EAE1W_ILC1.1: Your Learning Goals

Press the following tabs to explore the learning goals and success criteria for this learning activity.

Welcome to EAE1W!

This course is designed to help you become a successful and confident language learner. You will explore the characteristics of language learners and participate in learning activities to develop these traits.

You will also read, watch, listen to, and write a wide variety of texts throughout the course. A text is a way of communicating that uses words, graphics, sounds, and/or images. Information is presented to an audience in print, oral, visual, or digital forms.

In other words, a text is any written, spoken, or digital content that communicates information, ideas, or emotions.

Texts can be long or short. They can take multiple forms and include multiple modes. Examples of a text may include a short story, a novel, an email, a podcast, a comic, a poster, a television series, or a text message on a cellphone.

As you read, listen to, and view texts, you will dive deeper into the creators’ voices, identities, and stories. You will also build your own literacy and critical listening skills to understand a variety of texts.

You will learn to use different types of texts, including written, oral, and digital, to help communicate meaning. These texts will act as mentor texts as part of your learning process. A mentor text is a piece of text students can read and reread for specific learning purposes, such as providing context. For example, mentor texts may include a short story, poem, article, or any text that can help students understand and develop literary skills.

Now that you know texts can take multiple forms and include multiple modes, consider the following question.

What kinds of texts have you been exploring?

In this first unit, Exploring My Voice, you will learn about the factors that affect your ability to be understood. Understanding motivations and goals is important to help you progress toward becoming a successful and confident language learner.

Using mentor texts and texts you will create, you will explore examples of effective and creative communication. You will look at factors, such as bias and tone, and determine how they can be developed and used to communicate for different purposes and audiences. The unit will conclude with an activity that shows your unique voice as a creator and communicator of texts.

In this learning activity, you will create individual learning goals. Then, you will create routines for monitoring progress toward accomplishing the goals. Finally, you will establish the goals you will accomplish in this course.

That may seem like a lot of work, but don’t worry! You will be guided through each activity and expectation.

Literacy has been identified as an important skill, as well as a basic human right. The following quote is shared from Alberta’s Ministry of Education, on the importance of literacy development and the impact and relevance it has on everyday life.

After reading this quote, reflect on the following questions.

1. Why do you think literacy is a powerful skill to have?
2. How do we use literacy to help us learn more about the world around us
3. How do we use literacy to help us share our own ideas so others can understand us?

In this course, you will practice your collaboration skills by sharing your work with friends, peers, or family members, when possible.

Ask a friend or a family member the following questions:

• What types of texts (like books, websites, videos, or podcasts) do you use the most?
• Why do you think literacy is important?

Non-verbal communication is the process of conveying a message without the use of words or voice. Gestures, expressions, objects or pictures are used in place of words and speech.

Think about all the ways that students could use non-verbal communication skills to demonstrate that they are being active listeners to their peers, friends, or family.

Without using words, you can communicate or share information by using body language, facial expressions, gestures, and other visual or physical cues. Keep in mind, that people from different cultures might understand or use these cues in different ways.

Active listening can involve the following non-verbal communication:

• Facial expressions – Use different facial expressions, such as a smile or eyebrow raise, to show that you are interested and engaged with your audience
• Body language – Use different body movements to show engagement and to communicate meaning. For example, leaning in and showing a straight posture can show your audience that you are listening.
• Gestures – Use specific hand, arm, or facial movements to communicate a message. For example, gestures may include waving “hello” to greet someone, or a nod to indicate a “yes” response.

Consider the people who make you feel understood and comfortable when you’re talking with them. Now, what can you do to help others feel the same way?

In this learning activity, you will also focus on the following grammar goal.

Acknowledgments (Opens in a new window)

One important skill that will help you become a successful and confident language learner is setting goals and keeping track of your progress. To set goals that really matter, you will need to think about yourself and how you learn as you progress through this course.

The Ontario curriculum lays out all the skills and knowledge students need to be successful in Grade 9 English. Examine the following “Vision and Goals” section of the EAE1W curriculum, paying close attention to the list of 10 characteristics of successful and confident language learners.

As you examine the following adapted list, use your notebook to record the characteristics you feel are strengths and areas of improvement for yourself. You will use these notes as part of your goal-setting process later in the learning activity.

Press Successful and Confident Language Learners button to learn more about the characteristics of these learners.

If you need some help getting started, check out the following sample answer.

Reaching a new goal is not always an easy straight path. Sometimes, we hit roadblocks that make us change direction, go back, or find a different way forward to reach our end destination. Overcoming these obstacles and finding new pathways requires us to be purposeful in our thinking and motivation.

One way to ensure you can be purposeful and motivated is by using ongoing reflections and self-assessments throughout the course. A tool you will use to accomplish this is your portfolio.

One of the ways you will track and document your learning in this course is through a portfolio. Each time you see the portfolio icon, you will know it is time to record your thinking and learning connected to that activity.

You will submit your portfolio entries as part of your culminating task in the course. Since your portfolio is meant to help you in your reflection and self-assessment, you will want to choose a method that works best for you to record your entries.

For example, you may wish to record on paper (which you can take a photo of and upload later) or in a digital document, or maybe you would rather record a voice note or a video. The entries do not need to follow the same format each time; feel free to experiment and try new things as part of your learning.

To help stay organized, ensure every entry includes the unit and learning activity number. For instance, this is Unit 1, Learning Activity 1.1.

For your first portfolio entry, record your response to the following self-check prompt.

Consider the people who make you feel understood and comfortable when you’re talking with them. What can you do to help others feel understood and comfortable as well?

Compare your response to the following sample answer.

Setting goals is an important part of self-directed learning. You will get a chance to reflect and make changes to your goals throughout the course. To start, you can build your knowledge about what goal setting is, why it is important, and how to set meaningful goals.

Goal setting is the process of deciding what you would like to achieve and coming up with a plan on how to reach it. A good learning goal should be specific to your learning needs and should indicate why or how it is important or helpful to you.

Learning goals can help you stay organized and prioritize tasks, which in return, should give you a sense of direction, motivation and accomplishment.

One strategy you may find useful in creating good learning goals is using the SMART goals breakdown. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.

Check out the following interactive to learn more. For a better experience with this interactive activity, use the fullscreen mode.

There are many ways we can set good learning goals. This is only one option you can consider when adding more detail to your learning goals. You can always make changes to your goals to fit your own learning needs.

First, let’s take a look at some learning goals and determine whether or not they are good examples of learning goals. You can use “yes” to indicate a good learning goal, and “no” to identify statements that would not make good learning goals and need further improvement.

As you reflect on each statement, ask yourself the following questions.

1. What makes a good example of a learning goal?
2. How could someone improve the statements labeled as “no,” so they become good learning goals?

For a better experience with this interactive activity, use the full screen mode.

Working with a peer or a family member, create a list of criteria that you think explains what makes a “yes” example of learning goals.

Test the criteria you established by using it to categorize the following statements as “yes” or “no” learning goal examples. Select the correct answer, then press Check Answer to see how you did. 

Once you have tested your criteria with the statements and checked your answers, you may want to make some changes to your own learning goal criteria.

Make changes to your list until you are happy with it. This list will be helpful for you to use when you sort a variety or learning goals and write your own.

Your final task is to put all these pieces together to create a set of learning goals that are meaningful to you. Using the list of 10 characteristics of successful and confident language learners from the EAE1W curriculum as inspiration, write three to five learning goals that you will work toward in this course.

After you have drafted your goals, use the list of criteria you previously created to determine if you need to make any changes. You want to ensure they are “yes” examples of learning goals. You can also ask a friend or family member to give you feedback on your learning goals. You will revisit your goals throughout this course.

Once your goals are completed, save them in your portfolio.

If you need a reference, check out the following sample answer.

As you work through the course, you will be given opportunities to revisit these goals and assess your progress toward achieving them.

Whether you’re in school, working independently online, or working on a personal project, it’s likely that you’ll need collaboration with others to be successful.

Check out the following video from John Spencer entitled The 7 Keys to Creative Collaboration to learn more about working with others. In this course, you will at times be encouraged to show your work to a friend, peer, or family member.

As you explore the video, reflect on your best experience when working with a group and answer the following question:

• What was one trait from the video that you connected with when you worked in your group?

In this learning activity, you explored the vision and goals of the course and aligned them with your own strengths and areas of growth. Then, you created a set of personalized goals that you will aim to accomplish by the end of the course. You also explored the importance of collaboration.

In the next learning activity, you will keep thinking about yourself and your experiences, just like you did in this one. You'll also start looking more closely at bias and how it affects the way we understand others - and how they understand us.

Complete the following self-check quiz to determine where you are in your learning and what areas you need to focus on.

This quiz is for feedback only, not part of your grade. You have unlimited attempts on this quiz. Take your time, do your best work, and reflect on any feedback provided.

For each question, select the correct answer, then press the Check Answer button to see how you did.

Ontario worked with other provinces in Canada to outline a set of competencies that are important to have to be successful in today’s world. Ontario then developed its Transferable Skills Framework as a set of skills for students to develop over time.

Explore the following video to learn about each of the seven transferable skills.

To learn more about each of the transferable skills, read the following document entitled Transferable Skills Overview (Opens in a new window) to explore the framework and the descriptors for each skill. Download, print, or copy the information in the document into your notes you'll refer to it in each unit.

Throughout this course, you will be given the opportunity to reflect on the transferable skills you are developing. Keep your notebook up-to-date and be mindful of opportunities to apply and develop transferable skills.