Page 52 - THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 11 AND 12 | Cooperative Education

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 11 AND 12 | Cooperative Education
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Thinking. The use of critical and creative thinking skills and inquiry skills and/or processes. Communication. The conveying of meaning 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 cooperative education curriculum, the criteria for each category are as follows:
Knowledge and Understanding
• knowledge of content (e.g., information; terminology; vocabulary; health, safety, and well-being practices and procedures)
• understanding of content (e.g., skills, processes, concepts, techniques)
Thinking
• use of planning skills (e.g., setting goals, locating and gathering information, organizing an inquiry)
• use of processing skills (e.g., analysing, reflecting, revising, refining, extending, integrating, forming conclusions, evaluating risks and following appropriate safety measures)
• use of critical/creative thinking processes (e.g., use of inquiry, decision-making, research, innovation, problem-solving, and design processes)
Communication
• expression and organization of ideas and information (e.g., clarity of expression, logical organization) in oral, visual, and/or written forms (e.g., interviews, presentations, portfolios, graphic organizers, posters, letters, résumés, personal profiles,
charts, reports, summaries)
• communication for different audiences (e.g., peers, placement supervisors, placement employers) and purposes (e.g., to inform, to persuade, to question) in oral, visual, and/or written forms