Secondary courses

To look forward - To reach the sky - To move beyond

On this page, you will find resources for subject specific courses, course outline templates, and other supports for secondary courses.

English First Peoples (EFP)

Advancing Reconciliation Through Education

As part of British Columbia’s commitment to truth, reconciliation and anti-racism, the Ministry of Education has implemented a mandatory 4-credit Indigenous-focused course or bundle of credits as part of graduation requirements effective in the 2023/24 school year.

In an effort to advance reconciliation through education in NLPS, English First Peoples courses are being developed and taught to grade 10 and 12 students. These courses will also support students in meeting the Indigenous Graduation requirement effective 2023/24.

This is in addition to Indigenous culture and perspectives that have been integrated throughout all areas of learning. For example, place-based learning and teaching practices that honour the First Peoples Principles of Learning in every area from K-12.

NLPS strongly believes that all students will benefit from the rich knowledge, ways of being, and culture of Indigenous people who have lived on this land since time immemorial. This knowledge is a step towards fostering informed, responsible, and human rights orientated citizens.

Land Acknowledgement

The journey towards reconciliation includes ongoing communication about the land and territory on which we learn.

Teaching students to acknowledge territory expresses respect, gratitude and appreciation for Indigenous peoples who have lived and continue to live on the land.

This exercise created by the NDSS English department with inspiration and resources from many places will support you to guide students in writing land acknowledgements that hold those aspects of value and respect for both the past and the present.

Hul’qumi’num Language

Hul’quimi’num language is one of the Coast Salish languages spoken in British Columbia.

Revitalizing the language of the land is vital to the reconciliation process. To understand the relationship of the people to the land, we must understand the beauty and life of the language as it breathes life into inanimate objects and validates them as relations.

Use these resources to support your journey into introducing Hul’quimi’num words in your classes.

Resource recommendations by school site

Each school has a team of English Language Arts and Humanities teachers that have carefully curated the content that students will experience. This database will help for ideas, and also for inter school loans.
If you see something here that you are interested in, contact the school secretary to put you in touch with the learning leader at the school who can lend you one or more of these resources. Please keep in mind that learning resources in schools are purchased through the school budget, and must be returned or replaced to the school it came from. Also, each school has unconditional priority to their onwn resources.

English Language Arts

With the changes in our current curriculum, there have been many conversations around creating consistent understanding of instruction and assessment in all ELA courses, but especially in English Studies 12.

This one page document summarizes some values statements as discussed by a group on ELA teachers from across the district in 2019.

Diversity in Texts

The Big Ideas in all ELA curricula stress the importance of text being socially, culturally, geographically, and historically constructed. Worldviews and perspectives from around the world and locally are important parts of ELA competencies.

ELA teachers from across the district have been connecting to create a booklist of diverse texts for classroom use. Many of these texts are availbe in your school libraries or through the professional collection.
The Indigenous collection has been recently reviewed and carefully curated to include many local First Nations content.
The Salish Weave is a beautiful collection of Coast Salish art that is available for you to bring to your classroom. Each piece is framed and includes notes from the artist as well as lesson ideas.
Selecting Anti-racism resources means making sure every student in your classroom sees themselves reflected in the content your choose.

Assessment

Assessment Tools

Here are some of the ways to assess your learners both formatively and summatively in ELA and EFP courses.

UDL Assessment planning

UDL is all about providing options and choices for your students so that you can eliminate barriers and give each student an opportunity to succeed both in and outside of school.

How can create a unique grading system that gives students voice, choice and autonomy? How can we transform our grading practices to actually help students learn?

This UDL Grading Flowchart designed by Novak Education can help guide you through your UDL grading process.

Adolescent Reading Skills Overview

Graphic Organizers to support reading skills in all curricular areas

Supporting English Language Learners

We help students to develop literacy in English so that they can succeed in both the social and academic environment of the classroom. We focus on inclusive practices that honour cultural identity and social and emotional growth. Tier One support for ELLS may include: