Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Unit
Canada’s Indigenous and the Justice System (Moving Forward: Establishing and Realizing)
This unit is created for English Language Arts 20. It will strive to have students examine Canada’s justice
system and analyze the overrepresentation of our Aboriginal population in our correctional facilities. Students
will use various forms of literature (novels, poems, and articles) to explore how outside factors including, but not
limited to, poverty, residential schooling, etc. continue to affect our indigenous populations and allow them to be
overrepresented in the justice system today. Students will begin to examine racial limitations in current news
stories, media and justice cases in Canada as well as make suggestions as to how to move forward from this
vicious cycle.
Performance Task
Throughout this unit, students will have two forms of “Assessment of Learning” to complete by end of unit.
The first task will be continuous throughout the unit and involve prompted journal entries displayed on a blog
that will be assigned and due throughout the unit. These journals will be further explained below. The second
performance task will be a current events presentation at the very end of the unit.
Blog Entries – As a requirement for this unit, students are asked to create a blog website using wordpress.com.
The teacher will provide prompts throughout the duration of the unit, and students will be asked to respond. This
will be a response to their main text The Ballad of Danny Wolfe. The students are asked to explain their thoughts
and make connections by utilization of critical thinking, while taking into consideration the impact of the contents
of the novel on Indigenous peoples and cultures in relation to class discussion. Using a blog will increase student’s
technological awareness and prepare them for the possible demands of high school and post-secondary
schooling. The blog postings will also be available to all students; therefore, the blogs will be a great resource for
all students to create a community of learning and contribute to mastery of the content.
Current Events Presentation – Students will use what they have learnt to display, in a form of their choice, a
current event (within the last 5 years), that depicts the criminal justice system in a way that either: correctly
handled an indigenous incarceration or justice effort or, a depiction of the justice system in Canada failing to
provide culturally adequate justice efforts. This project can be done in whatever form the students choose
whether that be a PowerPoint, a poster board, or using some other form of presentation that they choose. This
element of choice will allow students to use their individual strengths and display their learning in the best way
possible. Inquiry based learning is the goal of this project and will hopefully result in student awareness and
increased knowledge and enthusiasm of the unit content overall. The students will be expected to be creative,
have relevant information and provide a plausible argument for their position on the case. This project will aim to
have students explore current events in their country and educate their classmates on the importance and
prevalence of indigenous overrepresentation in the justice system. The presentation will be self and peer
assessed using a simplified rubric and will be used to determine a final grade in cooperation with the teacher’s
tasks and have them correlate with expectations I would have for these projects:
Current Events 4 - Excellent 3 - Good 2 - Fair 1 – Needs
Presentation Rubric Improvement
Delivery • Holds attention of • Some use of • Displays minimal No eye contact
audience with direct eye eye contact with audience,
use of direct eye contact with with information all
contact, seldom audience, audience, read from
looking at notes, returns to while reading notes. No
is confident with notes mostly from confidence in
all material occasionally, the notes and material
only has little Speaks in
• Speaks with confident confidence in inappropriate
appropriate with some material
volume with
volume and material no enthusiasm
inflection to • Speaks too causing
maintain • Speaks with quietly or too disengagement
attention
volume but loudly with
limited little or no
inflection inflection
Both of these performance tasks will be used throughout the unit for various reasons. The blog postings are
both assessment for learning and assessment of learning. The blogs will be used for both teacher purposes; to
keep track of development and progress throughout the unit, and for class betterment. The students will have
access to their classmate’s blogs in order to gain knowledge through each other and view other’s opinion on the
same subject matter. I chose a rubric to assess both the blog posts and the presentation because I wanted the
students to have consistency in their marking and room for movement on the grade scale. Each student will be
Each individual blog post will be graded using the rubric so that students can see what they need to
improve upon for their next posting. The areas being marked apply directly to the assignment and have clear
expectations laid out for student success. Because each post will be marked separately, there is ample
opportunity for feedback and communication about what is expected regarding standards. The blog allows for
consistent improvement and multiple opportunities to develop over the course of the unit. If a student is failing
to demonstrate the expected learning, intervention can take place in the form of a meeting with a student and
discussing reasoning for their challenges. Alternative forms of this assignment could be written journaling (if
technology is the challenge), or oral conversations about the content that can be marked with the same criteria.
These blog posts align with the outcomes of ELA 20: Comprehend and Respond. The blog postings will largely
pertain to their novel The Ballad of Danny Wolfe, and they will be expected to connect this text with other First
Nations material discussed in class fulfilling outcome CR 20.1 - View, listen to, read, comprehend, and respond to
a variety of grade-appropriate First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, Canadian, and international texts that address
identity, social responsibility and social action. The blog will also require comprehension of material throughout
the unit, and exploration of ideas beyond that discussed in the classroom. Students will have to express their
educated opinions on FNIM material and text connecting to the outcome CR 20.4 - Read and demonstrate
comprehension and appreciation of grade-appropriate informational (including instructions and procedural texts)
and literary (including fiction, nonfiction, script, poetry, and essays) First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, Canadian,
. The current events presentation will be the end of unit project for students to demonstrate their
progressive learning and challenge their extension of the unit beyond comprehension. This will be an assessment
of learning. Students will receive the rubric for the assignment at the beginning of the unit in order to allow them
to be thinking of their project throughout the unit and give numerous opportunities for questions and check-ins
with the teacher. This will allow students to understand what is expected of them and what they have options for
in regard to the project format. This rubric will be familiar to the students by end of unit because of their
experience with it being used for their blog postings ensuring communication of standards is consistent. Having
the students be peer and self-assessed will also practice their agency and contribute to their final mark, making
them an integral part of the marking process. This will result in the students knowing specifically where their
mark comes from as opposed to relying solely on teacher feedback and opinion. Intervention planning for this
performance task will only happen before the project is due. Teacher will check in with every student during class
time, making sure they have a plan that sets them up for success prior to presenting their information. This
assignment has the opportunity to fulfill outcome CR 20.2 (View, comprehend, and develop coherent and
plausible interpretations of informational and literary First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, Canadian, and
international texts that use specialized visual features including illustrations, photographs, art works, maps,
charts, graphs). This project also demonstrates outcome CR 20.3 (Listen to, comprehend, and develop coherent
and plausible interpretations of grade-appropriate informational and literary First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan,
Canadian, and international texts, including spoken instructions, and argumentative and persuasive speeches) by
allowing students to explore and interpret the case of their choosing and responding via presentation of First
Saskatchewan Curriculum | English Language Arts 20. (2018). Curriculum.gov.sk.ca. Retrieved 3 February
2018, from https://www.curriculum.gov.sk.ca/webapps/moe-curriculum-
BBLEARN/CurriculumOutcomeContent?id=38&oc=75001
Rubric for Assessing a Journal Entry. (2018). Rcs.k12.in.us. Retrieved 3 February 2018, from
http://www.rcs.k12.in.us/files/Rubric%20for%20Assessing%20a%20Journal%20Entry.pdf