Page 180 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9-12: English As a Second Language and English Literacy Development, 2007

THEONTARIOCURRICULUM,GRADES9–12 | ESLandELD
help convey meaning (e.g., punctuation, typefaces, capital letters) and other con- ventions aid in the presentation of content (e.g., table of contents, headings, footnotes, charts, captions, lists, pictures, index). See also text features.
critical literacy. The capacity for a partic- ular type of critical thinking that involves looking beyond the literal meaning of texts to observe what is present and what is missing, in order to analyse and evalu- ate the text’s complete meaning and the author’s intent. Critical literacy goes beyond conventional critical thinking in focusing on issues related to fairness, equity, and social justice.
critical thinking. The process of thinking about ideas or situations in order to understand them fully, identify their implications, and/or make a judgement about what is sensible or reasonable to believe or do. Critical-thinking skills used in reading and writing include: examining opinions, questioning ideas, detecting bias, and making and supporting judgements.
cueing systems. Cues or clues that effective readers use in combination to read unfa- miliar words, phrases, and sentences and construct meaning from print. Semantic (meaning) cues help readers guess or pre- dict the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences on the basis of context and prior knowledge. Semantic cues may include visuals. Syntactic (structural) cues help readers make sense of text using knowl- edge of the patterned ways in which words in a language are combined into phrases, clauses, and sentences. Graphophonic (phonological and graphic) cues help readers to decode unknown words using
knowledge of letter or sound relationships, word patterns, and words recognized by sight. See also syntax.
culture. The way in which people live, think, and define themselves as a community.
dialect. The form of a language peculiar to a specific region or to characteristics such as social class or education level. A dialect features variations in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.
dictogloss. An activity in which a short text is read aloud at normal speed to stu- dents. The students take down the key words and then attempt to reconstruct the passage from their general under- standing of the gist of the text and from their notes. The task of reconstructing the text in their own words requires students to focus consciously on their knowledge of the content and the relationship between ideas and words. The activity also involves small-group interaction wherein students pool their key words and understanding to complete the task.
diversity. In reference to a society, the variety of groups of people who share a range of commonly recognized physical, cultural, or social characteristics. Categories of groups may be based on various factors or characteristics, such as gender, race, cul- ture, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability/ disability, age, religion, and socio-economic circumstances.
editing. The making of changes to drafts to correct grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors, and generally ensure that the writing is correct. See also writing process.
environmental print. Written texts encountered in the everyday environ- ment, such as labels, signs, billboards, sandwich boards, product logos, and packaging.
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