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Hi Angela, What do you think about turning our attention to developing the GLS10 course? Not sure how much time you have to work on this, but whatever you can contribute would be appreciated. On my part, I will continue to work on this course over the summer so we don't necessarily need to finish up the course by the end of the school year. This project has already uncovered some neat plug-ins that I think will make for an interesting course. There’s a lot to think about. Maybe we should start with some discussion about...
BTW, the GLS10 course in on the BMM Test Site. Here's a link. This is the version that we will be editing. Fernando |
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Hi Fernando, I have tons of time now that school is winding down. Tomorrow I will go through the course a bit more to refresh my memory on some of the strengths and weaknesses of the course. The one thing I would want to edit would be the course long assignment of a portfolio. Its hard to copy and paste the work that is prescribed into the WordPerfect Presentations program. I do remember that I had difficulties with that and students did too. I think that if we are keeping the same format as other high school courses with summative and formative components, that we should edit the portfolio portion to include programs or ideas that are more current. I think that we should work on the overall format first, and then work on the smaller details, like which activity types we will use for the assignments. For example, if its going to be a 1/2 credit, what are the major expectations we want to meet. As well, Do half courses have to have a set list of curriculum expectations, or are course developers free to choose which expectations will be included? I have never developed a 1/2 credit course from a full credit course so I'm not sure of the "rules" for that. |
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Week 1 1a-1: Portfolio assignment. Update to reflect newer technology. Or at least don't use Corel Presentations. Its hard to copy and paste some of things things that the teacher requires. I had lots of trouble with this when helping students and would give up myself. Since students don't necessarily add the components to the slideshow as they go (I see this all the time) and wait until the end, the checklist function would help for them to know what to add. We could include also which activity the part was from so they would know where to go back to find it. 1a-2: should be in a forum to get to know other students 1a-3: are students going to be going to KiHS? If not, we would have to cover those expectations in a different way. 1b-1: I would use the mindmap activity module for the first part. I would delete the second part of this, and include it in the next activity. 1b-2: If we include the second part, I would want to make it more interactive and simpler by maybe asking each person to contribute to a brainstorm activity (1 point to describe a positive learning environment or one guideline that we should follow to create a positive learning environment) 1c-1: delete. Its hard unless we know that they will have someone there to do the activity with. The second part of this assignment may be too difficult for them? Or if we do include it, provide more examples. 1c-1: the link to this website is complicated and includes many advertisements. Its cluttered and shouldn't have to be. Perhaps we can cover communication skills in a different way. In my experience, students often don't know where to click for this activity, and there are too many questions. I think they also have to sign-up for an account, which we should ask them to do. At the age we are gearing this to, it should be more straightforward. |
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Thanks Angela, this is a good start! Let me backup a little to provide you with some info about the NED Program:
Some things to think about as we plan for the GLS10 course:
Do you know if KiHS has ever offered a reach-ahead credit to grade 8 students? |
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Hi Fernando, I think before we begin we should talk to a Ministry of Education person because I'm not sure of the specifics. a) hours involved in getting a half-credit b) how many expectations do we have to meet from the GLS1O curriculum to grant a half-credit that meets diploma requirements. As well, is there a prescribed set or can teachers pick and choose if its not required to met all of them. c) teacher requirements - this may be a concern if you are considered keeping decentralized still. What are the requirements of teachers marking work at the high school level. Do they have to be qualified Intermediate (4-10) or Senior (9-12) to be able to mark the work? I know when you teach at the elementary level and you aren't an elementary teacher or you teach out of your subject area in high school, you can only do so if you are given special permission. I'm not sure if all teachers in the First Nations communities who teach grade 7/8 have the intermediate/senior qualifications or if the MOE requires them to be OCT registered (which isn't a requirement for all first nations). I remember in Poplar Hill when I went to visit, a previous financial advisor took over one of the classrooms at the school for the year. I'm not sure how this would fare if we are granting high school credits. May need to be centralized for control when granting this credit. I have never known KiHS to do a reach-ahead program. I teach the grade 5/6 and 7/8 program through the STAT unit and when I did report cards, Darrin wouldn't sign off on report cards because he said he wasn't really authorized to sign elementary report cards. So, before we begin, we should look at all of the requirements and any involved required of the principal in the school granting the credits (will it be KiHS granting these credits?). I believe the school must be authorized to grant high school credits in advance so the NED program wouldn't be able to do that as an independent program unless previously recognized as being able to do so (which I don't think it is since its decentralized). Angela |
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Some clarification... Length of Course: According to the Ministry guidelines, GLS10 course is in fact a full credit course. I assumed it was a half credit based on an old KiHS course description located here. So, the course is 110 hours. I haven't crunched the numbers, but I think we'd be able to meet this time requirement if we keep the existing 3-hours-per-week participation schedule and run this course for the full year (this would allow us to deliver the course is small, manageable chunks). Need to explore this further. Marking: Currently we have a teacher who marks assignments for the NED Program. Local teachers don't actually do any marking, though they do have access the marking interface and gradebook. I assume this would be the same for the GLS10 course, in which case we can ensure that grading is done by a qualified teacher. Contacting the Ministry: I will contact Darrin and Brian to see if they know anyone we can contact. Otherwise, we can track down the person who inspects KiHS (I don't think Carlana does this anymore). Fernando |
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Okay, that makes things a bit easier. I knew GLS1O was a full-credit course, I just wasn't sure how you make it a 1/2 course, or if you could. If you have a teacher that marks for the NED program then that will work for the GLS1O course too. When you said the teachers had local control of the program, I thought you meant that they marked it, even though they didn't deliver it. There will be less worry about qualifications then because you can easily control that. You are right, it isn't Carlana anymore. I can't remember who the new person is though. Let me know what you need me to do next  Angela |
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Hi Angela, I spoke with an inspector at the Ministry of Ed today. The good news is that it looks like we'd be able to offer this course via the NED Program. She seemed a bit hesitant about the idea, however, and suggested that students would have to take the course outside of school hours. She seemed more accepting at the end of our conversation and we agreed to continue the discussion after she consulted with some people at her office. I'll post more info soon. Fernando |
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That's great news!!! I hope that it works out. It will make the process that much simpler if you don't have to go through another program in order to be able to deliver it. Definitely keep me in the loop. What can I do in the meantime? Now that we know we are doing the full-course we still have to cover the same expectations, but we can do them in different ways if we want. Most of our courses are developed using the Ministry's course profiles. Especially the ones developed at the beginning, like GLS1O. When Carlana was watching over us, she emphasized using them. So, how the course is set up probably follows what the MOE recommends, although they are moving away from course profiles now. Should we discuss the overall direction in more depth, or start looking at individual assignments/expectations? Angela |
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The inspector sent me this email today: "You are indeed correct, there are other boards that offer the GLS1O to Grade Eight students for the purpose of providing a better foundation to students entering grade nine. In consultation with the classroom teacher(s) and principal students will be identified through a school developed process. When you deliver the course will be at your discretion." Looks like we got the green light! Lots to do! First off, let's come up with a time frame for this course. This will be a supplementary course, so we need to stretch the course out as much as possible so as not to eat up too much classroom time. Here's what I'm thinking:
This format gives us the 110 hours that's required (3.75 hours per week x 30 weeks = 112.5 hours). Thoughts? |
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Yeah! That's great. I think 3 sessions a week of 75 minutes is manageable. Most of our lessons are longer than that, so 75 minutes will be easier for that age level. When are you thinking the end of the year will be? I know our student attendance dips starting in June, but I'm not sure if it is a problem in elementary schools as well. If it goes right until the very end of June, it may be worth considering starting early October vs. mid October. |
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As we continue to look at the overall format other things to consider: a) What is going to be the percentage of the grades allocated to formative and summative assessment? We do a 70/30 ratio at KiHS. b) Are we going to have both an exam and culminating activity for the summative assessment? Some of my courses (like Co-op) only have a culminating activity which is worth the whole 30%. Most of the courses do a 15%/15% split for culminating activity and exam c) how many hours are we dedicating to formative assessment? For example, is the exam going to be one 75 minute lesson? What about the culminating activity. Usually the culminating activities are more than 75 minutes long because their purpose is to show knowledge gained throughout the course (ie. portfolio). Angela |
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Sorry for the delay… had to deal with a handful of end-of-school duties. Thanks for your questions. Here’s what I’m thinking (in green):
As I respond to your questions, the word “ePortfolio” keeps running through my head! Fernando |
I’m going to spend the next couple days figuring out how the Mahara-Moodle thing works... this feature will have a big impact on how the course gets structured. | Re: GLS10 Development |
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Hi Fernando, great questions too! No problem about taking time to respond. I'm up in Sioux Lookout for the week working with the grade 5/6 and 7/8 online students, and doing their assessments. It was a last minute trip, but something that I enjoy doing. I wish I had more time to work with them on the actual online component because without qualified teachers on staff, its hard to run an online program for younger students I find when there is not always on-site support. There's the whole theory (Moore's TDT) and discussion about when students have the autonomy needed to work online. There is no research that I have found that directly answers what age is too young to work totally independent in an online environment. I know even in our high school setting, the students who come to class most of the time do much better than those who try to work at home. Its a topic that interests me, so I like working with this age level. Anyways, back to the questions... 1) I did some research on the formative vs. summative assessment ratio, but couldn't find an exact MOE document. However, after visiting the Curriculum Services (CSC) website for Ontario schools (curriculum.org), the London District School board, and another online high school it appears that all use the 70/30 ratio including KiHS. 2) the no exam sounds great. The portfolio would have to be the whole 30% or we can have a couple of summative assignments vs exams. 3) For hours for the summative assessment, at KiHS for my co-op courses, I have two culminating activities worth 90 minutes each (this is for my one credit course) and two-180 minute culminating activities for my two credit co-op course. There are no exams. For other courses, the hours vary. For my HIF1O course (one credit) I have 400 minutes for the culminating activity, and 90 minutes for the exam. The same is for the GLS10 course too. It seems that MOST follow this format, a few will vary off. So, I'm not sure if this is our standard or the MOE's standard. I think we just used a template and everyone followed that to keep the exam times standard when you are hosting several exams in one day and at the same time. As long as they all total up to the 110 hours. Hopefully you get a little break this week! Angela |