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Equity and Social Justice: From Theory to Practice

Course Description

This course enables students to develop an understanding of the theoretical, social, and historical underpinnings of various equity and social justice issues and to analyze strategies for bringing about positive social change. Students will learn about historical and contemporary equity and social justice issues in Canada and globally. They will explore power relations and the impact of a variety of factors on equity and social justice. Students will develop and apply research skills and will design and implement a social action initiative relating to an equity or social justice issue.

TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES

  • Reading

  • Structured Discussion

  • Personal Reflections

  • Brainstorming

  • Conference

  • Self-Analysis

  • Think-Pair-Share

Strategies for Assessment and Evaluation

Assessment for learning Assessment as Learning

• Anecdotal notes • Online Voice Response

• Forum Response • Self-assessment rubrics

• Homework assignments • Concept maps

• Focused Note-Taking • Personal Reflective Responses

• Online submissions • Mind maps

• Individual online conference meetings • Graphic organizers (Venn Diagrams, KWHL

• Diagnostic questionnaires table, SWOT etc)

• Online Case Studies

• Free writing journals

ASSESSMENT, EVALUATION, AND REPORTING

Assessment:

The process of gathering information that accurately reflects how well a student is achieving the identified curriculum expectations. Teachers provide students with descriptive feedback that guides their efforts towards improved performance.

Evaluation:

The final grade will be determined as follows:

Seventy per cent of the grade will be based on evaluation conducted throughout the course. This portion of the grade should reflect the student’s most consistent level of achievement throughout the course, although special consideration will be given to more recent evidence of achievement.

Thirty per cent of the grade will be based on a final evaluation administered at or towards the end of the course. This evaluation will be based on evidence from one or a combination of the following: an examination, a performance, an essay, and/or another method of evaluation suitable to the course content. The final evaluation allows the student an opportunity to demonstrate comprehensive achievement of the overall expectations for the course.

(Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Daryk School. Ontario Ministry of Education Publication, 2010 p.41)

Reporting:

Involves communicating student achievement of the curriculum expectations and Learning Skills and Work Habits in the form of marks and comments as determined by the teacher’s use of professional judgement.

STRATEGIES FOR ASSESSMENT

Assessment practices can nurture students’ sense of progress and competency and information instruction. Many diagnostic tools, e.g. checklists and inventories, are used at regular intervals throughout the units to encourage students’ understanding of their current status as learners and to provide frequent and timely reviews of their progress. Assessment of student acquisition of listening and talking, reading and viewing and writing skills also occurs regularly through unobtrusive teacher observation and conferencing.

Units conclude with performance tasks, e.g., essays and projects that build towards and prepare students for the end-of-course culminating task in Unit Five. Teachers are encouraged to share goals with students early in the course and to connect unit learning experiences frequently and explicitly with big ideas, overall expectations, and performance tasks, i.e. check bricks; teacher-adapted generic rubrics available in many sources, including the Daryk Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC) Profile, so that they are more task specific. The teacher might ask: “What does the criteria look like for this particular task?” Or “What does limited effectiveness look like?” The teacher could involve students in the discussion, modification, or creation of rubrics, and teach students to use rubrics as a learning tool that can support the writing process and practice.

CONSIDERATION FOR PROGRAM PLANNING

Students learn best when they are engaged in a variety of ways of learning. Guidance and career education courses lend themselves to a wide range of approaches in that they require students to research, think critically, work cooperatively, discuss relevant issues, and learn through practice in a variety of settings. Helping students become self-directed, lifelong learners is a fundamental aim of the guidance and career education curriculum. When students are engaged in active and experiential learning strategies, they tend to retain knowledge for longer periods and develop meaningful skills. Active and experiential learning strategies also enable students to apply their knowledge and skills to real-life issues and situations.

ACCOMMODATIONS

Accommodations will be based on meeting with parent, teachers, administration and external educational assessment report. The following three types of accommodations may be provided: q

Instructional accommodations:

such as changes in teaching strategies, including styles of presentation, methods of organization, or use of technology and multimedia.

Environmental accommodations:

such as preferential seating or special lighting.

Assessment accommodations:

such as allowing additional time to complete tests or assignments or permitting oral responses to test questions.

Other examples of modifications and aids, which may be used in this course, are:

Provide step-by-step instructions.

Help students create organizers for planning writing tasks.

Record key words on the board or overhead when students are expected to make their own notes.

Allow students to report verbally to a scribe (teacher/ student) who can help in note taking.

Permit students a range of options for reading and writing tasks.

Where an activity requires reading, provide it in advance.

Provide opportunities for enrichment

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