Area of Learning: ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Grade 10
LITERARY STUDIES 10 (2 credits)
Description
Literary Studies 10 is designed for students who are interested in the literature of a particular era, geographical area, or theme, or in the study of
literature in general. The course allows students to delve more deeply into literature as they explore specific themes, periods, authors, or areas of the
world through literary works in a variety of media. Giving students the choice of a range of literary topics allows them to follow their passion and at the
same time:
• increase their literacy skills through close reading of appropriately challenging texts
• enhance their development of the English Language Arts curricular competencies, both expressive and receptive
• expand their development as educated global citizens
• develop balance and broaden their understanding of themselves and the world
• develop higher-level thinking and learning skills
The following are possible areas of focus in Literary Studies 10:
• genre-specific studies—poetry, short stories, novels, drama, graphic novels, children’s literature
• Canadian literature
• First Peoples texts
• thematic studies
• specific author studies
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Area of Learning: ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS — Literary Studies Grade 10
BIG IDEAS
The exploration of text and People understand Texts are Language Questioning what we
story deepens our text differently socially, culturally, shapes ideas hear, read, and view
understanding of diverse, depending on their geographically, and influences contributes to our ability
complex ideas about identity, world views and and historically others. to be educated and
others, and the world. perspectives. constructed. engaged citizens.
Learning Standards
Curricular Competencies Content
Using oral, written, visual, and digital texts, students are expected individually and Students are expected to know the following:
collaboratively to be able to:
Text forms and genres
Comprehend and connect (reading, listening, viewing)
Text features and structures
• Read for enjoyment and to achieve personal goals
• narrative structures found in
• Recognize and appreciate the role of story, narrative, and oral tradition in expressing First Peoples texts
First Peoples perspectives, values, beliefs, and points of view
• protocols related to ownership of
• Recognize and appreciate the diversity within and across First Peoples societies First Peoples oral texts
as represented in texts
Strategies and processes
• Recognize and appreciate the influence of land/place in First Peoples and other
Canadian texts • reading strategies
• Access information for diverse purposes and from a variety of sources to inform writing • oral language strategies
• Explore the relevance, accuracy, and reliability of texts • metacognitive strategies
• Apply appropriate strategies to comprehend written, oral, visual, and multimodal texts • writing processes
• Recognize and appreciate how different forms, formats, structures, and features of • design processes
texts enhance and shape meaning and impact Language features, structures, and conventions
• Think critically, creatively, and reflectively to explore ideas within, between, • language features
and beyond texts
• elements of style
• Recognize personal, social, and cultural contexts, as well as values and perspectives
• exploration of voice
in texts
• usage and conventions
• Explore how language constructs personal and cultural identities
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Area of Learning: ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS — Literary Studies Grade 10
Learning Standards (continued)
Curricular Competencies Content
• Construct meaningful personal connections between self, text, and world • literary elements and devices
• Identify bias, contradictions, and distortions • literal meaning and inferential meaning
Create and communicate (writing, speaking, representing) • citation techniques
• Respectfully exchange ideas and viewpoints from diverse perspectives to build shared
understanding and extend thinking
• Respond to text in personal, creative, and critical ways
• Assess and refine texts to improve clarity and impact
• Demonstrate speaking and listening skills in a variety of formal and informal contexts
for a range of purposes
• Use writing and design processes to plan, develop, and create engaging and
meaningful texts for a variety of purposes and audiences
• Express and support an opinion with evidence
• Use the conventions of Canadian spelling, grammar, and punctuation proficiently
and as appropriate to the context
• Use acknowledgements and citations to recognize intellectual property rights
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS – Literary Studies
Big Ideas – Elaborations Grade 10
• text: “Text” and “texts” are generic terms referring to all forms of oral, written, visual, or digital communication:
— Oral texts include speeches, poems, plays, oral stories, and songs.
— Written texts include novels, articles, and short stories.
— Visual texts include posters, photographs, and other images.
— Digital texts include electronic forms of all of the above.
— Oral, written, and visual elements can be combined (e.g., in dramatic presentations, graphic novels, films, web pages, advertisements).
• story: Narrative texts, whether real or imagined, that teach us about human nature, motivation, behaviour, and experience, and often reflect a
personal journey or strengthen a sense of identity. They may also be considered the embodiment of collective wisdom. Stories can be oral, written,
or visual and used to instruct, inspire, and entertain listeners and readers.
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS – Literary Studies
Curricular Competencies – Elaborations Grade 10
• strategies: Strategies used will depend on purpose and context. These may include making predictions, asking questions, paraphrasing,
forming images, making inferences, determining importance, identifying themes, and drawing conclusions.
• multimodal texts: texts that combine two or more systems, such as linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial, and that can be delivered
via a variety of media or technologies (e.g., music video, graphic novel, postmodern picture book, close-captioned film)
• forms: Within a type of communication, the writer, speaker, or designer chooses a form based on the purpose of the piece. Common written forms
include narratives; journals; procedural, expository, and explanatory documents; news articles; e-mails; blogs; advertisements; poetry; novels;
and letters.
• formats: refers to the consideration of format choices including layout, sequencing, spacing, topography, and colour
• structures: refers to the way the author organizes text (e.g., cause/effect, compare/contrast, order of importance, chronological sequence,
problem/solution, circular or cyclical)
• features of texts: elements of the text that are not considered the main body, including:
— navigational aids (e.g., table of contents, index, glossary, bibliography, hyperlinks, titles, headings and subheadings, prologue and epilogue,
preface or foreword, captions, footnotes and endnotes)
— illustrations (e.g., inlays, sidebars, photographs, graphs, charts, timelines, maps)
• build shared understanding and extend thinking:
— listening to and receptively responding to feedback
— responding to others’ work with constructive feedback
— being open-minded to divergent viewpoints and perspectives
— asking questions to promote discussion
— inviting others to share their ideas
— being willing to support personal perspectives
— being willing to shift perspective
• refine texts to improve clarity and impact:
— creatively and critically manipulating language for a desired effect
— using techniques such as adjusting diction and form according to audience needs and preferences, using verbs effectively, using repetition
and substitution for effect, maintaining parallelism, adding modifiers, and varying sentence types
• speaking and listening skills:
— Strategies associated with speaking skills may include the conscious use of emotion, pauses, inflection, silence, and emphasis according
to context.
— Strategies associated with listening skills may include receptive body language, eye contact, paraphrasing building on others’ ideas,
asking clarifying questions, and disagreeing respectfully.
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS – Literary Studies
Curricular Competencies – Elaborations Grade 10
• range of purposes: may include to understand, to inquire, to explore, to inform, to interpret, to explain, to take a position, to evaluate, to provoke,
to problem solve, and to entertain
• writing and design processes: There are various writing and/or design processes depending on context, and these may include determining
audience and purpose, generating or gathering ideas, free-writing, making notes, drafting, revising and/or editing, and selecting appropriate
format and layout.
• audiences: Students expand their understanding of the range of real-world audiences. These can include children, peers, community members,
professionals, and local and globally connected digital conversations.
• acknowledgements and citations: includes citing sources in appropriate ways to understand and avoid plagiarism and understanding protocols
that guide use of First Peoples oral texts and other knowledge.
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS – Literary Studies
Content – Elaborations Grade 10
• genres: literary or thematic categories (e.g., adventure, fable, fairy tale, fantasy, folklore, historical, horror, legend, mystery, mythology, picture book,
science fiction, biography, essay, journalism, manual, memoir, personal narrative, speech)
• Text features: elements of the text that are not considered the main body. These may include typography (bold, italics, underlined font), font style,
guide words, key words, titles, diagrams, captions, labels, maps, charts, illustrations, tables, photographs, and sidebars/text boxes.
• narrative structures found in First Peoples texts: (e.g., circular, iterative, cyclical)
• protocols related to ownership of First Peoples oral texts: First Peoples stories often have protocols for when and where they can be shared,
who owns them, and who can share them.
• reading strategies: There are many strategies that readers use when making sense of text. Students consider what strategies they need to use to
“unpack” text. They employ strategies with increasing independence depending on the purpose, text, and context. Strategies include but may not be
limited to predicting, inferring, questioning, paraphrasing, using context clues, using text features, visualizing, making connections, summarizing,
identifying big ideas, synthesizing, and reflecting.
• oral language strategies: includes speaking with expression, connecting to listeners, asking questions to clarify, listening for specifics, summarizing,
paraphrasing
• metacognitive strategies:
— thinking about our own thinking, and reflecting on our processes and determining strengths and challenges
— Students employ metacognitive strategies to gain increasing independence in learning.
• writing processes: There are various writing processes depending on context. These may include determining audience and purpose, generating
or gathering ideas, free-writing, making notes, drafting, revising, and/or editing. Writers often have very personalized processes when writing. Writing
is an iterative process.
• elements of style: stylistic choices that make one specific writer distinguishable from others, including diction, vocabulary, sentence structure,
and tone.
• voice:
— point of view
— humour, irony, satire, wit
— perspective (e.g., persona)
• usage: avoiding common usage errors (e.g., double negatives, mixed metaphors, malapropisms, and word misuse)
• conventions: common practices of standard punctuation, capitalization, quoting, and Canadian spelling
• literary elements and devices: Texts use various literary devices, including figurative language, according to purpose and audience.
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