English Language Arts, Secondary 4

Use: Draws on needed background knowledge and experiences

I can find and use background on when, where and for whom a text was written, so I can read it critically.

Use: Produces a coherent first reading/initial response to a text

I can write a clear first response to a text that says what I think it is doing and points to the details that made me think so.

Use: Identifies characteristics of writer/producer and how this influences the purpose of the text

I can find out who made a text and explain how their values and situation shape what the text says and how I should read it.

Use: Selects a mode and genre that conveys own interpretation to advantage

I can choose the form, such as an essay, an illustrated journal or a video, that shows my interpretation of a text to best advantage.

Use: Analyzes how the text attempts to attract and hold the reader’s attention

I can explain the techniques a text uses to catch and keep my attention, and point to where they work or stop working.

Use: How the meaning/message is represented and communicated

I can study a model text to see how it gets its message across, and use that to decide how to represent the message in my own text.

Use: Level of formality of the discourse (i.e. its register)

I can judge how formal a model text is and choose the right level of formality for my own audience and purpose.

Use: Aspects of the writer’s/producer’s stance and how these influence readers (e.g. intent, ideology, values, beliefs)

I can identify the intent, values and beliefs behind a text, explain how they influence readers, and decide the stance my own text will take.

Use: Uses structures, features, codes and conventions of a specific text to communicate clearly

I can use the working parts of a genre, such as its structure, headings, layout and conventions, to make my message clear and strong.

Use: Uses knowledge about spoken and/or written and/or media modes and genres to make production decisions

I can choose and combine spoken, written and media modes so my text has the strongest impact on its audience.

Use: Uses rhetorical strategies and different registers in context

I can choose rhetorical strategies and registers that fit the moment, such as an active voice for urgency or a plain sentence for emphasis.

Use: Respects constraints of the media industry (e.g. length, ideology, copyright, layout)

I can produce a media text that fits its length and layout, respects copyright and suits the outlet's values.

Use: Effectiveness of technology used

I can judge how well the technology in my draft works and fix it, for example by rerecording unclear narration or retiming slides.

Use: Use of stylistic conventions for specific effect

I can check whether the stylistic choices in my draft, like a sound effect or an exaggeration, create the effect I intended, and adjust them.

Use: Proofreads draft/version for continuity

I can proofread my work for continuity, so characters, colours, terms and formatting stay consistent from start to finish.

Use: Selects the most effective way to present the text to intended/target audience

I can choose how to deliver a finished text so it reaches my audience in the way that suits them best.

Use: Uses the appropriate codes and conventions to present the text

I can present my text using the codes the occasion calls for, such as the right register, opening, posture and visuals.

Use: Manages resources in a presentation (e.g. checks that software is compatible, CDs are cued up)

I can prepare and check all the resources for my presentation so the technology supports it instead of interrupting it.

Use: Uses a metalanguage to explain production decisions

I can explain the choices I made in a production using the right terms, such as symbolism, framing, register and pacing.

Use: Uses action research to effect social change

I can use action research to try to improve something in my school or community, measuring what happens and adjusting my plan.

Use: Selects a research protocol depending on purpose, context and inquiry process

I can choose a quantitative or qualitative method, and plan it before collecting data, to suit the question I am researching.

Use: Develops a system to keep track of data/information as s/he researches (e.g. notebook, bibliographic references)

I can set up and keep a research log that records what I found, exactly where I found it, and whether it is a quotation, a paraphrase or my own idea.

Use: Own data collection instruments (e.g. interviews, surveys, questionnaires)

I can design a survey, questionnaire or interview guide that collects the information my question needs, and test it before using it.

Use: Models of planning texts (i.e. outlines for research, storyboards, action plans, proposals)

I can read a model outline, storyboard, action plan or proposal and use it to check what my own plan is missing.

Use: Conferences with peers and teacher (e.g. regarding action plan, outline, getting the ‘green light’)

I can take my plan to a conference with a classmate or my teacher, ask the questions I need answered, and leave with a clear decision.

Use: Action plans and proposals for projects (i.e. for action research and independent units of study)

I can write an action plan with dated steps and a success check, and a proposal that argues for approval.

Use: Visual conventions to articulate the hierarchy and relationships among ideas/actions

I can use webs, arrows, colour coding and layout to show which ideas in my plan matter most and how they connect.

Use: Genre-specific conventions of planning texts (e.g. quotations from the text in an outline for a literary essay)

I can use the conventions each kind of plan needs, such as quotations in a literary essay outline and research resources in an action plan.

Use: Archetypes (e.g. hero, maiden, arch nemesis)

I can recognize archetypes like the hero, the maiden and the arch nemesis, and explain how a story uses or reworks them.

Use: Linear and nonlinear plotting (e.g. flashback, multi-narrative strands, meta-fiction)

I can explain why a story tells events out of order, with flashbacks, several strands or meta-fiction, and use one of these in my own writing.

Use: Features to structure the plot (e.g. series of dramatic monologues in a script; flashbacks throughout a televised crime serial)

I can name the feature that structures a plot, such as a series of monologues or a frame story, and explain what the plot gains from it.

Use: Archetypal and contemporary themes

I can trace an archetypal or contemporary theme through a story and explain what the story says about it.

Use: Connotation and denotation

I can explain the difference between what a word means and what it suggests, and how a writer's word choices shape a story.

Use: Point of view (i.e. first person, second person, third person limited and/or omniscient narrator)

I can identify a story's point of view and explain what it lets me know and what it hides.

Use: Tone and mood

I can name the tone and the mood of a story separately and point to the words that create each.

Use: Repetition and/or juxtaposition of symbols or motifs (e.g. allusion)

I can track a repeated image or symbol through a story, explain how its meaning grows, and say what an allusion brings in.

Use: Multigenre conventions (e.g. emotional appeals (persuasive) and testimonials (narrative) in a pamphlet explaining how to recycle)

I can explain why an explanatory text borrows from other genres, such as a testimonial or an emotional appeal, and use them so they help the explanation.

Use: Multimodal conventions (e.g. use of resources such as blackboard, slideshow, video clips in a spoken explanation)

I can use a board, slides or a video clip to support a spoken explanation, so each one carries what my words cannot.

Use: Research reports on areas of student interest and expertise (e.g. the media, environmental issues, health and well-being)

I can read and write a research report on a topic I know and care about, built around a focused question.

Use: Interviews (e.g. in print, on radio and/or television)

I can explain how an interview changes when it is printed, broadcast on radio or shown on television.

Use: Interviews, including written and/or audio and/or video transcriptions

I can conduct an interview and turn it into a transcript, making fair choices about what to keep, cut and mark.

Use: Feature news stories on topics of local, national and/or international interest

I can write a feature story that draws readers into a topic through a person and a scene, and gives it depth.

Use: Information selected and synthesized to reflect the bias/stance of writer/producer

I can show how the choice of facts in a report reflects its writer's stance, and make my own choices visible to readers.

Use: Evidence to support details, ideas, concepts

I can support every idea in my report with evidence from primary and secondary sources, and draw only the conclusions that evidence supports.

Use: Conclusion(s) which highlight important facts or findings

I can write a report conclusion that pulls the findings together, says what they mean, and recommends what should happen next.

Use: Structure that suits the subject of a feature story

I can choose the structure that fits a feature's subject, such as chronology for a profile or cause and effect for an issue.

Use: Features that give a sense of depth and context

I can give a feature story depth with background, flashback, anecdotes, interviews and research from both sides.

Use: Respect for the production constraints that influence content

I can produce a report that fits its word limit and deadline, respects copyright and suits the outlet.

Use: Media conventions for specific effect (e.g. using camera angle and graphics to convey credibility)

I can explain and use the media conventions that make a report look credible or put viewers on the scene.

Use: Classification and compare/contrast

I can organize a report by classification or by comparison, choosing the one that fits my information.

Use: Features that elucidate/develop the content: paraphrasing, using examples, description, quotations, definitions

I can develop the facts in my report with paraphrase, examples, description, quotations and definitions.

Use: Question and answer (Q & A) structure

I can write a question-and-answer interview with a short introduction, open questions and follow-ups.

Use: Texts dealing with personal and social concerns (i.e. Internet sites, documentary films, speeches)

I can analyze how a persuasive website, documentary or speech about a social concern tries to change my mind.

Use: Reviews (i.e. book and film reviews)

I can write a book or film review that judges the work against clear criteria and ends with a recommendation.

Use: Humour (e.g. bathos, double-entendre, pun, parody, sarcasm)

I can name the kind of humour a persuasive text uses and explain what the joke argues.

Use: Figures of speech (e.g. metonymy, euphemism, oxymoron, hyperbole and understatement)

I can name figures of speech like euphemism and metonymy and explain what each one hides or highlights.

Use: Figurative language (e.g. imagery, metaphor, simile, personification)

I can explain how a metaphor or an image in a persuasive text frames an issue and pushes the reader toward a judgment.

Use: Persuasive techniques such as appeals to basic needs (e.g. ‘fitting in’, ‘luxury and style’, ‘doing good’; emotional appeals such as use of testimonials and sad music)

I can name the need or feeling an ad appeals to, such as belonging or doing good, and explain how the appeal works.

Use: Media conventions such as camera language, layout, colour, sound (jingle, repetition, rhyme, voiceover)

I can analyze how an ad uses camera, layout, colour and sound together to sell.

Use: Manipulation of familiar codes and conventions for specific effect

I can spot when a text bends or borrows a familiar convention, and explain the effect it is after.

Use: Introduction that includes: the title and name of producer of the text being reviewed; an overview of the main topic, genre, critiques and issues raised

I can open a review by naming the work and its maker and giving a short overview, before any judgment.

Use: Content which includes: background on author and context; comparison with other texts in same genre; critique of producer’s decisions

I can build the body of a review with background, comparison and a critique of the decisions the maker made.

Use: Organizational structure that supports the reviewer’s opinion/critique

I can organize a review so its structure supports my verdict.

Use: Conclusion which contains a positive, negative or ambivalent recommendation

I can end a review with a clear recommendation, positive, negative or mixed, that tells readers who the work is for.

Use: Conventions to establish credibility (e.g. informal but expert tone and diction, 1st person point of view)

I can sound credible in a review, with an informal but expert voice and honest first-person evidence.

Use: Debates, formal and informal

I can take part in a formal or informal debate, answering the other side's strongest point directly.

Use: Adapts the rethorical aspects of nonverbal language

I can use eye contact, posture and gestures on purpose to support what I say, for example in a debate.

Use: Uses knowledge of affordances of spoken language

I can use what speech does best, such as pace, pause, emphasis and reacting to my audience, to achieve an effect.

Use: Uses active and passive voice to good effect

I can choose between the active and the passive voice for a purpose, such as the passive voice in a research report.

Use: Uses syntax to suit the genre (e.g. compound-complex in an argument; compound in a descriptive narrative)

I can choose sentence structures that suit the genre I am writing in.

Use: Uses hyphens, dashes, parentheses, ellipses and brackets correctly

I can use hyphens, dashes, parentheses, ellipses and brackets correctly.

Use: Uses punctuation to suit the genre

I can use punctuation the way each genre expects, such as stage directions in parentheses in a play.

Use: Uses appropriate format to cite sources (e.g. Chicago, APA, MLA, UPI, any other recognized style manual)

I can cite every source in the style my subject asks for, with in-text citations that match my reference list.

Use: Demonstrates an extensive, varied vocabulary (i.e. derived from experiences with a range of texts and contexts)

I can use a wide vocabulary to choose the precise word, built from reading many kinds of texts.

Use: Uses specific vocabulary and/or terminology and/or discourses from other disciplines or fields

I can use the terms of other subjects precisely in my writing, and define them when my readers may not know them.

Use: Coverage of same action or event by different media (e.g. a baseball game that airs on radio and television)

I can compare how radio and television cover the same event, and tell which differences come from the medium.

Use: Position an intended/target audience (e.g. prime-time programming is aimed at delivering the target audience to advertisers)

I can explain how a media text puts me in a position, such as a viewer to sell to or a donor to persuade.

Use: Communicate a producer’s stance (e.g. an anti-whaling stance taken by National Geographic in a documentary on whaling)

I can find a producer's stance in a documentary by looking at what it shows, who speaks, and how long it spends on each side.

Use: Situate viewer/listener in a context (e.g. canned laughter in a comedy, sound effects in a car chase scene)

I can explain how sound puts a viewer in a place and tells them how to react, like canned laughter or the screech of tires.

Use: Add depth and/or dimension to a text (e.g. voiceover in a narrative sequence depicting a hazardous voyage by sea in another century)

I can explain how a voiceover or another sound adds a layer of meaning that the pictures do not show.

Use: Establish continuity (e.g. repetitive use of the colour blue in a graphic novel to characterize a protagonist)

I can explain how a repeated colour, symbol or shape ties a media text together and comes to mean something.

Use: Add depth and/or dimension to a text (e.g. camera shot and/or angle that makes a subject appear powerful or threatening)

I can explain how camera angles, shots and colour add meaning to an image.

Use: Explains how symbols and signs connote more or less, respectively, than what they stand for (e.g. the symbol of the Canadian flag; the sign for hazardous materials)

I can explain why a symbol like a flag means more than it shows, while a sign like a hazard symbol is built to mean one thing.

Use: Individuals, groups and cultures (e.g. gendered images in advertising campaigns)

I can analyze how media show people and groups, and notice who is left out.