Page 191 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: English, 2007 (Revised)

1. Writing, Writers, and the Writing Life: demonstrate an understanding of writing as an art, a craft, and a career as they explore the work of a variety of Canadian and international writers.
1. Writing, Writers, and the Writing Life
THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 11 AND 12 | English
By the end of this course, students will:
SPECIFIC EXPECTATIONS
By the end of this course, students will:
Writing Models
1.1 read a variety of teacher- and self-selected models of effective writing to become familiar with the art, craft, and world of writing (e.g., keep a record of the works they read for this course; identify diverse cultural points of view and divergent perspectives on current issues in their reading; select from their reading one or two models that they could use to guide their own writing)
Teacher prompts: “What form of writing do you find most appealing? Why?” “What con- temporary writer have you enjoyed the most? Why?”
The Art and Craft of Writing
1.2 demonstrate an understanding of the art and craft of writing after examining interviews with and articles by writers about their writing practices, processes, and beliefs (e.g., compare information about and comments provided by a variety of authors on their websites; describe what they have learned about writing after listening to and/or viewing a variety of interviews with authors, such as those on the CBC Radio show “Writers & Company”; ask a poet who has been invited to address the class about his or her writ- ing practices and thoughts on the art and craft
of writing)
Teacher prompts: “What have you learned about the life of a freelance journalist from the articles you read in class?” “Based on the information available on this author’s website, what questions would you like to ask her about her experiences in becoming a writer?”
Elements of Form
1.3 analyse the ways in which writers use elements of form (e.g., verse structure in poetry; stage directions in drama; character, setting, and point of view in fiction; headings and sidebars in mag- azine articles; charts and graphs in textbooks; colour, images, and fonts in advertisements) to communicate meaning (e.g., explain how an author uses details of time and place to establish setting; analyse the way a newspaper uses head- ings and photographs to convey information both overtly and implicitly; explain how the author of a personal essay uses expository writing and
a narrative structure to communicate his or her central claim or thesis)
Teacher prompts: “How does the point of view in the story affect the information that is pro- vided to the reader?” “How has the angle taken by the reporter of this news story affected the choice of photograph that accompanies it?” “What do the direct quotations add to the article?”
Elements of Style
1.4 analyse the ways in which writers use elements of style (e.g., diction, voice, tone, literary and/or rhetorical devices, sentence structure) to com- municate meaning (e.g., compare the effect on the reader of the use of rhyme in one lyric poem and free verse in another; compare the journalis- tic styles used in radio, television, and Web-based news stories; explain how a first-person point
of view in both fiction and non-fiction can affect the reader’s response to the work; analyse the use of metaphor in a story by an Aboriginal writer; explain how the use of dialect or non- standard English enhances the portrayal of a character or a setting)
Teacher prompts: “Which words were particu- larly effective in describing the setting?” “How
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A. INVESTIGATING WRITING OVERALL EXPECTATION