Course Outline: GWL3O

The following document is the course outline for the GWL3O course offered by Christian Virtual School. It contains the course description, unit outline, teaching & learning strategies, and the curriculum expectations addressed. This outline can also be viewed as a PDF using the download link provided.

Designing Your Future, Grade 11, Open

Course Code: GWL3O

Grade: 11

Course Type: Open

Credit Value: 1.0

Prerequisite(s): None 

Curriculum Document: Career Studies 

Developed By: Jenna Drennan

Department: Guidance and Career Education

Development Date: August 2022

Most Recent Revision Date: August 2022

Teacher(s):

Mark graduated from Lakehead University in 2010, with a Bachelor of Kinesiology (Honours) and a Bachelor of Education degree.  

After graduating, Mark began his teaching career with science, health and physical education, and communication technology in a remote, Indigenous community of Bearskin Lake, Ontario. Working in the north gave him his first experiences with online education. In continuing with online education, Mark became a special education coordinator for 13 Northern communities and continued to write and develop courses over the 5 years. He then returned to his hometown as a Vice-Principal and then Principal for an accredited private school. Using these experiences, Mark is now working for the public-school board as an intermediate teacher to help ready students for the secondary level. In addition, he continues to teach both online and through his summers at a youth jail to help rehabilitate students who face motivational and life challenges as well as coaching soccer, basketball, and baseball. 

In his spare time, Mark continues his love for learning by taking additional courses online, learning new songs on the guitar, or learning to cook a new dish! He has a good sense of humour and physically active through golf, tennis, travelling, camping, and hiking! He says, “I hope to help students and colleagues free themselves of their concerns and fear of learning new things and bring out their best self as the effect we have on each other, is the most valuable currency there is; with online mediums and platforms such as CVS, we can do just that. I look forward to developing relationships and building online presence with the CVS School community to learn, grow and support each other!” 

Course Description:

This course prepares students to make successful transitions to postsecondary destinations as they investigate specific postsecondary options based on their skills, interests, and personal characteristics. Students will explore the realities and opportunities of the workplace and examine factors that affect success, while refining their job-search and employability skills. Students will develop their portfolios with a focus on their targeted destination and develop an action plan for future success. 

Throughout the course students are reminded to keep God at the forefront of their plans, as He will provide them with courage and confidence. Students are encouraged to explore the wonderful gifts and talents God has bestowed upon them and encourages them to share with the world. As students plan and prepare for the future, they are encouraged to continue to pray for guidance and wisdom, and to trust that the Lord will walk with them step-by-step on their journey.  

Overall Curriculum Expectations

Personal Knowledge and Management Skills

  1. Analyse their personal characteristics, strengths, interests, skills, and competencies to determine career-related goals.
  2. Maintain a portfolio for use in career planning that provides up-to-date evidence of knowledge, skills, interests, and experience.
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of the personal-management skills, habits, and characteristics that could contribute to success in their selected postsecondary destinations and independent adult life.

Interpersonal Knowledge and Skills

  1. Demonstrate interpersonal and teamwork skills required for success in their school, work, and community activities.
  2. Demonstrate an understanding of the elements of group dynamics in a variety of settings.
  3. Explain ways in which they can make a contribution to their communities and ways in which the community can assist them with career planning.

Exploration of Opportunities

  1. Use research skills and strategies to gather and interpret relevant information about work and learning opportunities.
  2. Analyse emerging social and economic trends and their impact on individuals, workplaces, and career opportunities.
  3. Describe, on the basis of research, opportunities in various occupational sectors and explain the requirements and challenges of selected occupations.
  4. Demonstrate an understanding of types of workplaces, their related workplace issues, and legislation governing the workplace.

Preparation for Transitions and Change

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of the transition process and the strategies used to facilitate change.
  2. Demonstrate effective use of a variety of strategies and resources for finding work and creating work.
  3. Apply goal-setting and action planning processes to prepare for the transition from secondary school to their first postsecondary destination and for future transitions in their career.

Resources Required:

This course is entirely online and does not require nor rely on any textbook. The materials required for the course are:

  • A scanner, smart phone camera, or similar device to upload handwritten or hand-drawn work
  • A digital video camera, a web camera, or similar device to record and upload video recordings
  • A computer microphone, smart phone microphone, or similar device to record and upload audio recordings

Teaching and Learning Strategies:

Helping students become self-directed, lifelong learners is a fundamental aim of the guidance and career education curriculum. When students are engaged in active and experiential learning strategies, they tend to retain knowledge for longer periods and develop meaningful skills. Active and experiential learning strategies also enable students to apply their knowledge and skills to real-life issues and situations.

Some of the teaching and learning strategies that are suitable to material taught in guidance and career education include cooperative small-group learning, one-on-one teaching, guided learning, personal reflection, role playing, simulations, case-study analysis, presentations, and tasks involving real workplace materials, experiential learning, and independent study. Teachers must provide a wide range of activities and assignments that promote mastery of basic concepts and development of inquiry/research skills.

In the guidance and career education program, teachers provide students with opportunities to develop self-knowledge and make connections with the world around them. Students learn how to work independently and with others as they acquire the essential skills and work habits needed for success in school, in the workplace, and in daily life. Students learn how to make decisions about future learning and work, how to put plans into action responsibly, and how to reflect on the actions they’ve taken and revise their plans as necessary. They learn by doing. They synthesize what they have learned by reflecting, analyzing, evaluating, making decisions, and setting goals. They apply their learning both in the classroom and in other contexts, and they evaluate their progress.

Ultimately, students learn to take responsibility for their own learning in preparation for life beyond secondary school. It is essential to emphasize the relationship of guidance and career education to the world outside the classroom, so that students recognize that what they learn in these courses can have a significant influence on the rest of their lives, from their educational choices to decisions about their careers and personal lives.

Assessment and Evaluation Strategies of Student Performance:

Every student attending Christian Virtual School is unique. We believe each student must have the opportunities to achieve success according to their own interests, abilities, and goals. Like the Ministry of Education, we have defined high expectations and standards for graduation, while introducing a range of options that allow students to learn in ways that suit them best and enable them to earn their diplomas. Christian Virtual School’s Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting Policy is based on seven fundamental principles, as outlined in the Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Ontario Schools document.

When these seven principles are fully understood and observed by all teachers, they guide the collection of meaningful information that helps inform instructional decisions, promote student engagement, and improve student learning. At Christian Virtual School, teachers use practices and procedures that:

  1. are fair, transparent, and equitable for all students;
  2. support all students, including those with special education needs, those who are learning English, and those who are First Nation, Métis, or Inuit;
  3. are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and, as much as possible, to the interests, learning styles and preferences, needs, and experiences of all students;
  4. are communicated clearly to students and parents or guardians at the beginning of the school year or course and at other appropriate points throughout the school year or course;
  5. are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning;
  6. provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to support improved learning and achievement; and
  7. develop students’ self-assessment skills to enable them to access their own learning, set specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning.

For more information on our assessment and evaluation strategies, refer to Section 6, Student Achievement, in the Course Calendar.

Program Planning Considerations: