Page 29 - English OLC Literacy Course 12 (2003)

ONTARIO SECONDARY SCHOOL LITERACY COURSE, GRADE 12 (OLC4O) 27
– demonstrate understanding that their sub- ject, audience, and purpose for writing influence their choices of form, tone, and level of language (e.g., by accurately describing, in a conference with the teacher, the form, style, and tone of a piece of writing and explaining why they are appropriate to the subject, audience, and purpose for writing);
– demonstrate understanding of the role of reading and writing in the learning process (e.g., by describing how they use reading and writing to locate and under- stand information in different subject areas; to generate, explore, and clarify ideas and thinking; to communicate for a variety of purposes; to express themselves; and to reflect on and extend their learning).
Using the Portfolio to Assess Their Growth
in Literacy Skills
By the end of this course, students will have compiled a literacy portfolio demonstrating their growth in literacy skills during the course. Each student’s literacy portfolio will contain:
– an inventory, with completion dates, of all the texts read and the reading responses produced;
– an inventory, with completion dates, of all the pieces of writing produced, identify- ing them as working drafts, revised drafts for evaluation, or polished pieces;
– all working drafts of reading responses and writing selections produced during the course;
– all reading responses and writing selections submitted for evaluation during the course;
– all pieces that have been polished (e.g., for presentation and display);
– a learning journal documenting the steps taken to monitor their learning during the year (e.g., a written self-assessment of their skills at the beginning of the course; an outline of their goals for achieving the required level of skill in reading and writ- ing; a learning plan; checklists and other types of progress reports; a record of regu- lar student-teacher conferences to review goals and assess progress).
In using the portfolio to assess their growth in literacy skills, students will:
– for each of the required types of texts read (i.e., informational, narrative, graphic) and forms of writing produced (i.e., summary, information paragraph, opinion piece, news report), decide independently which are their most successful reading responses and pieces of writing and explain briefly, in writing, the reasons for their choice;
– review the record of their progress in their learning journal, as well as the reading- response and writing samples produced during the course, in order to describe their growth in reading and writing skills throughout the course (e.g., in a written self-reflection).