English 11 - Communicate Ideas and Information (Composing and Creating)

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will:

• develop focussed inquiry questions with specific purposes and audiences in mind
• use a variety of planning strategies to generate and access ideas
• clarify and focus their topics to suit their purposes and audiences
• locate, access, and select appropriate information from a variety of resources
• synthesize information and ideas that are appropriate to their purpose, media, and audiences
• apply various strategies to generate and shape ideas

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Communicate Ideas and Information (Composing and Creating) in other grades click on an icon below.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• As a class, brainstorm a set of current issues. Have students explore both sides of a chosen personal issue, using several sources and collaborating with their peers. Have students each develop a research plan for their topic, including three critical questions, proposed research strategies, sources of information, proposed audience, and presentation format. Presentations might take the form of debates, role plays, talk shows, mock trials, speeches, poster series, or TV news reports. Ask students to peer edit before presenting. Guide the class in selecting a review panel of three students to assess and evaluate peer presentations. Have students give reviewers summaries of their issues, lists of questions answered by their research, and lists of areas in which they would like feedback (e.g., quality of writing, credibility of information, persuasive arguments, speaking ability, supportive visuals, organization, clarity).
• Introduce students to the five-paragraph method of expository organization, including the use of thesis statement, transition, and conclusion. Have students read models of persuasive essays and point out the features that make them effective (e.g., rhetorical devices). Discuss with the class logical fallacies and bias. Ask students each to identify a topic and write a persuasive essay, applying what they have learned. When they have completed their essays, ask them to discuss the processes they used and what they learned.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

• Collaborate with students to develop criteria for their work on issue inquiries. Criteria might focus on their abilities to:
  • define issues
  • use critical questions to guide planning
  • analyse purpose and audience; identify implications
  • articulate their own knowledge and opinions; identify implications
  • select appropriate search strategies
  • record relevant and detailed information in usable forms
  • summarize both sides of issues objectively
  • consider audience, purpose, and topic in choosing presentation formats
• When students research and present information, ask them to review and assess their planning and research records. For example, they might rate each of the following components as useful, effective, satisfactory, or not helpful:
  • inquiry question(s)
  • statement of purpose
  • analysis of audience
  • decisions about format
  • research strategies and sources
  • method of organizing and synthesizing information
  • strategies for monitoring progress and gathering feedback
• When students develop plans for presentations using a variety of media, assess and respond to their plans in terms of:
  • feasibility
  • audience appeal
  • potential effectiveness
  • consistency among the parts of the plan
  • thoroughness and detail
  • logical connection between message and medium

RECOMMENDED LEARNING RESOURCES

• 3-D English
• The Art of Teaching Writing
• Breaking Free
• The Business of English
• The Communications Handbook
• Discoveries in Non-Fiction
• Essays: Thought and Style
• Family Issues
• Far and Wide
• Inside Stories for Senior Students
• Matters of Gender
• Notes on a Prison Wall
• Poetry Alive
• The Prentice Hall Reader
• The Project Book
• The Prose Reader
• The Research Essay
• Searchlights
• The Stolen Party
• The Storyteller
• Tracing One Warm Line
• Voices of the First Nations
• The Writer's Workshop
• Writing Clear Essays
• Writing for Results

• At the Gate
• The Glitter
• Media Mayhem
• Selling Lies

• Malcolm X

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