Grade 10 - 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:

develop focussed inquiry questions related to increasingly complex topics
demonstrate an awareness of the characteristics, needs, and preferences of specific audiences
locate, access, and select appropriate information from a variety of resources and consider the quality, currency, and accuracy of each source
organize their ideas, and adjust their style, form, and use of language to suit specific audiences and achieve specific purposes
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

Students need to be able to manage and evaluate the vast amount of information around them. By working on research projects, position papers, and reports, they learn to locate, evaluate, and extract appropriate and pertinent information for their own communications.

Suggest that students keep journals of their writing experiences, noting any problems of time or information and how they solved them, their feelings about each type of writing, and what they would change next time.
Teach students techniques for organizing and presenting information (e.g., clarifying a topic by putting it in the middle of a page and writing around it the answers to the questions who, what, where, when, and why; developing web charts; creating linear outlines with headings, subheadings, and details), the difference between summarizing and quoting directly, and how to punctuate quotations. Give them opportunities to practise these techniques.
Brainstorm ideas about a topic and then have each student choose three ideas and write about each in as much detail as possible, asking who, what, where, when, how, and why. Then have them tailor each idea for a specific audience and purpose, choose the one that works best, and polish the final draft.
Have students list possible sources of information and then go to the library to research a topic using a variety of sources - print, non-print, and electronic.
Invite students to use no more than four words to summarize each of the ideas in various passages of text and then rank the ideas in order of importance. Guide students by asking questions (e.g., Why do you suppose the author wrote this?).

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Students should be expected to use some standard research, planning, and composing strategies, but assessment should respect their strong individual styles and preferred ways of approaching their work and should also accommodate a wide range of acceptable strategies, as long as students can demonstrate that they are working effectively. Students need opportunities to make choices about how they work and to talk, write, represent, and reflect on the processes they use.

Have students review their writing journals at regular intervals and then conference with the teacher or peers about what they noticed. To help them reflect on and prepare for a conference, ask questions such as:
- What common themes or issues stand out in your journal?
- What situations or strategies seem most successful for you?
- What aspects of writing have caused you the most problems recently? What strategies have helped you deal with these? How well are they working?
- How have your notes and comments about writing changed in the time you have been keeping your journal? What accounts for some of the changes?
- To what extent have you been able to use your analyses and reflections to improve your writing?
When students work on extended projects, have them maintain project records that demonstrate the skills and strategies they are using. For example, they might be required to document and submit evidence of the following:
- definition of the topic or issue
- brainstorming or using other methods to generate initial ideas
- audience analysis
- planning strategy (including research plans where appropriate)
- organized and usable records of information and ideas