ENGLISH LITERATURE
English Language Arts is a foundational curriculum that empowers students with the literacy skills required for their success in school, life, and career. Students encouraged to develop a lifelong love of reading writing, and to appreciate the beauty of the English language.
Through the curriculum, students are expected to hone the ability to communicate, both on a local and global level, using information from a wide variety of sources. This also includes day-to-day skills, e.g. Evaluation of digital media, a vital skill in the modern, social media driven society. Alongside, students also become more understanding about the influences shaping the modern Canadian society and our distinctive bond with our countries first peoples.
Throughout students’ thirteen years of learning, they are expected to:
· Become knowledgeable users of language to achieve personal, social and career goals
· Appreciate the English language as a lifelong method of joy and passion
· Be able to critically and creatively think about the language as part of creating and communicating emotion
· Be capable of adapting to new tools of the language, and becoming critical and ethical users of social media
· Extend their knowledge of the history of the first peoples, and in parallel, contribute to reconciliation.
· Appreciate the power of the language, and furthermore, wield that power to design and share information interpersonally, interculturally, and throughout the world.
After students have reached grade 10. They have the decision to choose the standard English 10-12 to build a further understating on the knowledge and skills acquired, or the academically equivalent English First Peoples, a path that provides students to enter the worlds of the First peoples of Canada both locally and globally.
The English language arts curriculum utilises the same format as other subjects, namely the Know-Do-Understand model – Students are to learn through Content (Know) Curricular Competencies (Do) and Big Ideas (Understand).
Big ideas are the principles discovered through experiencing the content and curricular competencies (Know and Do). Big Ideas in English reflect various important concepts, including strategies, identity, perspectives, connection building, and cultural awareness. Big Ideas throughout the learning journey are:
K&1 – Sharing unique stories,
3 – Stories can be understood from different perspectives,
4&5 – Texts can be understood from different perspectives,
6&7 – Exploring and sharing multiple perspectives can extend our thinking,
10-12 - people can (mis)understand text differently.
Depending on their worldviews and
perspectives. Texts are socially, culturally, geographically, and historically constructed.
Content is the knowledge students gain during their journey through various grades of ELA; it is what is expected of students. This includes:
- Poetic & figurative language, sound play, images, color, and symbols in grade 1,
- Descriptive, poetic, figurative languages, images & imagery, rhythm & rhyme, similes and alliterations in grade 3,
-In grade 4-8: Literary elements - theme, character, setting, plot, conflict, purpose, and Literary devices – sensory detail and figurative language,
- Implementing various literary devices, including figurative language, according to purpose and audience in grades 10-12.
The curricular competencies the possible usages of the knowledge that students gain from ELA courses. The curricuar competency learning standards emphasises the fact that ELA is a process-driven area of learning, where students develop as they engage with language and texts. This focus shows how the primary goal of ELA is to ultimately enable guide students to effectively use and create content. Students also learn to listen, communicate, present information and ideas, and connect between language and culture. Curricular Competencies in ELA include:
- Recognizing story structures in Kindergarten,
- Understanding benefits from stories and texts in Grade 4,
- Exploring stories and text help to make connections to others in the world in grade 4,
- How exploration of text and stories deepen our understanding of diverse and complex ideas about people and places around the world in grades 10-12.
As of the most recent staff report available online (2024), there are eight certified English teachers teaching at RC Palmer, namely:
- Mrs. V. Berda @ 103 teaching English,
- Mrs. M. Calaciura @ 102 teaching English and Social Studies,
- Ms. A. Cheng @ 118 teaching English and Social Studies,
- Mr. P. Hundal @ 134 teaching English and ELL,
- Ms. M. Luccock @ 201 teaching English,
- Ms. R. Mashkoor @ 104 teaching English and Social Studies,
- Mr. E. Pablico @ 205 teaching English and Social Studies,
- Mr. P. Yu @ 208 teaching English and Social Studies.
Interview Questions with Ms.Morit
Q: What is the funnest thing about English?
You get to [inaudible], you get to talk about your ideas, different books, movies, and anything that [inaudible]
Q: What is the hardest thing about English?
Grammar
Q: What does a typical lesson in English look like in your room?
A typical lesson is learning about technique, or some sort of common things we see in stories and
poetry
Q: What are the novels you recommend?
For high school: classics like: Animal Farm, Shakespeare, or newer books like dystopian or
fantasy novels
Q: What is the easiest thing about English?
If you talk a lot and you love to talk, then the course would be pretty easy for you
Q: Why is English such an important subject?
It's important because we use it every day, even after high school.
Q: Why is English taught in so many foreign countries as the 2nd language?
It's because [the] English are probably one of the most strongest countries that colonized the world. Thats my best guess
Q: What benefits does English have compared to other languages?
There are millions of people around the world that speak english, most standard anguages are english, so even if you speak a different language, english tends to be in many different places.
Q: What disadvantages does English have compared to other languages?
It's actually probably one of the hardest languages to learn, it just doesn't have a lot of rules, so a lot of languages like spanish and french and japanese, once you learn the rules it’s really easy to learn. When it comes to English, it just never really follows its own rules, and so I would say that's a huge difficulty at least in learning English.
Q: Is there any compensation for the disadvantages?
Theres no a lot of disadvantages, i would say; learning a language is always good for you, but only knowing english, for a lot of people, is [inaudible]
Q: What's the most boring thing about English?
Reading a really boring book. I tell my students all the time “You get to choose what you read, find something you love to read.” People say they don't read, that's not true, you read everyday! You just don't read things you like to read.