Communicate Ideas and Information (Composing and Creating)

This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will employ a variety of effective processes and strategies, including the use of electronic technology, to generate, gather, and organize information and ideas.

It is expected that students will:

independently develop questions about challenging or abstract issues to suit specific presentation forms, purposes, and audiences
use a variety of planning tools, including outlines, webs, flow charts, and diagrams to communicate their plans to others
describe and evaluate alternative approaches to presentations for specific audiences and purposes
use a variety of resources to locate, access, evaluate, and select relevant information for specific presentations
select, synthesize, organize, and document information that is appropriate for particular purposes, modes of presentation, 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 students prepare to leave secondary school, they need to be able to manage and exchange information. To do so, they need to identify purpose, focus, and audience for their writing and to gather, select, organize, record, share, and present information.

Invite students to identify concerns people have about the function, organization, and use of space in schools or community facilities. Discuss with them how to design and conduct surveys, conduct interviews, and write letters of inquiry.
After direct instruction in the development of surveys and questionnaires, have groups:
- brainstorm possible issues and concerns and choose topics
- develop either general survey forms or questionnaires to survey people who use or work in chosen facilities
- identify the populations to be surveyed
- carry out the surveys
- tabulate and analyse the results of data
Have students present their conclusions and recommendations for improvement to appropriate audiences.
Ask students to discuss the criteria for a good technical manual. Provide a model that reflects those criteria. Guide students' development of user-friendly manuals that explain technical processes or concepts in their areas of interest and, where appropriate, integrate text and graphics.
Suggest that students work in small groups to produce technical explanations or sets of instructions (e.g., how to program a VCR, how to use a particular computer software package).

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Students can demonstrate these learning outcomes through independent communication projects on topics of their choice. Most students will need some structure and support; however, the more open-ended their assignments are in terms of topic, purpose, audience, and form, the more information students will reveal about their strategies for composing and creating.

To assess the processes students use to develop their presentations about use of space in schools, consider the extent to which they are able to:
- define issues and related questions
- use one or more planning tools effectively
- explicitly assess their current knowledge and potential sources of information
- select appropriate sources and efficient means of accessing information
- design appropriate search strategies or data collection instruments
- record the information in usable forms
- consider audience appeal, nature of the information, and purpose in choosing presentation formats
When students collaborate on developing technical instructions or manuals, create a rating scale or checklist to assess the extent to which the presentations are clear, efficient, easy to follow, complete, and accurate, and use graphics effectively to clarify procedures.
Ask students to review and assess their planning notes and presentations for evidence that they:
- choose formats that match the nature of the information and the purpose of the activities
- use a variety of formats
- tailor the forms they use to their particular learning styles or preferences
- use their planning materials as working documents, making changes as they acquire new information or insights
- use their planning notes to develop their presentations (e.g., relationship between planning and presentation should be clear)

RECOMMENDED LEARNING RESOURCES

Print Materials

75 Readings
The Act of Writing
Breaking Through
The Canadian Press Stylebook
Canadian Writer's Companion
Coming of Age
Develop Your English Skills
Discovering Fiction
Discovering Literature
An Enemy of the People
Essays: Patterns and Perspectives
Ethics
Global Matters
Inquiry
Inside Stories for Senior Students
Living Theater
Nineteenth Century Short Stories
On The Edge
Process and Practice
Quartet of Poems
The Range of Literature
The Storyteller
Voices of the First Nations
The Writer's Workshop
Writing Clear Essays
Writing for Results

Video

Ellen's Story
Frankenstein
The Glitter
Media Mayhem
Selling Lies

Laserdisc/Videodisc

In Perspective

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Revised: January 25, 1999

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