The evaluation for this course is based on the student’s achievement of curriculum expectations and the demonstrated skills required for effective learning. The final percentage grade represents the quality of the student’s overall achievement of the expectations for the course and reflects the corresponding level of achievement as described in the achievement chart for the discipline. A credit is granted and recorded for this course if the student’s grade is 50% or higher. The final grade will be determined as follows:

• 70% of the grade will be based upon evaluations conducted throughout the course. This portion of the grade will reflect the student’s most consistent level of achievement throughout the course, although special consideration will be given to more recent evidence of achievement.
• 30% of the grade will be based on final evaluations administered at the end of the course. The final assessment may be a final exam, a final project, or a combination of both an exam and a project.

Student achievement will be communicated formally to students via an official report card sent to their email address. 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 letter grade, representing one of four levels of accomplishment. The report card also indicates whether an OSSD credit has been earned. Upon completion of a course, VHS will send a copy of the report card back to the student’s main school (if in Ontario) where the course will be added to the ongoing list of courses on the student’s Ontario Student Transcript.

Teachers who are planning a program in this subject will make an effort to take into account considerations for program planning that align with the Ontario Ministry of Education policy and initiatives in a number of important areas.