Grade 9 - Self and Society (Building Community)

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 use language to help establish and maintain relationships within the school and community, to collaborate to get things done, and to value and support others.

It is expected that students will:

interact purposefully, confidently, and appropriately in a variety of situations
analyse the influence of language and cultural diversity on themselves and their communities
use language to participate appropriately in celebrations of special events and accomplishments

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Self and Society (Building Community) in other grades click on an icon below.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Students learn about themselves and others by exploring the use of language in their community and by using language to analyse, acknowledge, and value other viewpoints.

Have students select an issue that relates to multicultural acceptance in their school or the larger community and create effective posters for display on bulletin boards in the school halls, library, or ESL classroom.
Arrange to have students interview other students who are new to Canada about their cultures, immigration experiences, and feelings about Canada. Have the class generate the interview questions, including questions that ask what they can do to help these students feel comfortable in their new country. After the interviews, ask students to write about and then discuss what they discovered about the immigrant experience and about learning English. Suggest that students then read some of the literature about immigration and compare and contrast the experiences of the students they interviewed with those of the characters they read about.
Have students monitor their use of gender-neutral and gender-inclusive language.
To expand their use of language in a variety of situations, expose students to situations such as speaking or debating in school or district contests, leading student pep rallies, speaking at athletic and academic awards ceremonies, or making presentations at school-leaving ceremonies (e.g., a "roast" of the year's events for their own grade or class, a slide and oral presentation of their class for that school year).

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Students demonstrate their openness, respect, and competence by the way they speak and respond to their classmates in day-to-day activities and discussions, as well as when they are asked to focus on these outcomes. During discussions about literature or mass media, they reveal the extent to which they accept and value diversity in culture, language, opinions, and perspectives. Self- and peer assessment can play an important role in monitoring and extending each student's development.

When students develop posters about multicultural acceptance, have them write brief summaries that include:
- what they are trying to accomplish in their presentations
- how their personal experiences influenced the ideas in the posters
- how they used the information from their interviews
- their degree of satisfaction with their posters
- notes about anything new they learned or realized as they worked on the project
- what they did to guard against stereotyping
Have students document examples (one each) of how they applied their interaction skills in each of the following situations:
- solving a problem with someone in a position of authority over them
- supporting a peer who was trying to accomplish a particular goal
- locating information that was hard to find
- celebrating a family or community occasion
Their documentation of each situation should include a brief description in words or pictures, a list of the skills or strategies they demonstrated, and an assessment of their effectiveness. Students might want to develop a standard recording form. Look for evidence that they are able to interact confidently in a variety of situations.