B.C. Foundations English Level 3

ORAL LANGUAGE (Speaking and Listening) It is expected that students will: A1 engage in conversations in order to – clearly express ideas and feelings – share experiences about their lives – display effective listening techniques (e.g., eyes on speaker, ask clarifying questions, appropriate body language) – clarify ideas in response to feedback from others – respond to the ideas of others A2 revise words and phrases during conversation in order to – speak in correct simple and compound sentences – achieve fluency in pronunciation, enunciation, and intonation A3 demonstrate an understanding of others’ ideas and instructions by – participating in a variety of classroom discussions (e.g., teacher-facilitated and peer-led) – verbally responding to open-ended questions – verbally describing the main points of classroom discussions – following simple and complex verbal instructions

READING AND VIEWING It is expected that students will: B1 read a minimum of 300 high-frequency words (e.g., words that recur often in materials that students are reading, such as why, first, because, does) B2 read and demonstrate an understanding of a range of texts, including authentic First Peoples texts and texts from a variety of cultures B3 read and demonstrate an understanding of a range of literary texts from a variety of genres and forms (e.g., poems, short stories, plays, folk tales, legends, adventure, humour, science fiction, historical fiction, biographies, speeches) B4 read and demonstrate an understanding of the content presented in a variety of simple informational texts (e.g., diagrams, charts, maps, timetables, instruction manuals) B5 view and demonstrate an understanding of the meaning conveyed by a variety of visual texts (e.g., illustrations, diagrams, posters, broadcast media, films, videos) B6 read just-right texts for enjoyment and skill development (Note: Just-right texts are not so challenging that the student is solely occupied with decoding and not so easy that the student is unlikely to learn anything new.) B7 before reading and viewing, make meaning from texts by – setting a purpose – generating questions (e.g., asking questions related to and going beyond the text) – accessing prior knowledge to make connections B8 during reading and viewing, construct meaning from texts by – describing emerging ideas and points of view – using syntactic and context cues to guide and inform their understanding (e.g., use knowledge of grammar, word order, and sentence structure to guide and inform their understanding of the text) – using text features to locate information and support comprehension (e.g., diagrams, headings, bold and italicized words, table of contents) – recognizing literary elements (e.g., plot, conflict, character, setting) – identifying genre and form (e.g., folk tales, legends, autobiography, historical fiction, essay, article, documentary, web page, short story, novel, poem) – distinguishing between literal definition and figurative meaning and identifying idiomatic expressions (e.g., “That was a piece of cake.”) – making inferences (e.g., about characters’ feelings or story problems) – drawing conclusions (e.g., make connections between cause and effect) B9 after reading and viewing, develop their understanding of the meaning conveyed in texts by – rereading or “re-viewing” to gain deeper understanding – paraphrasing the main ideas and points of view – generating and responding to questions – describing their interpretations – discussing their interpretations with others – locating text features (e.g., diagrams, headings, bold and italicized words, diagrams, drawings, chapter titles) that support their interpretation B10 expand their vocabulary by – sounding out unfamiliar words (e.g., based on knowledge of letter-sound relationships) – using common root words, prefixes, and suffixes – with assistance, using parts of speech (e.g., nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections) – using a dictionary and thesaurus

WRITING AND REPRESENTING It is expected that students will: C1 communicate meaning by using conventions of writing and representing (i.e., generally accepted mechanics of language) such as – simple and compound sentences – capitalization and punctuation (e.g., commas, apostrophes, end punctuation, contractions, possessives, irregular verbs, plurals) – subject-verb agreement – pronoun-antecedent agreement – past and present tenses, including simple and progressive – attempting regular spelling for frequently used words (e.g., phonically regular, three-syllable words; Canadian spelling of familiar words; spelling of unfamiliar words by applying generalizations; developing strategies for frequently misspelled words, such as using a dictionary or word wall) C2 write narrative and descriptive paragraphs (e.g., minimum of five sentences) that include – a main idea – a topic sentence – ideas that are developed through the use of supporting details – connected and sequenced details – complete simple and compound sentences – correct spelling and use of grammar C3 write a variety of texts in prose and verse (e.g., journals, stories, memoirs, personal letters, poems) that include – a main idea and supporting details – connected and sequenced details – correct spelling and use of grammar – a range of word choices to reflect intended meaning C4 create visual representations (e.g., collages, diagrams, posters, multimedia presentations) to construct and convey meaning by – presenting ideas in clear, focused, and relevant ways – organizing content so that key ideas are evident C5 generate and organize ideas for writing and representing by – listing criteria (e.g., teacher- or class-generated) that writing must meet – setting a purpose for writing – brainstorming ideas – organizing ideas (e.g., point-form notes, lists, charts, webs, clusters, illustrations) C6 during writing and representing, use drafting and composing strategies (e.g., draw on information from a variety of sources, use models to assist in understanding form, share and proof work in progress, refer to established criteria) C7 revise and edit writing by – checking work against established criteria – proofreading for conventions such as grammar and usage, capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and word choice

EVIDENCE OF THINKING It is expected that students will: D1 with assistance, reflect on and assess their speaking and listening by – referring to criteria (e.g., self- and teacher-generated rubrics and checklists) – setting realistic short- and long-term goals for improvement (e.g., “I ask clarifying questions to ensure that I understand others’ ideas.”) – creating a plan for achieving goals (e.g., “I will volunteer to summarize class discussions at least once per class for the next week.”) – evaluating progress and setting new goals (e.g., “I am able to correct myself more often when I mispronounce a word.”) D2 with assistance, reflect on and assess their reading and viewing by – referring to criteria (e.g., self- and teacher-generated rubrics and checklists) – setting realistic short- and long-term goals for improvement (e.g., “I will read three different types of text.”) – creating a plan for achieving goals (e.g., “I will visit the library and select a folk tale, mystery and book of poems to bring to class.”) – evaluating progress and setting new goals (e.g., “I need to continue to work on choosing books that are at my reading level and that are interesting to me.”) D3 with assistance, reflect on and assess their writing and representing by – referring to criteria (e.g., self- and teacher-generated rubrics and checklists) – setting realistic short- and long-term goals for improvement (e.g., “I will write a paragraph about my work goals.”) – creating a plan for achieving goals (e.g., “I need to work on writing compound sentences, so I will practise rewriting simple sentences into compound sentences.” – evaluating progress and setting new goals (e.g., “I am getting better at using contractions in my writing.”)

Sources: http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/literacy_foundations/2010literacyfoundations_ela.pdf