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ESLEO Non Credit
Ministry of Education Course Title: ESL LEVEL E
Course Code: ESLEO
Grade Level: E
Prerequisite: None
Department: English
Course Description:
The ESL Level E course provides students with the skills and strategies they need to make the transition to high school and the Ontario OSSD. Students will be encouraged to develop independence in a range of academic tasks. They will participate in debates and lead classroom workshops; read and interpret literary works and academic texts; write essays, narratives, and reports; and apply a range of learning strategies and research skills effectively. Students will further develop their ability to respond critically to print and media texts.
Students will participate in conversations in structured situations on a variety of familiar and new topics, developing their critically thought out ideas and thoughts; read a variety of texts designed or adapted for English level E language learners; expand their knowledge of English grammatical structures and sentence patterns; and link English sentences to compose paragraphs into personal and academic essays.
The course also supports students’ continuing adaptation to the Ontario school system by expanding their knowledge of diversity in their prospective province of residence and/or country of Canada.
The course’s end aim is to prepare students now for their future high school career.
Learning English, as in learning any language, takes time and practice. To this end, each unit in ESL Level E and its resources will promote success in learning and developing the students’ spoken and written language skills.
Overall Curriculum Expectation - all units are interrelated
Unit 1 Unheard Voices - First Nations/First Cultures/First Stories
- Students will develop understanding of Human Rights and Social Injustice in diverse
cultures in Canada. Students will identify and connect short essays, stories, historical/primary sources with similar themes. They will examine Canada’s treatment of aboriginal peoples through prose and narratives of the aboriginal peoples. Students will respond in journals, developing a strong empathy for diverse cultures. - Students will take part in dramatic readings and oral presentations, demonstrating their ability to apply the elements of a short story to its connecting themes.
- Summative Assessment – Students will produce a short story or personal writing (letter writing) that expresses their ability to apply short story elements.
- Attitude II – This first unit builds upon and cultivates the “Canadian attitude” towards society problems, and determines with students the solutions to these problems. To this end, critical thinking skills are further developed.
- Students will develop stronger skills in writing persuasive essays on residential schools, hard hitting news reports, personal response journals, summaries and book reports on their independent novel study.
- In developing stronger listening and speaking skills, students will take part in recorded monologues, dialogues and role plays. They will also develop stronger grammar skills in terms of correcting used language structures.
- Participating in discussions comparing the needs and values of people of different ages, cultures and both genders, students will develop the Canadian attitude towards righting past wrongs.
- Summative Evaluation – Students will rename Ryerson university, Dundas Street and delve into other monuments and places in Canada that may require changes given their discriminatory pasts.
- NOTE – Students will be presented with a Book List on day one of their Level E ESL course at which time they will choose the book they will be reading independently throughout the course. They will be assigned Book Project Assignment that will have monthly submissions but also culminate in an evaluation at the end of the course.
- Competitions include Skills competitions through Ontario Skills and Youth of Canada Skills competition in Literature. Students will also take part in a Voices in Poetry competition which usually occurs in April.
Unit 2 Media Studies: Developing Your Own View
- Students will read a variety of media including reports, media blurbs and other media
including advertisements, commercials, photographs, and works of arts. The purpose in this unit is to teach students the importance between bias and opinion, fact and fiction in published works. - Students will learn to explain relationships between some important aspects of geography and history and current Canadian issues. They will read a variety of resources from other cultural organizations and perspectives and understand and compare diverse perspectives therein.
- Students will take part in Note-taking, completing graphic organizers, and answering comprehension questions including those on opinion pieces.
- Students will learn to evaluate the effectiveness of their own and peers’ media and current events research presentations.
- Summative Assessment – Oral and written presentation and research project on one issue in the media currently.
- Summative Assessment – In terms of the novel study, students will extract sections of the novel reflecting on these in terms of their applicability to the current issues studied in the unit. They will develop a research project on one issue related to the current issues/event, and will analyze the novel in terms of its comparison to Canadian society.
- Sub topics in this unit include past tense V and conjugation of verbs V, and creation of longer paragraphs into research essays.
- Competitions include submission of best student research essays to a variety of Ontario and international competitions for student level and age group.
Unit 3 Making a Difference - Canadians who made a difference
- The overriding theme of the unit is Canadians who made a difference. To this end, students will study and research Canadians then and now through essays, short stories, poetry, films and an independently read novel that continues in this unit.
- Students will compare literary genres, develop understanding of the hero and tragic hero, and develop plot graphing in preparation for high school.
- They will take part in writing summaries, response journals, essays, critical reviews, news reports and create oral presentations.
- Students will evaluate the effectiveness of their own and their peers’ work on current issues.
- Summative Assessment – Writing of critical reviews; poetry presentation; sight passage reading comprehension and literary genre comparison test
- Sub topics in this unit are identifying tense choices III, idiomatic English used in Ontario and other English based countries. These latter will be focused on the idioms students will require in speaking to other English speaking students, teachers and others in English.
- Competitions include entry in the yearly Ontario Veteran affairs Poster Essay competition. Prizes and certificates are awarded by the Veterans.
Unit 4 Writing
- In this unit, students develop their writing skills as well as their deeper knowledge of the key themes and topics that UNITE humans in Canada and across the world.
- Students will learn to locate and extract relevant information from written essays, debates and graphic texts for a variety of purposes. They will identify and connect pieces with similar themes, using idiomatic, formal and colloquial English and non-verbal communication strategies appropriately in a variety of social contexts.
- They will develop their thesis on a topic of their choice regarding the unit theme, and develop their persuasive essay on this topic. To this end, students will learn about descriptive, narrative and expository essays as well as the parts of essays and its organization, thesis statement, writing a 5 paragraph Essay, and using correctly the conventions of written English appropriate for this level, including grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation.
- Students will use speaking skills and strategies to communicate in English for a variety of classroom and social purposes
- Summative Assessment – Essay and paragraph writing (5 paragraphs persuasive essay).
Unit 5 Independent Study Reading Novel Study Unit
- Students will extend their understanding in this unit of a variety of literary and stylistic devices used in literature. They will research using the internet and other sources
to understand different perspectives. - Students will cultivate their critical thinking skills through defining personal interests of each character such as sports, hobbies, music, and so forth. in a summary report and develop the structure of stories. Students will present a portion of your final report in collage format.
- Summative Assessment – Students will complete a final report (Book Talk) based on their chosen ISP.
