Page 17 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9-12: English As a Second Language and English Literacy Development, 2007

Half-Credit Courses
The courses outlined in this document are designed as full-credit courses, but may be delivered as full- or half-credit courses. Half-credit courses, which require a minimum of fifty-five hours of scheduled instructional time, must adhere to the following conditions:
The two half-credit courses created from a full course must together contain all of the expectations of the full course. The expectations for the two half-credit courses must be divided in a manner that best enables students to achieve the required knowledge and skills in the allotted time.
A course that is a prerequisite for another course may be offered as two half-credit courses, but a student must successfully complete both parts of the course to fulfil the prerequisite. (Students are not required to complete both parts unless the course is a prerequisite for another course they wish to take.)
The title of each half-credit course must include the designation Part 1 or Part 2. When a student successfully completes a half-credit course, a half-credit (0.5) will be recorded in the credit-value column of both the report card and the Ontario Student Transcript.
Boards will ensure that all half-credit courses comply with the conditions described above, and will report all half-credit courses to the ministry annually in the School October Report.
CURRICULUM EXPECTATIONS
The expectations identified for each course describe the knowledge and skills that students are expected to develop and demonstrate in their class work, on tests, and in various other activities on which their achievement is assessed and evaluated.
Two sets of expectations are listed for each strand, or broad curriculum area, of each course – overall expectations and specific expectations. The overall expectations describe in general terms the knowledge and skills that students are expected to demonstrate by the end of each course. The specific expectations describe the expected knowledge and skills in greater detail. The specific expectations are grouped under numbered headings (or “suborganizers”), each of which indicates the overall expectation to which the group of specific expectations corresponds. Each expectation in a group is identified by an “expectation tag” (a subheading) that describes the particular aspect of the overall expectation to which the specific expectation refers. Taken together, the overall expecta- tions and specific expectations represent the mandated curriculum.
The organization of expectations into strands and subgroups of expectations is not meant to imply that the expectations in any one strand or group are achieved independently of the expectations in the other strands or groups. The groupings are used merely to help teachers focus on particular aspects of knowledge and skills as they plan lessons or learning activities for their students. The concepts, content, and skills identified in the different strands of each course should, wherever appropriate, be integrated in instruc- tion throughout the course.
THE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE AND ENGLISH LITERACY DEVELOPMENT
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