Outline of Course Content
Unit 1: Fashion Trends | 20 hours |
Unit 2: Canadian Art and Music | 20 hours |
Unit 3: Games and Teamwork | 15 hours |
Unit 4: Money Matters | 10 hours |
Unit 5: Communication and Information Technology | 20 hours |
Unit 6: Animals and Climate Change | 20 hours |
Unit 7: Culminating Task | 4 hours |
Final Examination | 1 hour |
| Total: 110 hours |
UNIT OVERVIEWS
Unit 1: Fashion Trends
Time: 20 hours
In this unit, students will learn about the fashion industry through a variety of reading, writing, listening and speaking exercises. They will consider questions such as “What is the future of fashion?” and “How can fashion become more sustainable?”. Students will learnto use critical listening strategies to support their learning and develop notetaking skills as they listen to passages. They will continue to develop, reinforce and use skills such as identifying the main idea and supporting details, capitalization and punctuation, transition words and previewing a textbefore reading. Writing skills include developing a series of hamburger paragraphs to demonstrate their comprehension of a reading or listening andsharing their ideas. They will learn and review the geography of Canada and be introduced to fashion that is unique to Canada. Grammar instruction will focus on articles, simple and compound sentences using coordinating conjunctions, and forming the simple future tense (to be going to). Students will be asked to write about a fashion icon, to introduce a fashionable item from their culture, to predict how fashion will change in the next 20 years andto design an innovation in fashion.
Unit 2: Canadian Art and Music
Time: 20 hours
In this unit students will learn about Canadianand Indigenous art and music through a variety of reading, writing, listening and speaking exercises. Students will consider questions such as"What are common themes in Canadian art?" and "What can Indigenousart and artifacts teach us about their unique perspective and way oflife?" by reading and watching videos about the Group of Seven and TomThompson, along with texts and videos on Indigenous history and art. Students will learn about some of the complex and traumatic history of Canada's treatment of its Indigenous peoples and consider how such treatment would affect their own lives through a written reflection. They will be askedto analyze paintings and songs for themes and main messages. Writing skills include learning to write a descriptive paragraph using a sensory detailschart. Speaking skills will focus on interviewing techniques (questions,conversation fillers, and intonation). Further grammar instruction will focuson the order of adjectives and adjective + noun phrases (shiny, fast cars).Students will complete a musical autobiography, interview a family member, and write a descriptive paragraph. They will be asked to critically reflect on new knowledge, as well as consider the role of art and music in their ownlives.
Unit 3: Games and Teamwork
Time: 15 hours
Students will consider the theme of information technology through a variety of reading, writing, listening and speaking activities. Students will consider questions such as “Would you prefer to gethelp from a person or a machine?” and “How do businesses use IT to sell moreproducts?”. In the context of these themes, students will develop, reinforceand use skills such as: reading and recognizing different text types; usingtitle and visual aids to predict content; reading and listening for main ideasand details; using a T-chart to take effective notes on advantages and disadvantages of IT; and listening for intonation to identify a speakers interest in a topic. Writing and speaking skills will include: planning, editing and rewriting paragraphs of different genres; writing a summary paragraph; expressing and asking for reasons to explain why something happened; andplanning a presentation. Students will learn and use new vocabulary related tothe theme of informational technology. They will learn to form a variety ofcompound sentences to improve their writing skills (main clause + onesubordinate clause [e.g., I saw lots of people when I got near the school.]),as well as learn to use proper punctuation when reporting direct and indirect speech. Students will be asked to imagine a new IT product that businesses or consumers could use.
Unit 4: Money Matters
Time: 10 hours
In this unit, students will read and listen to avariety of texts that will help them develop financial literacy in a Canadian context. They will learn about the four levels of industry in Canada (primary,secondary, tertiary and quaternary) along with the types of jobs offered in theseven regions of the country. They will be introduced to Canadian money andwill learn how to represent amounts in CAD (dollar sign, dollars, decimal,cents). Students will consider questions such as "How does minimum wagesupport Canadians to live a better life?" and "Should Canada offerits citizens a living wage?". In the context of these questions, students will learn to write an opinion paragraph and hear first-hand accounts of living on a minimum wage income in Canada. They will read and listen for main ideas and details to support their own opinions. Students will gain further financial literacy by learning to read flyers and identify their key features gaining prior knowledge through looking at pictures, headings andcaptions. They will create a personal advertisement marketing a skill they cansell to others. Grammar instruction will focus on adjectives with count andnon-count nouns, "would like", direct and reported speech. They willbe asked to write and perform a dialogue related to the topic of money.
Unit 5: Communication and Information Technology
Time: 20 hours
In this unit, students will read and listen to avariety of texts that will help them consider the role of communicative technology in their personal and professional lives. They will be asked to make numerous text-to-self connections throughout the unit to demonstrate their ability to connect unit topics to their own lives. They will be encouraged toconsider questions such as "What are the benefits and draw backs of digital communication?" in the contexts of the COVID-19 pandemic and of social media. They will use graphic organizers to take notes on videos and short films to increase their understanding. Students will learn about anecdotal writingand will write their own anecdote about the COVID-19 pandemic. Further,students will learn to construct professional and academic emails and textmessages that are appropriate to context. Also, students will learn abouttechnical writing by reading user manuals and will write their own"how-to" user manual. To help them answer the questions "What isthe difference between our online and offline identities?" and "What are the potential problems with social media?", students will be introduced to inference and characterization through the medium of short films.They will learn to use the STEAL format for analyzing characters and will conduct two analyses of their own. Grammar instruction will focus on infinitives and phrasal verbs, pronouns and abbreviations, numbered lists and gerunds. They will complete a personal project on being alone to demonstrate their understanding of unit ideas.
Unit 6: Animals and Climate Change
Time: 20 hours
In this unit, students will read and listen to a variety of texts that will help them consider effect of climate change on biodiversity. Students will read about the changing ecosystem in Canada's northern lands and will consider questions suchas "What solutions are available to repair effects of climate change?". In the contexts of these questions, students will be asked to consider different perspectives of arctic inhabitants and make predictions about the future of this environment. Students will use multiple note-taking organizers to guide their learning. Students will reflect on the benefits of documentaries in education and will watch an episode from David Attenborough's"Our Planet" series to support their understanding of how climate change is affecting arctic animals. Students will imagine a new episode for theseries that highlights an environmental concern that interests them. They will be introduced to the features of children's literature and complete tasks to analyze children's books for setting, character and theme. They will use the writing process to develop and publish their own children's book around a theme of climate change and animals. Grammar instruction will focus on the simple past, irregular past and past progressive verb tenses, as well as adverbs of manner. Students will be asked to use expression and intonation to communicate enthusiasm to a younger audience when narrating a children's book.
Unit 7: Culminating Task
Time: 4 hours
In the first part of their culminating task, students will create a literacy portfolio in which they edit and revise previously submitted assignments or activities. Students will also submit tasks from their notebooks that are completed throughout the length of the course and reflect onhow all of their portfolio pieces demonstrate growth in their language abilities and what strategies they can use moving forward in their studies.
In the second part and third part of their finaltask, students will be asked to consider how the topics and concepts covered inthe course have expanded their knowledge of life in Canada. They will then beasked to submit a personal reflection (series of paragraphs) on how their thinking has changed regarding two topics covered in our course and explain howthey will apply this new knowledge to their personal lives, academic studiesand possible future careers.
