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English Language Arts (K & E) Grade 8 - 9 (2006)

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Table of Contents

Program of Studies

Rationale & Philosophy

Philosophy & Rationale

Introduction to Knowledge & Employability English Language Arts

English Language Arts

Organization of the Program of Studies

General Outcome 1 Overview

General Outcome 2 Overview

General Outcome 3 Overview

General Outcome 4 Overview

General Outcome 5 Overview

Outcomes

Grade 8 (2006)

	General Outcome 1 (Gr. 8)
	General Outcome 2 (Gr. 8)
	General Outcome 3 (Gr. 8)
	General Outcome 4 (Gr. 8)
	General Outcome 5 (Gr. 8)

Grade 9 (2006)

	General Outcome 1 (Gr. 9)
	General Outcome 2 (Gr. 9)
	General Outcome 3 (Gr. 9)
	General Outcome 4 (Gr. 9)
	General Outcome 5 (Gr. 9)

There is 1 Teacher Resource related to the entire Program of Studies

Knowledge and Employability courses provide students who meet the criteria with opportunities to experience success and become well prepared for employment, further studies, citizenship and lifelong learning.

Vision

Through Knowledge and Employability courses, students become active and responsible citizens, achieve their educational and career goals, improve quality of life for themselves and their families and positively impact their communities.

Philosophy & Rationale

The development of the Knowledge and Employability courses was based on input received from consultations with education stakeholders throughout the province. The distinctive sequence of courses was designed to meet the educational needs of students who learn best:

when focusing on the development and application of reading, writing and mathematical literacy¹, and on essential employability skills
through experiential learning activities
when meaningful connections are made between schooling and personal experiences.

¹Mathematical literacy: Selecting and applying appropriate mathematical operations, problem-solving strategies, tools and technology, and communicating using mathematical vocabulary in home, workplace and community experiences.

Knowledge and Employability courses assist students in:

transitioning from school to the workplace and community
preparing for responsible citizenship
gaining recognition, respect and value from employers and further education providers.

Knowledge and Employability courses promote student skills, abilities and work ethics, including:

academic and occupational skills of a standard determined by the workplace to be necessary for success
practical applications through on- and off-campus experiences and/or community partnerships
career development skills to explore careers, develop a career-focused portfolio and assess career skills
interpersonal skills to ensure respect, support and cooperation with others.

Aboriginal Perspectives and Experiences

understanding of First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) experiences and perspectives, and recognition that First Nations, Métis and Inuit students have particular needs and requirements, is necessary to enable all students to be respectful and responsible citizens.

Knowledge and Employability courses serve to facilitate positive experiences that will help Aboriginal students better see themselves in the curriculum and assist non-Aboriginal students to develop a better understanding of Alberta’s First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.

Goals of Knowledge and Employability Courses

Knowledge and Employability courses provide students with practical and applied opportunities to develop competencies necessary to meet or exceed the following goals. Knowledge and Employability courses prepare students to:

earn a senior high school credential
enter the workplace upon leaving school with employability and occupational skills that meet industry standards
make successful transitions to other courses or to further education and training
become responsible and contributing members of society.

Cross-curricular Community and Workplace Connections

Programs of study and resources for Knowledge and Employability courses are distinctive, in part, because they promote cross-curricular, community and workplace connections.

Cross-curricular Connections

Knowledge and Employability courses promote the integration of subjects to emphasize their interrelationships and connections to other school subjects. The philosophy of Knowledge and Employability courses is that students learn best when they can clearly recognize, in their course work, connections, applications and relevance to a variety of everyday experiences. Organizing for instruction may include thematic units, subject integration within units and/or projects in other subjects.

Community and Workplace Connections

Knowledge and Employability courses provide students with practical and applied opportunities to develop basic reading, writing and mathematical literacy. Community and workplace connections ensure learning within applied contexts, connecting the school with environments beyond school, and may include tours to local businesses and industries, mentorships, job shadowing and work experience.

Knowledge and Employability courses promote the development of career portfolios that help students connect their school experience to the world beyond school. Each portfolio will include exemplars of the student’s on- and off-campus experiences and can be used when the student is seeking employment or further education/training opportunities. Items appropriate for inclusion in career portfolios include resumes, samples of written work, awards and/or their representations, teacher and self-evaluation checklists, workplace assessment tools and employer letters of recommendation.

Safety

Safety is emphasized and relevant information is incorporated throughout Knowledge and Employability courses, including basic safety rules and guidelines and information regarding the safe use of tools, equipment and materials in school, home, community and workplace settings.

Technology

Because technology is best learned within an applied context, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) outcomes, and the use of computers and other technologies, are included in the Knowledge and Employability courses. This technology integration will help students make the transition to the world beyond school.

Essential Universal Skills and Strategies

Knowledge and Employability courses emphasize the universal skills and strategies that are essential to all students, including the following:

Interpersonal skills promote teamwork and respect for, support of and cooperation with others.
Critical thinking promotes the analysis and appropriate applications of information.
Creative thinking promotes the identification of unique connections among ideas and insightful approaches to questions and issues.
Decision-making processes promote the making of timely and appropriate decisions.
Problem-solving processes promote the ability to identify or pose problems and apply learning to consider the causes and dimensions of, and the solutions to, problems.
Metacognition² enables students to become more aware of, and have greater control over, their own thinking and learning processes.

²Metacognition: Learning-to-learn strategies; awareness of processes and strategies one uses when learning.

Relationship to Other Courses

Each Knowledge and Employability course is consistent with the rationale, philosophy, program foundations and organization of other secondary courses. This consistency enables students, as appropriate, to progress through the Knowledge and Employability course sequence and/or to other secondary courses.

Enrollment in Knowledge and Employability Courses

Students may take one or more courses in the sequence at any time during grades 8 through 12. Students may be enrolled in only Knowledge and Employability courses or in a combination of Knowledge and Employability and other secondary courses.

Information regarding the identification of students for enrollment in one or more courses can be accessed in the Knowledge and Employability Courses Handbook, Grades 8–12.

Introduction to Knowledge & Employability English Language Arts

The core responsibility of Knowledge and Employability English language arts courses is to foster and strengthen the development of language. Learning the foundational skills of communication enhances confidence, builds personal identity and enables individuals to create and sustain meaningful relationships. Becoming successful communicators at home, at school, at work and in the community enables students to experience personal satisfaction and become responsible, contributing citizens and lifelong learners.

The Importance of Language

The Nature of Language

Language is the basis of communication and the primary instrument of thought. Composed of interrelated and rule-governed symbols systems, language is a social and uniquely human means of exploring and communicating meaning. As well as being a defining feature of culture, language is an unmistakable mark of personal identity and is essential for forming interpersonal relationships, extending experience, reflecting on thought and action and contributing to society.

Language Development

Language development is contextual. Students enhance their language abilities by using what they know, continuously and recursively, in new and more complex contexts and with increased sophistication. They reflect on and use prior knowledge to extend and enhance their language abilities and understanding. By learning and incorporating new language structures into their repertoire, and using them in a variety of contexts, students develop greater language fluency and proficiency.

Critical Thinking and Learning through Language

Critical thinking, learning and language are interrelated. Students use language to make sense of and bring order to their world and play active roles in learning communities within and beyond the classroom. They use language to examine new experiences and knowledge in relation to their prior knowledge, experiences and beliefs. They make connections, anticipate possibilities, reflect upon and evaluate ideas and determine courses of action. By becoming critical thinkers, students become self-reliant, successful, contributing members of society.

Metacognition

Language study helps students develop an awareness of the strategies they use to complete learning tasks successfully. Students are encouraged to talk about, write about and otherwise represent themselves as learners. In essence, the study of language enables students to develop metacognition.

Metacognition involves reflection, critical awareness, analysis, monitoring and reinvention. Students who are engaged in metacognition:

recognize the requirements of the task at hand
reflect on the strategies and skills they may employ
appraise their strengths and weaknesses in the use of these strategies and skills
make modifications
monitor the use of these reworked or new strategies in future situations.

English Language Arts

Knowledge and Employability English language arts highlights six language arts - listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and representing.

Students engage all six language arts as they study texts and as they create their own texts in relevant situations for a variety of purposes and audiences. All of the language arts are interrelated and interdependent; proficiency in one strengthens and supports proficiency in the others.

Listening and Speaking

Oral language is the foundation of literacy. Through listening and speaking, individuals communicate thoughts, feelings, experiences, information and opinions and learn to understand themselves and others. Oral language carries a community’s stories, values, beliefs and traditions. Aboriginal perspectives and experiences of oral language strengthen their communities and culture.

Listening and speaking enable students to explore ideas and concepts and to understand and organize their experiences and knowledge. They use oral language to learn, solve problems and reach goals. Students, at all grade levels, need to develop fluency and confidence in their oral language abilities in order to become discerning, lifelong learners. They benefit from many opportunities to listen and speak, both formally and informally, for a variety of purposes. Instruction integrates facets of Aboriginal oral language traditions as an example of the power of language for communities and their members.

Reading and Writing

Reading and writing are powerful means of communicating and learning. These language arts enable students to extend their knowledge and use of language, increase their understanding of themselves and others and experience enjoyment and personal satisfaction.

Reading provides students with a means of accessing the ideas, views and experiences of others. By using effective reading skills and strategies, students construct meaning and develop thoughtful and critical interpretations of a variety of texts.

Writing enables students to explore, shape and clarify their thoughts and to communicate these thoughts to others. By using effective writing strategies, students discover and refine ideas and compose and revise with increasing confidence and skill.

Viewing and Representing

Viewing and representing are integral parts of contemporary life. These skills allow students to understand the ways in which images and language may be used to convey ideas, values and beliefs.

Viewing is an active process of attending to and comprehending such visual media as television, advertising images, films, diagrams, symbols, photographs, videos, drama, drawings, sculpture and paintings. Viewing enables students to acquire information and to appreciate the ideas and experiences of others. Many of the comprehension processes involved in reading, e.g., previewing, predicting and making inferences, may also be used in viewing.

Representing enables students to communicate information and ideas through a variety of media; e.g., video presentations, posters, diagrams, charts, symbols, visual art, drama, mime and models.

Inquiry and Research

Through the process of inquiry, students learn to manage ideas and information. Acquiring foundational skills in research will allow students to identify their current knowledge and construct new knowledge within a variety of contexts. The inquiry process includes planning, selecting, organizing, assessing and representing information and is also included in science and social studies courses.

Texts

In today’s technological society, individuals not only access information and find enjoyment in print forms but in other language forms as well. For example, oral communication and visual media are becoming increasingly important. Often these forms are used both in combination with one another and in conjunction with print forms. Therefore, texts refer not only to print but also to oral and visual forms that can be discussed, studied and analyzed. In addition, texts are affected and influenced by how they are transmitted; e.g., in computer, television, radio or book forms. Students require knowledge, skills and strategies in all six language arts to compose, comprehend and respond to such texts. Oral texts include storytelling, dialogues, speeches and conversations. Visual texts include pictures, diagrams, tableaux, mime and nonverbal communication. Combinations of oral, print or visual texts include videos, films, cartoons, drama and drum dancing.

Organization of the Program of Studies

General outcomes are broad statements identifying the knowledge, skills and attitudes that students are expected to demonstrate, with increasing competence and confidence, from Kindergarten to Grade 12. Five general outcomes, represented by the icons below, serve as the foundation for the Knowledge and Employability program of studies. The student outcomes are interrelated and interdependent; each is to be achieved through a variety of listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and representing experiences.

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to:

explore thoughts, ideas, feelings and experiences
comprehend and respond personally and critically to oral, print and other media texts
manage ideas and information
enhance the clarity and artistry of communication
respect, support and collaborate with others

Specific Outcomes

Specific outcomes are categorized under headings within each of the five general outcomes. The specific outcomes state the knowledge, skills and attitudes that students are expected to demonstrate by the end of each grade.

General and Specific Outcomes for English Language Arts Grades 8 and 9

The aim of English language arts is to enable each student to understand and appreciate language and to use it confidently and competently in a variety of situations for communication, personal satisfaction and learning purposes.

General Outcome 1

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to explore thoughts, ideas, feelings and experiences.

1.1 Discover and explore

1.1.1 Express ideas and develop understanding
1.1.2 Experiment with language and forms
1.1.3 Express preferences
1.1.4 Set goals

1.2 Clarify and extend

1.2.1 Consider the ideas of others
1.2.2 Combine ideas
1.2.3 Extend understanding

General Outcome 2

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to comprehend and respond personally, critically and creatively to oral, print and other media texts.

2.1 Use strategies and cues

2.1.1 Use prior knowledge
2.1.2 Use comprehension strategies
2.1.3 Use textual cues
2.1.4 Use phonics and structural analysis
2.1.5 Use references

2.2 Respond to texts

2.2.1 Experience various texts
2.2.2 Construct meaning from texts
2.2.3 Appreciate the artistry of texts

2.3 Understand forms, elements and techniques

2.3.1 Understand forms and genres
2.3.2 Understand techniques and elements
2.3.3 Experiment with language

2.4 Create original texts

2.4.1 Generate ideas
2.4.2 Elaborate on the expression of ideas
2.4.3 Structure texts

General Outcome 3

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to manage ideas and information.

3.1 Plan and focus

3.1.1 Focus attention
3.1.2 Determine information needs
3.1.3 Plan to gather information

3.2 Select and process

3.2.1 Use a variety of sources
3.2.2 Access information
3.2.3 Evaluate sources

3.3 Organize, record and evaluate

3.3.1 Organize information
3.3.2 Record information
3.3.3 Evaluate information

3.4 Share and Review

3.4.1 Share ideas and information
3.4.2 Review research process

General Outcome 4

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to enhance the clarity and artistry of communication.

4.1 Enhance and improve

4.1.1 Appraise their own and others’ work
4.1.2 Revise and edit
4.1.3 Enhance legibility
4.1.4 Expand knowledge of language
4.1.5 Enhance artistry

4.2 Attend to conventions

4.2.1 Attend to grammar and usage
4.2.2 Attend to spelling
4.2.3 Attend to capitalization and punctuation

4.3 Present and share

4.3.1 Present information
4.3.2 Enhance presentation
4.3.3 Use effective oral and visual communication
4.3.4 Demonstrate attentive listening and viewing

General Outcome 5

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to respect, support and collaborate with others.

5.1 Respect themselves and others and strengthen community

5.1.1 Appreciate diversity
5.1.2 Relate texts to culture
5.1.3 Celebrate accomplishments and events
5.1.4 Use language to show respect

5.2 Work within a group

5.2.1 Cooperate with others
5.2.2 Work in groups
5.2.3 Evaluate group process

General Outcome 1 Overview

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to explore thoughts, ideas, feelings and experiences.

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Note: Knowledge and Employability English language arts emphasizes the exploration of language in relation to practical and everyday home, community and workplace applications.

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Exploration is fundamental to learning. The specific outcomes that support General Outcome 1 set the foundation for learning in the other outcomes. Students engage in exploration to discover possibilities and to extend their awareness. Through exploration, students begin to formulate their thoughts and ideas, organize and make sense of their experiences and acknowledge and express their feelings. Exploration enables students to discover and understand who they are and what they think. As language users and language learners, exploration helps students to reflect on their weaknesses and strengths.

As students become engaged in exploration, they express their preferences and interests and they set personal goals for language growth. When students face a new task or assignment and study a new text, they explore possibilities and form tentative interpretations and positions. Students experiment with language and forms of expression to continually expand the horizon of opportunities that language learning offers to them. In this way, students consider new perspectives and form new understandings. Ultimately, through exploration, students expand their interest in a variety of texts.

Through talk and conversation, students make observations, ask questions, generate hypotheses, make predictions and form opinions. Often, it is at the point of utterance that students discover what they think or how they feel.

Writing and representing help students to clarify and expand their thinking. When students use such means as dialogue journals to aid their exploration, and when they see their ideas, feelings and experiences in writing, they can reconsider, revise and elaborate in thoughtful ways. Students may also use diagrams, thought webs, collages, charts and other representational forms to explore ideas and interpretations and to make and present new connections among ideas.

Listening, reading and viewing also enable students to explore and consider new perspectives, gather and verify information, identify areas for further inquiry or research and develop support for opinions. A climate conducive to exploration and risk taking fosters learning in General Outcome 1.

Learning effective exploration strategies is interrelated with learning in the other general outcomes.

Exploratory talk, writing and representation enhance students’ comprehension by focusing their prior knowledge and experiences before listening, reading and viewing and when analyzing, evaluating and responding to texts (General Outcome 2).
Exploration also helps students to find and manage information (General Outcome 3).
Students are involved in exploration when deciding how to use language effectively when creating their own texts (General Outcome 4).
Students often use exploratory talk when they work together to collaborate on projects and to develop a classroom learning community (General Outcome 5).

General Outcome 2 Overview

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to comprehend and respond personally, critically and creatively to oral, print and other media texts.

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Note: The what and the how of a text (text content and text form) have been separated under the first two headings of General Outcome 2 to allow learning outcomes to be clearly specified. In their study of texts, students should be encouraged to understand the relationship between form and content.

Knowledge and Employability English language arts emphasizes comprehension of print and nonprint texts in relation to practical and everyday home, community and workplace applications.

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Constructing meaning from texts is fundamental to English language arts. As students study texts in oral, print, visual and multimedia forms, they use a variety of strategies to determine the what of a text - the content that is being presented by the text creator. Students engage their prior knowledge of content as they encounter new texts. They identify and examine a text creator’s purpose and audience and they consider the interplay between text and context. Students use their skills as listeners, readers and viewers to detect the tones and emotional range adopted by text creators. They use references, including the understandings and interpretations of others, to assist them in forming their own understandings and interpretations of texts.

Students also use a variety of strategies to understand the craft of the text creator and the how of a text - the form that the text creator has fashioned and the textual elements, rhetorical devices and stylistic techniques that the text creator has employed. By studying a variety of texts in oral, print, visual and multimedia forms, students develop an understanding of the relationship between a text’s content and its form. They identify the effects that are created by particular forms, elements, devices and techniques and relate a text’s form, structure and medium to its purpose, audience and content.

Students respond personally, critically and creatively - often simultaneously - to the contents and contexts of a variety of texts and to the craft of a variety of text creators. They respond personally by relating texts to their own experiences, feelings, values and beliefs. They respond critically by making interpretations and by evaluating ideas, forms, devices and techniques. They respond creatively by visualizing the settings and situations that are presented in texts and by imagining the persons and characters inhabiting texts. By using their creative imaginations, students synthesize responses that take them deeply into the world of a text or that extend their own worlds by transforming their understandings and perspectives.

Learning effective comprehension and response strategies is interrelated with learning in all of the other general outcomes.

Exploratory talk and writing enhance and extend student understandings and evaluations of texts (General Outcome 1).
Student understandings of text forms, structures and media help them to find information when they are involved in inquiry (General Outcome 3).
The study of texts provides students with a range of topics and organizing structures for their own text creation (General Outcome 4).
As students respond positively to the texts created by their classmates, they help to encourage others and to build a community of learners (General Outcome 5).

General Outcome 3 Overview

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to manage ideas and information.

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Note: Knowledge and Employability English language arts emphasizes the management of ideas and information in relation to practical and everyday home, community and workplace applications.

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Students manage ideas and information to fulfill particular inquiry or research needs. Such needs may include communicating with a particular audience, considering a variety of literary interpretations or gathering details that contribute to the verisimilitude of a created text.

Students develop the ability to determine:

why they need to pursue an inquiry or to conduct research
what types of questions need to be answered
what types of data and information are needed
where to locate information sources
how to record and organize selected information
if chosen sources and gathered information satisfy the requirements of purpose, audience and situation
if chosen sources are reputable and of good quality.

Students integrate and synthesize their findings and, in the course of managing ideas and information, formulate generalizations and conclusions and develop personal perspectives.

Students use inquiry or research findings for a variety of purposes. A finding may simply be a new understanding that a student records in a journal for future use. Findings may also include facts, examples or generalizations that are used immediately by students involved in text creation. Findings often lead students to formulate new questions for further research.

As they progress through their English language arts courses, students develop strategies for managing ideas and information with increasing independence and sophistication. As well, they evaluate their own and others’ inquiry and research processes and findings with a view to refining such processes and considering alternative ways of conducting inquiry or research in the future.

Learning effective strategies for managing ideas and information is interrelated with learning in the other general outcomes.

Students explore ideas to frame questions and plan research processes (General Outcome 1).
When students examine sources to identify ideas and gain information, they are engaged in comprehending and responding to text (General Outcome 2).
As they record and organize the information and other material that they have uncovered, students are engaged in the creation of text (General Outcome 4).
Students often collaborate to conduct research or pursue inquiry (General Outcome 5).

General Outcome 4 Overview

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to enhance the clarity and artistry of communication.

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Note: Knowledge and Employability English language arts emphasizes creating and enhancing print, visual and multimedia texts in relation to practical and everyday home, community and workplace applications.

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Students draft and develop a variety of oral, print, visual and multimedia texts as a means of discovering, understanding and communicating their thoughts, feelings and experiences. When beginning the task of text creation, students assess context: they determine the purpose they wish to accomplish, they identify their audience and they consider the nature of the communication situation. They also develop or use form, structure and media that are consistent with context.

Students develop ideas through text creation. They share their experiences and communicate the events that are significant to them. They create images and develop themes imaginatively and artistically. By creating texts in a variety of oral, print, visual and multimedia forms, students develop their personal voices and learn the craft of the text creator.

As students produce texts for publication or presentation, they ensure that the expectations of the text creation task and the requirements of the communication situation have been met. They also consider the time and space limitations of a particular text creation, publication or presentation situation.

Students develop confidence and skill by sharing thoughts, ideas and experiences through formal and informal presentations. They select and use presentation technologies that are appropriate to the purpose, audience and communication situation.

Students enhance the communicative power of their texts by assessing and revising thought and detail, organization, matters of choice and matters of correctness. They develop an understanding of how language works and they use the specialized terminology of the discipline of English language arts to communicate that understanding.

Learning effective strategies for creating text and for enhancing the thoughtfulness, effectiveness and correctness of communication is interrelated with learning in the other general outcomes.

Students explore text creation possibilities and experiment with language, image and structure (General Outcome 1).
The oral, print, visual and multimedia texts under study provide vicarious experiences, new perspectives and potential forms and media that students may use for speaking, writing and representing (General Outcome 2).
Students locate, gather, record and organize material to communicate ideas and information (General Outcome 3).
Students work in groups to complete tasks and assignments and to collaborate on text creation (General Outcome 5).

General Outcome 5 Overview

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to respect, support and collaborate with others.

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Note: Knowledge and Employability English language arts emphasizes that students respect and advocate for themselves and others, and demonstrate support and collaboration with others, in relation to practical and everyday home, community and workplace applications.

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As students collaborate with others, they use language to show respect and consideration. Together, students access, understand, use and create texts when seeking answers to questions regarding the human condition. They appreciate the diversity of expression, opinion and perspective displayed by other students in their community of learners; they willingly share their personal knowledge, expertise and perspectives to help build and strengthen that community. They learn to use language in ways that demonstrate sensitivity to the feelings of their peers and enrich the classroom atmosphere.

Students develop and display positive attitudes that are observable in the verbal and nonverbal communication they exhibit. Students’ positive attitudes are displayed as they celebrate their own accomplishments and honour the accomplishments of their classmates. As they recognize events of importance to their communities and their cultures, students come to understand their personal connections to community in a broader sense.

Students learn collaboration skills by working well together. They discuss in groups, build on others’ ideas and plan and work together to meet common goals. They learn to use language to reflect upon their own behaviours and values and the behaviours and values of others. They participate fully and positively in a classroom community.

As they collaborate with others, students demonstrate that they understand and employ group processes. They cooperate with others as they contribute to the processes their groups are using to complete tasks. They assess and evaluate the work that their groups have accomplished, and the processes that their groups have used, so that future collaboration may benefit from the understandings they have developed.

Students learn the importance of respecting, supporting and collaborating with others. It is these processes that set the context for students to experience success in the English language arts classroom, at home, in the community and at the workplace.

Learning effective strategies for collaborating with others is interrelated with learning in the other general outcomes.

Students work collaboratively to discover possibilities and to experiment with language and forms (General Outcome 1).
Students learn from the understandings and interpretations of their classmates as they comprehend and respond to oral, print, visual and multimedia texts (General Outcome 2).
Students often work collaboratively to conduct inquiry and research and to share findings (General Outcome 3).
Students work collaboratively on text creation: they discuss topics and forms of expression, they act as peer editors to assess their classmates’ texts and to offer constructive suggestions for improvement and they often work together to deliver a presentation (General Outcome 4).

Grade 8

General Outcome 1 (Gr. 8)

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to explore thoughts, ideas, feelings and experiences.

1.1 Discover and explore

1.1.1 Express ideas and develop understanding

Students will:

a. extend and revise their understanding of ideas and information by connecting new and prior knowledge and personal experiences

b. extend and revise their understanding of ideas and information by exploring a variety of print and nonprint texts on related topics and themes

c. extend their understanding by taking different points of view when reviewing and reflecting on print and nonprint texts

1.1.2 Experiment with language and forms

Students will:

a experiment with language, form, structure and images to create different effects, considering purpose and audience

b. examine ways that language and forms influence the development and communication of ideas, information and experiences in print and nonprint texts; e.g., read a novel, view a film adaptation and compare the development and communication of the story

c. experiment with language to enhance language development; e.g., use new vocabulary, vary sentence structure and use figurative language

One moment.

English Language Arts (K & E) Grade 8 - 9 (2006)

Resources to support:

One moment.