The Canadian and World Studies courses 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;
• analyzing 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 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:

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:

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  • 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

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  • 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.