Page 79 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: English, 2007 (Revised)

Grade 10, Academic
3. Applying Knowledge of Conventions
THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | English
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Critical Literacy
2.5 explain how their own beliefs, values, and experiences are revealed in their writing (e.g., compare their writing on a topic with a piece written from a different viewpoint and identify and explain the differences; write in-role to sup- port an opinion with which they personally dis- agree and use feedback from a partner to assess whether they have represented the position fairly)
Teacher prompts: “Did examining a different perspective on the topic alter your own ideas about the topic?” “Whose voices might be inac- curately represented or not heard in your writing?”
Revision
2.6 revise drafts to improve the content, organiza- tion, clarity, and style of their written work, using a variety of teacher-modelled strategies (e.g., reinforce a mood or feeling by sharpening the focus of the imagery and other rhetorical devices in a poem or short story; identify and remove redundancies and clarify or expand sup- porting details; rearrange ideas to improve par- allel structure in a comparison and contrast essay 7)
Teacher prompts: “Can your writing partner clearly identify your thesis?” “Which images has your writing partner identified as least effective?” “Have you positioned the support- ing quotations you have selected appropriately for the best effect?”
Producing Drafts
2.7 produce revised drafts of texts, including increas- ingly complex texts, written to meet criteria identified by the teacher, based on the curricu- lum expectations (e.g., adequate development of information and ideas, logical organization, appropriate use of form and style, appropriate use of conventions)
Teacher prompts: “As a final check for clarity, try writing a summary of your draft.” “Identify and count the different sentence structures you have used in your draft. Would your writing be more interesting if you used a greater variety of sentence types and structures?”
By the end of this course, students will:
Spelling
3.1 use knowledge of spelling rules and patterns, a variety of resources, and appropriate strate- gies to recognize and correct their own and
others’ spelling errors (e.g., spell correctly specific historical, academic, and literary terms used in course materials; relate spelling patterns to word origin and meaning by examining the linguistic roots of words;8 maintain a list of words with“trick”spellings; use print and electronic spelling resources and knowledge of some inter- national spelling variations to check accuracy and select preferred“Canadian”spellings where appropriate;9 use understanding of sound-symbol relationships, word structures, word meanings, and generalizations about spelling to identify and correct misspellings10)
Teacher prompt: “If you find a word that may be misspelled, highlight or underline it so that your partner can check the spelling.”
Vocabulary
3.2 build vocabulary for writing by confirming word meaning(s) and reviewing and refining word choice, using a variety of resources and strategies, as appropriate for the purpose (e.g., find specialized or academic vocabulary in reference resource materials to replace vague or inaccurately used words;11 maintain a list of examples of technical terms and media phrases with their uses in various contexts; 12 maintain a list of homonyms, with their different meanings and uses in context; use a dictionary to find the etymology of unfamiliar words in a history or science article)
Teacher prompt: “How do you go about build- ing a writing vocabulary? What strategies do you use to incorporate into your writing some of the new words that you encounter in your reading?”
Punctuation
3.3 use punctuation correctly and appropriately to communicate their intended meaning (e.g., use the semicolon to separate independent clauses and items in a list that contain sublists separated by commas; use underlining or italics to indicate book titles; use quotation marks to indicate titles of shorter works)
Teacher prompts: “It was a good idea to com- bine these two sentences into one, but have you used the right punctuation mark to separate the two clauses?“ “How should we punctuate this list when some of the items in it already include lists of their own?”
Grammar
3.4 use grammar conventions correctly and appropriately to communicate their intended meaning clearly and fluently (e.g., construct a
7. TLCC 7-12 “Revising and Editing: Asking Questions to Revise Writing” 128 8. TLE 7-9 “Sample Roots and Prefixes” 54
9. TLCC 7-12 “Proofreading Without Partners” 137 10. TLE 7-9 “Spelling Strategies Inventory” 5 11. TLCC 7-12 “Creating a Word Wall” 30 12. TL Media 7-10 “A Guide to Reading Visual Texts and Advertisements” 8