Curriculum Project Day

 To examine ELA and how the new curriculum imagines learning for students  To introduce additional support materials for unit and year planning  To provide time to plan and design assessments

English Language Arts What is this subject all about? ELA Curricular Document What can I learn from what I have been given? Planning Supports How can I make sense of my year and the units I will teach? Collaboration How can I work with others in this journey?

What is this subject all about?

Graffiti Definition Activity 1. Individually, think of words and phrases related to literacy and jot them down on a piece of paper 2. As a group, brainstorm words and phrases related to literacy and jot them down on the chart paper provided. 3. Create a group definition of literacy based on the words and phrases generated. Write the common definition of literacy at the bottom of the chart.

Literacies are multi-faceted and provide a variety of ways, including the use of various language systems and media, to interpret the world and express understanding of it. Literacies involve the evolution of interrelated skills, strategies, and knowledge that facilitate an individual's ability to participate fully and equitably in a variety of roles and contexts – school, home, and local and global communities. To achieve this competency requires developing skills, strategies, and knowledge related to various literacies in order to explore and interpret the world and communicate meaning. English language arts requires students to use different literacies, including language literacy, effectively and contextually to represent ideas and understanding in multiple, flexible ways.

Consider the key ideas generated in the literacy definition activity. What was important? What are the key words and ideas that stand out in your mind? How could you present these ideas in an effective and coherent graphic organizer, illustration, or mind map that represents the big picture of Language Arts?

 good listeners?  good viewers?  good speakers?  good readers?  good writers?  good representers?

good speakers? good writers? good listeners? good readers? good viewers? good representers?

 In our AFL results from last year, Reader Response was the lowest score provincially and even lower within our school division.  Reader response: questions assessing students’ ability to make meaning from texts by making connections to personal knowledge or experience (extending and applying new understanding).  This is a primary focus of the MY ELA curricular document.  We can plan to do better in this (and other) area(s).

… is about reading and creating a variety of texts that examine the world, with all its beauty and flaws, and deciding for ourselves what it means to live and act in the world. Schnellert, Datoo, Ediger & Panas, 2009

What can I learn from what I have been given?

 Compose and create - expressive strand and includes speaking, representing and writing  Comprehend and respond – receptive strand and includes listening, viewing and reading  Assess and reflect – reflecting on self and others and setting goals for language learning

 In the C and C goal area, the greatest emphasis rests on the work students do before producing a product  In C and R, this emphasis shifts to the work students do during their interaction with texts

 Children demonstrate their learning and understanding in the receptive strands (comprehend and respond) through expressive means (compose and create).  Example: I show I can comprehend what I read by talking about it, writing down my thoughts and representing myself through drawings, charts, diagrams, videos and so on.  Therefore: You cannot teach each goal area in isolation.  EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED

Comprehend and Respond (Receptive – Viewing, Listening, Reading) Compose and Create (Expressive – Representing, Speaking, Writing) Content Can students identify the message? Can they identify the key ideas? Supporting details? Can students create a clear message? Strategies Can students identify different ways to deconstruct the message (Before, during and after) Can students use the creative process to create/ construct the message? (Before, during and after) Cues and Conventions Can students identify: Pragmatic Who is the intended audience? What is the purpose for the text? Textual How was this text created? What organization patterns are used? What textual features do I notice? Semantic What word choices were made? Were they effective? Why or why not? Syntactic What types of sentences are used? Do all sentences begin the same? Are there sentences of different lengths? Graphophonic What sounds/letters do I recognize? Other How can examining the elements help me understand the message? Who am I creating this for? What is my purpose? How should I organize this text? What text features do I need to include? What words should I use to best convey my message? Have I used a variety of sentence types? Sentence openers? Sentence lengths? How well do I use sounds/letters to communicate? How can I use the elements to communicate my message most effectively? Assess and Reflect Are students able to monitor their own learning? Their use of strategies and language cues and conventions? Are they given opportunities to reflect, react, revise? Can they set goals for future learning?

 Broaden and deepen students’ understanding of themselves, others, life and the world  Language learning happens within a context…we communicate and think about things -not as isolated skills

 The contexts connect to the Broad Areas of Learning and the Cross Curricular Competencies.  They help us get students to where they need to be in their K-12 learning.

 Learn to use language  Learn about language  Learn through language

 What we do with students before, during and after engaging in a text will determine their growth, engagement and success.

We must continually ask ourselves if our students are thinking and learning, and what we need to do differently in order to help them.

We can’t see their minds at work so we must rely on their behaviours…

 Are they engrossed in the text?  Are they asking questions?  Are they recording connections?  Are they noting significant or key ideas from quotations, illustrations, or a speech?  Can they summarize what they’ve read?  Can they make inferences?  Can they have deep conversations about what they are reading?  Are they open to other viewpoints?  Do they reread or revisit portions of the text?

 Listening, viewing, and reading closely and thoughtfully  Discussing topics and texts critically and insightfully  Creating and revising a variety of texts  Choosing, using, creating and adapting strategies for these skills

 Using various texts to speak about, write about, or represent a concept  Putting together various concepts to create a new concept or idea

 Finding themes in a poem or illustration, or drama using a strategy for finding themes in a story  Using symbolism in a representation of their learning  Using methods for holding thinking in their independent novels  Thinking critically about their own beliefs and values

 Reflecting on their methods and learning  Engaging in self-assessment and goal-setting  Adjusting methods to be more successful in their learning

 Focuses on grade-specific outcomes  Provides meaningful contexts  Encourages inquiry, questioning and efficacy  Focuses on language  Teaches critical and powerful learning strategies  Includes a range of texts

Five Contexts: 1. Personal and Philosophical 2. Social, cultural and historical 3. Imaginative and literary 4. Communicative 5. Environmental and technological TYPE OF UNITNUMBER OF UNITS per YEAR Multi-genre thematic3 (minimum) Multi-genre inquiry and/or interdisciplinary 1 (minimum) Author or genre study1 (maximum)

 Invite students to develop the competencies necessary to build on, not just consume or borrow, other people’s ideas.  Require students to use digital technologies to think with not just consume or produce a “polished product.”

 We don’t get to choose whether or not to address these literacies in our classrooms –they are now as essential as traditional print literature  Students bring with them a variety of experiences and comfort levels with various technologies  Technology is multi-modal ; that is, it includes more than one type of media in one text  We need to teach students multi-modal literacy  Skills in new literacies need to be taught explicitly, as well as integrated into units of study  We need to use new literacies purposefully, not as “bells and whistles.”  It’s important to examine the conventions of different forms of technology  We need to teach students to think critically and ethnically about new literacies, because the public and the private intersect online  Because these technologies are emergent, teachers and students need to develop understandings of new literacies together  To be literate today means being able to understand, integrate, and produce many forms of communication  Teachers need to advocate for equitable access to new literacies for all students

How can I make sense of my year and the units I will teach?

 Re-sorted outcomes and indicators into Whats (tasks), Hows and Criteria  Task organizers (various) with Knows, Dos, Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions  Unit planning outline

 I notice…  I think…  I wonder…  I hope…

How can I work with others on this journey?

 Develop and link tasks  Sort “Whats” into Unit/Year plans and identify contexts, unit types, and Big Ideas  Develop assessments with criteria (Whats or product and Hows or processes)- can be task specific and/or cross-task applicable  Develop Learning Plans for units