Page 49 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 to 12: French as a Second Language – Core, Extended, and Immersion, 2014

Because making informed decisions about economic and financial matters has become an increasingly complex undertaking in the modern world, students need to build knowledge and skills in a wide variety of areas. In addition to learning about the specifics of saving, spending, borrowing, and investing, students need to develop broader skills in problem solving, inquiry, decision making, critical thinking, and critical literacy related to financial issues, so that they can analyse and manage the risks that accompany various financial choices. They also need to develop an understanding of world economic forces and the effects of those forces at the local, national, and global level. In order to make wise choices, they will need to understand how such forces affect their own and their families’ economic and financial circumstances. Finally, to become responsible citizens in the global economy, they will need to understand the social, environmental, and ethical implications of their own choices as consumers. For all of these reasons, financial literacy is an essential com- ponent of the education of Ontario students – one that can help ensure that Ontarians will continue to prosper in the future.
In the FSL program, students have multiple opportunities to investigate and study financial literacy concepts in relation to the texts explored in class. Students can build their under- standing of personal financial planning by participating in role play of interactions in the local community, such as buying and selling goods or engaging in personal financial transactions. They can also become familiar with the variety of currencies used in French- speaking countries or regions (e.g., the Canadian dollar, euro, gourde). Through their study of French-speaking communities worldwide, students will learn about global economic disparities and their impact on the quality of life in different countries. Examples related to financial literacy are included in some examples and teacher prompts that accompany the expectations in the FSL curriculum.
A resource document – The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9–12: Financial Literacy, Scope and Sequence of Expectations, 2011 – has been prepared to assist teachers in bringing financial literacy into the classroom. This document identifies curriculum expectations and related examples and prompts, in disciplines across the Ontario curriculum, through which students can acquire skills and knowledge related to financial literacy. The document can also be used to make curriculum connections to school-wide initiatives that support financial literacy. This publication is available on the Ministry of Education’s website,
at www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/policy/FinLitGr9to12.pdf.
LITERACY, INQUIRY SKILLS, AND NUMERACY IN FRENCH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
A vision of literacy for adolescent learners in Ontario schools might be described as follows:
All students are equipped with the literacy skills necessary to be critical and creative thinkers, effective meaning makers and communicators, collaborative co-learners, and innovative problem solvers. These are the skills that will enable them to achieve personal, career, and societal goals.
Students, individually and in collaboration with others, develop skills in three areas, as follows:
• Thinking: Students access, manage, create, and evaluate information as they think imaginatively and critically in order to solve problems and make decisions, including those related to issues of fairness, equity, and social justice.
SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR PROGRAM PLANNING IN FRENCH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
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