Navigating Ontario's Curriculum
Everything you need to know about Ontario's Curriculum.
What is the Ontario Curriculum?
Everything students in Ontario schools are taught is founded in the Ministry of Education's Curriculum. This interactive flyer is meant to breakdown the Ontario Curriculum in a more comprehensive way and allow parents, teachers and other community members to gain a deeper understanding of the Ontario Curriculum. For the purposes of this informational tool, only the Ministry of Education's Curriculum for the Elementary level will be discussed and elaborated upon.
Curriculum policy documents identify what students must know and be able to do at the end of every grade or course in every subject in Ontario publicly funded schools. The following sections will address questions that may arise while investgating the curriculum documents and help members of the community gain a better understanding of the purposes of these documents.
Where Can I Access the Curriculum Documents?
The Ministry Curriculum Documents can be accessed in a variety of ways. The most convenient would be to go to the Ministry of Education website and search for the Curriculum Documents there. In this way, the documents can be searched for both by grade level as well as by subject. A link to this website, specifically where the Curriculum is arranged by subject matter, can be found here:
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/subjects.html
Another way to access the Curriculum Documents is by obtaining physical copies of these documents. According to the Ministry of Education’s website, requests for print publications can be through ServiceOntario Publications (a link to that information can be found here: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/publications/).
How Are The Curriculum Documents Organized?
Although these documents can seem daunting at first, once the reader becomes familiar with their organization and format, they can be easily navigated and used as a quick reference guide for everyone involved in the education system. The Ontario Curriculum Documents are generally made up of three components:
1. an introductory section which details foundational information about the curriculum itself and how it relates to policies within the Ministry of Education;
2. a section which outlines all the overall and specific expectations in the subject that students in each grade level are expected to achieve upon completion of each grade; and
3. a section on additional supports which are laid out to help with the implementation of the curriculum across the province.
All three of the previously mentioned sections are further broken down into subsections which offer more details of the curriculum and where to go in to the document to find them. Within the Introduction section of each subject, there are subsections which discuss the importance of the subject, principles of the curriculum, roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in the education system, strategies for evaluation and assessment of the curriculum expectations, as well as considerations for planning for the diversity of needs within the classrooms. The expectations section of the document is divided by grade level, and then even further divided into overall and specific expectations within each strand of the curriculum at each grade level. Finally, after the overview of the curriculum, there is a Glossary section which is a list of definitions and examples that is intended to help teachers and parents use the document effectively.
What do all These New Words Mean?
Now, you are probably wondering about a few terms that you may not have heard before. Specifically, what do strand, overall and specific expectations, evaluation and assessment mean? Here we will shine some light onto these terms in order to offer a better understanding of what these curriculum documents are really talking about.
As previously mentioned, the Ontario Curriculum Documents are divided by subject. There are nine Curriculum Documents that are available in Ontario:
- The Arts
- French as a Second Language
- Health and Physical Education
- The Kindergarten Program
- Language
- Mathematics
- Native Languages
- Science and Technology
- Social Studies
Within each subject, as well as each grade level, there are both overall expectations and specific expectations which Ontario’s students are expected to meet upon completing each grade level. The overall expectations can be thought of as the knowledge or skills students will need to acquire or the main learning goals within each subject or strand. The specific expectations then describe the expected knowledge and skills in further detail, offering specific examples of what the achievement of this knowledge and these skills will look like. The specific expectations also help guide teachers when they are designing their lessons to ensure that there is a learning standard across the province.
Once teachers have designed and conducted their lessons, they need to then evaluate and assess their students’ learning and understanding of the concepts and material. According to the Ontario Mathematics Curriculum, assessment is the process of gathering information from a variety of sources that reflects how well a student is achieving the specific and overall curriculum expectations (19). Evaluation and assessment are based on provincial standards and achievement levels which will be discussed further into this document.
Who is Responsible for the Creation of Curriculum Documents?
The Curriculum Documents are made and distributed by the Ontario Ministry of Education. To create these documents, the Ministry has established a review cycle to ensure that the curriculum remains current and reflects appropriate learning strategies and processes. As stated by the Ministry of Education’s website, an ongoing cyclical review process was established in 2003. This does not mean that the curriculum is completely rewritten and all old curriculum expectations are overridden. Instead, the review committee synthesizes data collected through targeted research from experts, focus-groups, consultations, and benchmarking processes to ensure that Ontario’s curriculum is on par with other curricula across Canada and around the world. Once this analysis has been conducted, new drafts of the curriculum are created and revised until they are ready for publication. Once the revised publications are released, board teams and stakeholders are invited to workshops and informational learning sessions about the new curriculum.
What Key Ideas Drive the Design and Implementation of Ontario's Curriculum?
As we now know, curriculum documents are meant to identify what students must know and be able to do at the end of every grade level in every subject. These documents represent a provincial standard, meaning that all students across the province of Ontario are receiving instruction in the same subjects and strands, and they are all expected to be able to do the same things. One of the key ideas central to the design of the curriculum documents is just this: cohesion and continuity. Programs are delivered all across the province with the same learning goals and desired outcomes in mind, which is incredibly beneficial for the future learning of all of Ontario’s students.
Another central idea that can be interpreted is the perspective that all students can learn all subjects, and learning can be done in a variety of different ways. In the Mathematics curriculum, the Ministry clearly states that everyone can learn math. Math is a fundamental subject which equips students with skills they will need to be critical of the world around them and productive members of society. The Ministry of Education further acknowledges that not everyone learns math in the same way, and so multiple strategies should be in place to allow students the opportunity to learn in ways that best suit their individual styles and needs. The document is then further designed to offer guidance to parents and teachers in how lessons can be designed to meet multiple learning styles as well as modifications and accommodations that can be made for this same reason. Overall, the curriculum is designed to be a guide to allow all students, no matter what their specific needs, the opportunity to learn.
How do Overall Expectations and Specific Expectations Drive Lesson Design?
As we have already learned, overall expectations in the curriculum are the umbrella ideas that lay out the knowledge and skills students will need to acquire to complete the program or subject in their specific grade. The specific expectations describe this knowledge in greater detail, such as the processes the students will go through to meet the overall expectations. The processes learnt through the specific expectations will help the students apply their knowledge to meet the overall expectations.
This being said, it is up to the teacher to create lessons which are designed to give the students the knowledge and skills they will need to be meet all the necessary expectations. Teachers must be familiar with all the specific expectations in each subject for the desired grade level, and then generate learning experiences for their students which target those specific expectations.
Let’s take the Social Studies curriculum for example (for the purpose of this example the Grade 2 curriculum expectations will be discussed). Within Social Studies, there are two strands (areas of study) that students will learn about:
1. Heritage and Identity, and
2. People and Environments.
By the end of Grade 2, students learning about Heritage and Identity will be able to:
1. compare some significant traditions and celebrations amongst diverse groups of people,
2. investigate some of the past and present traditions and celebrations within their own family, and
3. describe some of the major groups in their community, including different types of families and their heritages and traditions.
Teachers must then consider ways in which they can provide the opportunities for their students to learn the knowledge and skills they need to meet these overall expectations. They can look to the specific expectations for greater details about how the overall expectations can be met, as well as for sample questions which they can use to direct their teaching. Every time an activity is planned, the teacher should ask the question, “How will this activity or learning opportunity allow the students to meet the expectations of this strand/subject?” If this is done, when it comes time for evaluation and assessment, students can be confident they have been given all the necessary tools to demonstrate what they have learnt.
How is Student Learning Assessed and Evaluated?
The primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning. Evaluation gives students an opportunity to demonstrate not only what they have learned, but also how well they have learned what is required and expected of them. Because the Ontario Curriculum is standard across the province, it can be expected that the processes and categories for evaluation are also standardized.
Within all Curriculum Documents, the same categories for evaluation exist. These four categories are:
- Knowledge and Understanding,
- Thinking,
- Application, and
- Communication
Using the achievement chart, teachers can then generate evaluation rubrics of their own, which they can align with these four categories. Some ways in which teachers are expected to assess learning are as follows:
1. assessments should address both what the students learn and how well they learn it,
2. they should be varied in nature and administered over a period of time,
3. they should be appropriate to the learning the students have completed,
4. they should be fair to all students,
5. they should ensure that students are given clear direction for improvement, and
6. they should be clearly communicated to students and parents at both the beginning of the school year, as well as throughout the year when appropriate.
How do Teachers Use the Curriculum Documents to Design Lessons Which Meet the Needs of All Learners?
In one of the early sections, the curriculum documents state important ideas about the roles and responsibilities of all people and groups involved in the education process. These people and groups include: Students, Parents, Teachers and Principals. Within the Teachers section specifically, there are clear considerations teachers need to make when thinking about their lessons and how to ensure all students meet all expectations. Teachers must bring enthusiasm and a variety of teach strategies into their classrooms. They need to address all student needs and ensure sound learning opportunities for all students. Teachers must also use a variety of instructional, assessment and evaluation strategies to ensure all students have the opportunities to develop their individual abilities.
The curriculum documents also include a section entitled: “Some Considerations for Program Planning in (Subject)”. This section sheds light on areas that need to be considered when planning lessons and assessment strategies, such as the ways students learn, how to foster a positive attitude to the subject matter, how to integrate a variety of subjects across the curriculum into similar learning situations, as well as planning considerations for students with individual needs within the classroom.
In addition, there is also a section which refers to considerations for English as a Second Language/English Literacy Developement learners within each curriculum. This section will help prepare teachers to be more culturally responsive in their teaching styles and ideologies. Classrooms are incredibly diverse places, where students have diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In addition to perhaps modifying the language used, teachers need to also incorporate visual displays which can be understood through a variety of cultures, as well as a variety of learning resources and evaluation strategies.
Conclusion
References
Achievement Chart: http://www.hwdsb.on.ca/westdale/files/2010/10/Achievement-Charts2.pdf
Curriculum Wordle: http://www.vwmin.org/ontario-curriculum-arts-ontario-ministry-of-education.html
Ontario Ministry of Education Image: http://www.ohhfa.ca/Ontario_Curriculum_-_2014.php
The Ontario Curriculum: Language, Grades 1 to 8, 2006.
The Ontario Curriculum: Mathematics, Grades 1 to 8, 2005.
The Ontario Curriculum: Social Studies, Grades 1 to 6; History and Geography, Grades 7 and 8, 2013.
The Ontario Ministry of Education (2009), retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/elementary.html