| Course Type : | Open |
| Credit Value : | 0.5 |
| Prerequisite : | None |
Course Description
Civics and Citizenship Grade 10: 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.
Outline of Course Content
Unit
Titles and Descriptions
Time and Sequence
Unit 1
Civics: Issues and Ideas
Civics is the study of how people use politics, laws, words and actions to govern themselves. But, what is politics?What are laws? What is government? What do they all have to do with each other? This unit deals with the theory behind civics, defining and describing the origin of government, the different types of law, and the role of people in their creation and maintenance
19 hours
Unit 2
Canadian Context
With a solid understanding of what laws and governments are, we will next turn to the complex ways in which they are determined in Canada, federal, provincially and municipally. We will consider how things are now, and evaluate alternative approaches. We’ll pay special attention to how all Canadians help to make laws and governments work every day.
23 hours
Unit 3
Global Context
Canada is one country among many on the planet, and so Canadian attitudes and responses to the world speak loudly about Canada’s identity and values. In this final unit, we’ll consider some of Canada’s responses to challenges and changes around the globe. We’ll evaluate Canada’s participation in a number of international organizations. Finally, we’ll analyse what it means to be a global citizen in today’s world.
11.5 hours
Final Evaluation
This is a proctored exam worth 30% of your final grade.
1.5 hours
Total
55 hours
Civics and Citizenship Grade 10: 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.
Some of the teaching and learning strategies that are suitable to material taught in guidance and career education include cooperative small-group learning, one-on-one teaching, guided learning, personal reflection, role playing, simulations, case-study analysis, presentations, and tasks involving real workplace materials, experiential learning, and independent study. Teachers must provide a wide range of activities and assignments that promote mastery of basic concepts and development of inquiry/research skills.
Assessment and evaluation will follow the Ministry of Education’s Growing Success document. Assessment is a systematic process of collecting information or evidence about a student’s progress towards meeting the learning expectations. Assessment is embedded in the instructional activities throughout a unit. The expectations for the assessment tasks are clearly articulated and the learning activity is planned to make that demonstration possible. This process of beginning with the end in mind helps to keep focus on the expectations of the course. The purpose of assessment is to gather the data or evidence and to provide meaningful feedback to the student about how to improve or sustain the performance in the course. Scaled criteria designed as rubrics are often used to help the student to recognize their level of achievement and to provide guidance on how to achieve the next level. Although assessment information can be gathered from a number of sources (the student himself, the student’s course mates, the teacher), evaluation is the responsibility of only the teacher. For evaluation is the process of making a judgment about the assessment information and determining the percentage grade or level.
The assessment will be based on the following processes that take place in the classroom:
| Assessment FOR Learning | Assessment AS Learning | Assessment OF Learning |
|---|---|---|
|
During this process the teacher seeks information from the students in order to decide where the learners are and where they need to go. |
During this process the teacher fosters the capacity of the students and establishes individual goals for success with each one of them. |
During this process the teacher reports student’s results in accordance to established criteria to inform how well students are learning. |
| Conversation | Conversation | Conversation |
|
Classroom discussion Self-evaluation Peer assessment |
Classroom discussion Small group discussion Post-lab conferences | Presentations of research Debates |
| Observation | Observation | Observation |
| Drama workshops (taking direction) Steps in problem solving | Group discussions | Presentations Group Presentations |
| Student Products | Student Products | Student Products |
| Reflection journals (to be kept throughout the duration of the course) Check Lists Success Criteria |
Practice sheets Socrative quizzes |
Projects Poster presentations Tests In Class Presentations |
The evaluation of this course is based on the four Ministry of Education achievement categories of knowledge and understanding (25%), thinking (25%), communication (25%), and application (25%). . The evaluation for this course is based on the student’s achievement of curriculum expectations and the demonstrated skills required for effective learning.
The 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 for this course 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 a final exam administered at the end of the The exam will contain a summary of information from the course and will consist of well-formulated multiple choice questions. These will be evaluated using a checklist
Textbook
- Civics and Citizenship, Grade 10, Open
- McGraw-Hill Ryerson Civics in Action: In Your Communities, Across Canada, and Globally © 2014.
Potential Resources
- Teacher Supplied Resources: Various Internet sites, source readings and DVD documentaries.