Course Overview
Course Title: Discovering the Workplace, Grade 10
Course Code: GLD 2O
Grade: 10
Course Type: Open
Credit Value: 1.0
Prerequisite: None required
Department: Guidance and Career Education
Tuition Fee (CAD): $549
This course provides students with opportunities to discover and develop the workplace essential skills and work habits required to be successfully employed. Students will develop an understanding of work through practical hands-on experiences in the school and in the community, using real workplace materials. They investigate occupations of interest through experiential learning opportunities, such as worksite visits, job shadowing, work experience, simulations, and entrepreneurial project. This course helps students make plans for continued learning and work.
Overall Curriculum Expectations
By the end of the course, students will gain proficiency in the following areas:
Essential Skills for Working and Learning
- Identify and describe the workplace essential skills necessary for success in life, school, and work;
- Identify the literacy and numeracy strategies that support the application of workplace essential skills, and use them to complete specific tasks in school, in the community, or in real or simulated workplace settings;
- Describe learning and thinking strategies, and use them effectively in school or in the community;
- Plan for, assess, and document their ongoing development and demonstration of selected workplace essential skills.
Personal Management
- Identify their interests, strengths, and needs, and describe how these influences their decisions about education and work;
- Identify and use effectively the strategies required to manage their behaviour in school and in the community;
- Identify and use effectively the interpersonal and teamwork skills and strategies required when working with others in school or in the community;
- Demonstrate the ability to use the task-planning and organizing skills and strategies that are required for success in school and in the workplace.
Exploration of Opportunities
- Demonstrate the ability to research information about education and work opportunities, using print, electronic, and human resources;
- Describe opportunities for learning and work, and identify ways in which they can prepare for these opportunities;
- Demonstrate an understanding of the nature of work and of workplace expectations and issues;
- Identify, explain, and follow health and safety policies and procedures in school and in workplace settings
Preparation for Transitions and Change
- Identify changes and transitions that take place in their lives, and describe strategies to effectively manage these changes;
- Identify goals and develop plans for their learning in school, the community, and the workplace;
- Apply job-search strategies and tools to find or create opportunities for work and for learning about work.
Unit Overview
| Unit 1: Workplace Skills In this unit, you will be introduced to the Ontario Skills Passport (OSP) essential skills, including reading, writing, oral communication, numeracy, thinking, and continuous learning. You will practice your skills using real world, workplace activities, like sample inventory lists, schedules, and work orders. In addition, you will engage in interactive activities that will encourage you to practice your knowledge. You will track your level of comfort with the essential skills using the OSP Tracker. In addition, through various self and peer assessments, you will reflect on your learning throughout the unit. In this unit, you will have many opportunities to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding, thinking, communicating, and application skills by completing a variety of assignments including blogging. At the end of the unit, you will match your skills to an occupation of your choosing. | 30 hours |
| Unit 2: Personal Management In this unit, you will learn more about you and how you can best fit into the workplace, school environment, and your community. To begin, you will review your personality and take a variety of surveys to understand your strengths and weaknesses. You will then learn what motivates you internally and externally. You will also gain a deeper understanding of the changes happening around you and how to be aware and prepared for changes and challenges in your own life. You will practice proactive strategies to help you address changes and challenges, like conflict management, time management, handling anger and frustration, and overcoming stress. Teamwork is an important aspect of any workplace; therefore, you will learn strategies that make an effective team and will practice working as a team with a co-op student, your teacher, and your peers. You will conclude the unit by completing a job twinning experience in a field of work that interests you. When you have completed your experiential learning, you will conference with your teacher to get feedback and to specifically begin targeting a career path that is right for you | 25 hours |
| Unit 3: Exploration of Opportunities In this unit, you will learn about work and learning opportunities that are of significance to you. You will begin by researching a career that suits your interests, skills, and personality. After that, you will explore the educational and learning requirements of a chosen career, and find the school and community based opportunities around you to help you fulfill those requirements. You will learn about entrepreneurship and other work-style alternatives, like flex-time and job sharing. You will go on an Internet scavenger hunt to find information about workers’ rights and learn about the legislation that govern the workplace. Through interactive case studies and videos, you will understand the role of safety in the workplace and learn to prioritize your safety. You will learn about other workplace issues, like ethics, confidentiality, harassment, and equity, as well as the legislation that guide them. Next, you will be introduced to unions, and you will get a better sense of what a union can and can’t do for the worker. You will conclude the unit by organizing and reporting on a job shadowing work placement experience | 25 hours |
| Unit 4: Preparations for Transitions and Change In this unit, you will review your interests, skills and values as they pertain to your career goals. Referencing your Ontario Skills Passport, you will complete self-assessments and inventories that will help direct you to a career that is suitable for you. You will gain a better understanding of the career planning process. Next, you will learn about the impact of globalization on your career goals. With this in mind, you will research the job market for a career. This search will teach you about networking and accessing the hidden job market. You will complete a job application form before you create your resume. You will learn about the different types of resumes and which one suits you. You will create a resume and cover letter for your upcoming co-op placement. Once these are in place, you will interview with your co-op placement employer to learn about the job and for the employer to learn about you. You will create a personalized placement learning plan in conjunction with your teacher, supervisor, and parents. You will also complete a work education agreement. You will review policies on harassment, unions, health and safety, and your rights before you finally create a schedule and start your two-week placement. Once your placement is complete, you will submit your portfolio to your teacher and conference for understanding. | 30 hours |
| Total Hours | 110 hours |
Teaching and Learning Strategies
Enthusiastic teachers and instructors bring unique teaching and assessment methods to the classroom because students learn best when they are engaged in a range of different learning techniques. The activities allow students to apply learned concepts to current world social, economic, and environmental issues which impact daily life. Opportunities to relate knowledge and skills to these wider contexts will motivate students to learn in a meaningful way and to become life-long learners. Instructors also inspire students to become successful problem solvers by investigating, providing alternative reasoning and solutions to problems as well as dedicating time and energy to the tasks at hand.
Effective instructional techniques utilize students’ existing knowledge and by capturing their interest and engaging in meaningful participation. Students will be engaged when they are able to see the correlation between the learned concepts and their ability to apply them to the world around them and in real-life situations. Students will have the chance to learn using a wide range of methods which include self-learning, cooperative learning as well as learning through teacher guidance as well has hands-on experiences. The methods and strategies teachers implement will be tailored to the learning requirements and the individual needs of the students. Teachers will achieve effective instruction in an online environment by using videos, interactive animations and virtual labs and discussion forums and video conferencing/live chat.
Individualized Accommodations for Students
Our methodology for student assessment follows the Growing Success Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12 (2010) manual published by the Ontario Ministry of Education. Assessment is the process of gathering information that accurately reflects how well a student is achieving the curriculum expectations in a subject or course. Assessment tools are designed to improve student learning which includes descriptive feedback, coaching, observations and self-assessments. In addition, student can be independent and set individual goals, monitor progress against these goals, determine next steps and reflect on their thinking and learning.
For a student with special education needs who requires modified or alternative expectations, assessment and evaluation of his or her achievement will be based on the modified curriculum expectations or alternative expectations outlined in the student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP). Accommodations required to facilitate the student’s learning may be identified by the teacher, however recommendations from a School Board generated in the form of an Individual Education Plan (IEP) should be used, if available.
For a student with special education needs who requires “accommodations only”, as described in his or her IEP, assessment and evaluation of achievement will be based on the appropriate subject/ grade/course curriculum expectations and the achievement levels outlined in the curriculum documents.
A student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) describes his or her educational program and any accommodations that may be required. The IEP specifies whether the student requires:
accommodations only; or
modified learning expectations, with the possibility of accommodations;
Assessment accommodations are changes in procedures that enable the student to demonstrate his
or her learning. These may include:
visual supports to clarify verbal instructions, assistive devices, or some form of human support;
alternative methods for the student to demonstrate his or her achievement of expectations (e.g., allowing the student to take tests orally) or the allowance of extra time to complete the assessment;
alternative settings that may be more suitable for the student to demonstrate his or her learning.
If accommodations are required to assess and evaluate student learning, the strategies to be used are outlined in the student’s IEP.
For further details about the different types of accommodations, modified learning expectation and alternative programs please refer to Growing Success Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12 (2010)
Materials Required
Standard Computer Requirements for all courses:
-Processor speed of 2 GHz or faster
-Memory of 4 GB RAM or greater
-A high speed internet connection with a connection speed of 10 MB/s or better.
-Monitor and video card with 1024×768 or greater resolution
-Keyboard and Mouse is recommended
-Speakers/Headphones
