Page 59 - THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 11 AND 12 | Canadian and World Studies

LITERACY, MATHEMATICAL LITERACY, AND INQUIRY SKILLS IN CANADIAN AND WORLD STUDIES
Literacy is defined as the ability to use language and images in rich and varied forms to read, write, listen, view, represent, and think critically about ideas. It involves the capacity to access, manage, and evaluate information; to think imaginatively and analytically; and to communicate thoughts and ideas effectively. Literacy includes critical thinking and reasoning to solve problems and make decisions related to issues of fairness, equity, and social justice. Literacy connects individuals and communities and is an essential tool for personal growth and active participation in a cohesive, democratic society.
Reach Every Student: Energizing Ontario Education, 2008, p. 6 Literacy instruction must be embedded across the curriculum. All teachers of all
subjects ... are teachers of literacy.
Think Literacy Success, Grades 7–12: The Report of the Expert Panel on Students at Risk in Ontario, 2003, p. 10
As these quotations suggest, literacy involves a range of critical-thinking skills and is essential for learning across the curriculum. Literacy instruction takes different forms
of emphasis in different subjects, but in all subjects, literacy needs to be explicitly taught. Literacy, mathematical literacy, and inquiry/research skills are critical to students’ success in all subjects of the curriculum and in all areas of their lives.
Many of the activities and tasks that students undertake in the Canadian and world studies curriculum involve the literacy skills relating to oral, written, and visual communication. For example, they develop literacy skills by reading, interpreting, and analysing various texts, including diaries, letters, government legislation and policy documents, interviews, speeches, treaties, information from non-governmental organizations, news stories, and fiction and non-fiction books. In addition, they develop the skills needed to construct, extract information from, and analyse various types of maps and digital representations, including topographic, demographic, thematic, annotated, choropleth, and geographic information systems (GIS) maps. In all Canadian and world studies courses, students are required to use appropriate and correct terminology, including that related to the concepts of disciplinary thinking, and are encouraged to use language with care and precision in order to communicate effectively.
The Ministry of Education has facilitated the development of materials to support literacy instruction across the curriculum. Helpful advice for effectively addressing the literacy demands of different curriculum areas, including those represented in Canadian and world studies, may be found in resource materials available in the literacy domain of the EduGAINS website, at www.edugains.ca/newsite/literacy/index.html.
The Canadian and world studies program also builds on, reinforces, and enhances mathematical literacy. Many courses in Canadian and world studies provide students with opportunities to reinforce their mathematical literacy in areas involving computational strategies and data management and, in particular, the ability to read and construct graphs. For example, students exploring trends in geography might need to interpret population pyramids or climate graphs as well as data related to economic development and/or quality of life. Calculations and graphing are often used in field studies: students
SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR PROGRAM PLANNING IN CANADIAN AND WORLD STUDIES
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