Page 16 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: English, 2007 (Revised)

To develop their oral communication skills, students need numerous opportunities to listen and to talk about a range of subjects, including personal interests, cultural knowledge, school work, and current affairs. The language program should provide opportunities
for students to engage in various thought-provoking oral activities in connection with expectations in all the strands – for example, brainstorming to identify what they know about the topic of a new text they are about to read, discussing strategies for solving a problem in a writing assignment, presenting and defending ideas or debating issues, and offering informal critiques of work produced by their peers.
Listening and speaking are essential skills for social interaction at home, at school, and
in the community. In order for all students to benefit from the opportunities provided in the classroom for listening and speaking, differences in the norms and conventions associated with oral communication in different cultures must be taken into account. In addition,
for some students, the notion that learning involves talk is unfamiliar, and talk that sup- ports learning must be explicitly taught and modelled. All students can benefit from oppor- tunities to improve their listening and response skills and to refine their ideas and their ability to express them. The Oral Communication strand focuses on the identification and development of the skills and strategies effective listeners and speakers use to understand and interact with others. It also emphasizes the use of higher-order thinking skills to stimulate students’ interest and engage them in their own learning.
Reading and Literature Studies
Although many students entering the Grade 9 English program are fluent, independent readers, some may need additional support to develop their reading skills and to monitor their own progress. In addition, all students need instruction to cope with the more chal- lenging reading demands of the secondary school curriculum, which requires students to consider increasingly abstract concepts and to use language structures that are more com- plex and vocabulary that is more specialized than in earlier grades. The English program will help students learn to read efficiently and to absorb information quickly.
The English curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge and skills that will enable students to become effective readers. An effective reader is one who not only grasps the ideas communicated in a text but is able to apply them in new contexts. To do this, the reader must be able to think clearly, creatively, and critically about the ideas and informa- tion encountered in texts in order to understand, analyse, and absorb them and to recog- nize their relevance in other contexts. Students can develop the skills necessary to become effective readers by applying a range of comprehension strategies as they read and by reading a wide variety of texts. It is also important that they read a range of materials that illustrate the many uses of writing. By reading widely, students will develop a richer vocabulary and become more attuned to the conventions of written language. Reading various kinds of texts in all areas of the curriculum will also help students to discover what interests them most and to pursue and develop their interests and abilities.
Reading is a complex process that involves the application of various strategies before, during, and after reading. For example, before reading, students might prepare by identi- fying the purpose of the reading activity and by activating their prior knowledge about the topic of the text. Teachers help build the necessary background knowledge for stu- dents whose life experiences may not have provided them with the information they need to understand the text. During reading, students may use “cueing systems” – that is,
THE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH
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