Page 36 - THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | Canadian and World Studies

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | Canadian and World Studies
The categories help teachers focus not only on students’ acquisition of knowledge but also on their development of the skills of thinking, communication, and application.
The categories of knowledge and skills are as follows:
Knowledge and Understanding. Subject-specific content acquired in each grade or course (knowledge), and the comprehension of its meaning and significance (understanding).
Thinking. The use of critical and creative thinking skills and/or processes. Communication. The conveying of meaning and expression through various forms.
Application. The use of knowledge and skills to make connections within and between various contexts.
In all subjects and courses, students should be given numerous and varied opportunities to demonstrate the full extent of their achievement of the curriculum expectations across all four categories of knowledge and skills.
Teachers will ensure that student learning is assessed and evaluated in a balanced manner with respect to the four categories, and that achievement of particular expectations is considered within the appropriate categories. The emphasis on “balance” reflects the fact that all categories of the achievement chart are important and need to be a part of the process of instruction, learning, assessment, and evaluation. However, it also indicates that for different courses, the relative importance of each of the categories may vary. The importance accorded to each of the four categories in assessment and evaluation should reflect the emphasis accorded to them in the curriculum expectations for the subject or course, and in instructional practice.
Criteria and Descriptors
To further guide teachers in their assessment and evaluation of student learning, the achievement chart provides “criteria” and “descriptors”.
A set of criteria is identified for each category in the achievement chart. The criteria are subsets of the knowledge and skills that define the category. The criteria identify the aspects of student performance that are assessed and/or evaluated, and they serve as
a guide to what teachers look for. In the Canadian and world studies curriculum,
the criteria for each category are as follows:
Knowledge and Understanding
• knowledge of content
• understanding of content
Thinking
• use of planning skills
• use of processing skills
• use of critical/creative thinking processes
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