Page 24 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: The Arts, 2010

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | The Arts
• are communicated clearly to students and parents at the beginning of the school year or course and at other appropriate 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.
Learning Skills and Work Habits
The development of learning skills and work habits is an integral part of a student’s learning. To the extent possible, however, the evaluation of learning skills and work habits, apart from any that may be included as part of a curriculum expectation in a course, should not be considered in the determination of a student’s grades. Assessing, evaluating, and reporting on the achievement of curriculum expectations and on the demonstration of learning skills and work habits separately allows teachers to provide information to the parents and student that is specific to each of the two areas of achievement.
The six learning skills and work habits are responsibility, organization, independent work, collaboration, initiative, and self-regulation.
Performance Standards
The Ontario curriculum for Grades 9 to 12 comprises content standards and performance standards. Assessment and evaluation will be based on both the content standards and the performance standards.
The content standards are the curriculum expectations identified for every discipline – the overall and specific expectations for each course.
The performance standards are outlined in the achievement chart (see pages 24–25). The achievement chart is a standard province-wide guide and is to be used by all teachers as a framework within which to assess and evaluate student achievement of the expectations in the particular subject or discipline. It enables teachers to make consistent judgements about the quality of student learning based on clear performance standards and on a body of evidence collected over time. It also provides teachers with a foundation for developing clear and specific feedback for students and parents.
The purposes of the achievement chart are to:
• provide a common framework that encompasses all curriculum expectations for all courses across grades;
• guide the development of high-quality assessment tasks and tools (including rubrics);
• help teachers to plan instruction for learning;
• provide a basis for consistent and meaningful feedback to students in relation to
provincial content and performance standards;
• establish categories and criteria with which to assess and evaluate students’ learning.
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