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Canadian History since World War I

Course Description

This course explores rights and responsibilities associated with being an active citizen in a democratic society. Students will explore issues of civic importance such as healthy schools, community planning, environmental responsibility, and the influence of social media, while developing their understanding of the role of civic engagement and of political processes in the local, national, and/or global community. Students will apply the concepts of political thinking and the political inquiry process to investigate, and express informed opinions about, a range of political issues and developments that are both of significance in today’s world and of personal interest to them.

Teaching & Learning Strategies:

The Canadian and world studies courses will prepare students for a life of responsible citizenship in which they think critically about events, developments and issues in their daily lives. In the politics courses, the goal is to help students develop a sense of responsibility. At their own pace, students will work towards:

  • developing an understanding of how to influence change within the diverse communities to which they belong, and of how individuals and groups can participate in action that promotes change;

  • analysing current political issues, and assessing methods and processes that can be used to influence relevant political systems to act for the common good;

  • assessing the power and influence of different people involved in civic issues, using political perspective;

  • developing a respect and appreciation for different points of view on various political issues.

Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting Strategies of Student Performance:

Our theory of assessment and evaluation follows the Ministry of Education's Growing Success document, and it is our firm belief that doing so is in the best interests of students. We seek to design assessment in such a way as to make it possible to gather and show evidence of learning in a variety of ways to gradually release responsibility to the students, and to give multiple and varied opportunities to reflect on learning and receive detailed feedback.

Growing Success articulates the vision the Ministry has for the purpose and structure of assessment and evaluation techniques. There are seven fundamental principles that ensure best practices and procedures of assessment and evaluation by Virtual High School teachers. DHS assessments and evaluations,

  • are fair, transparent, and equitable for all students;

  • support all students, including those with special education needs, those who are learning the language of instruction (English or French), and those who are First Nation, Métis, or Inuit;

  • are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and, as much as possible, to the interests, learning styles and preferences, needs, and experiences of all students;

  • are communicated clearly to students and parents at the beginning of the course and at other points throughout the school year or course;

  • are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning;

  • provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to support improved learning and achievement;

  • develop students’ self-assessment skills to enable them to assess their own learning, set specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning.

For a full explanation, please refer toGrowing Success.

The Final Grade:

The evaluation for this course is based on the student's achievement of curriculum expectations and the demonstrated skills required for effective learning. The final percentage grade represents the quality of the student's overall achievement of the expectations for the course and reflects the corresponding level of achievement as described in the achievement chart for the discipline. A credit is granted and recorded for this course if the student's grade is 50% or higher. The final grade will be determined as follows:

  • 70% of the grade will be based upon evaluations conducted throughout the course. This portion of the grade will reflect the student's most consistent level of achievement throughout the course, although special consideration will be given to more recent evidence of achievement.

  • 30% of the grade will be based on final evaluations administered at the end of the course. The final assessment may be a final exam, a final project, or a combination of both an exam and a project.

The Report Card:

Student achievement will be communicated formally to students via an official report card. Report cards are issued at the midterm point in the course, as well as upon completion of the course. Each report card will focus on two distinct, but related aspects of student achievement. First, the achievement of curriculum expectations is reported as a percentage grade. Additionally, the course median is reported as a percentage. The teacher will also provide written comments concerning the student's strengths, areas for improvement, and next steps. Second, the learning skills are reported as a letter grade, representing one of four levels of accomplishment. The report card also indicates whether an OSSD credit has been earned. Upon completion of a course, DHS will send a copy of the report card back to the student's home school (if in Ontario) where the course will be added to the ongoing list of courses on the student's Ontario Student Transcript. The report card will also be sent to the 

student's home address.

Consideration for program planning

Students learn best when they are engaged in a variety of ways of learning. Guidance and career education courses lend themselves to a wide range of approaches in that they require students to research, think critically, work cooperatively, discuss relevant issues, and learn through practice in a variety of settings. Helping students become self-directed, lifelong learners is a fundamental aim of the guidance and career education curriculum. When students are engaged in active and experiential learning strategies, they tend to retain knowledge for longer periods and develop meaningful skills. Active and experiential learning strategies also enable students to apply their knowledge and skills to real-life issues and situations. 

ANTIDISCRIMINATION EDUCATION IN GUIDANCE AND CAREER EDUCATION

Classroom teachers are the key educators of students who have special education needs. They have a responsibility to help all students learn, and they work collaboratively with special education teachers, where appropriate, to achieve this goal. Special Education Transformation: The Report of the Co-Chairs with the Recommendations of the Working Table on Special Education, 2006 endorses a set of beliefs that should guide program planning for students with special education needs in all disciplines. Those beliefs are as follows: All students can succeed. Universal design and differentiated instruction are effective and interconnected means of meeting the learning or productivity needs of any group of students. Successful instructional practices are founded on evidence-based research, tempered by experience.

PROGRAM CONSIDERATIONS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Ontario schools have some of the most multilingual student populations in the world. The first language of approximately 20 per cent of the students in Ontario’s English language schools is a language other than English. Ontario’s linguistic heritage includes several Aboriginal languages; many African, Asian, and European languages; and some varieties of English, such as Jamaican Creole. Many English language learners were born in Canada and raised in families and communities in which languages other than English were spoken, or in which the variety of English spoken differed significantly from the English of Ontario classrooms. Other English language learners arrive in Ontario as newcomers from other countries; they may have experience of highly sophisticated educational systems, or they may have come from regions where access to formal schooling was limited. When they start school in Ontario, many of these students are entering a new linguistic and cultural environment.

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