Havergal College Course Calendar, 2019-20 Academic Year

Academic Information

3. Learning Skills and Work Habits The development of learning skills and work habits are an integral part of a student’s learning and are critical to student success (pp 10, 12) . Teachers work with students to help them understand and develop learning skills and work habits (p 13) . Teachers assess, evaluate and report on learning skills and work habits separately from their assessing, evaluating and reporting on the achievement of curriculum expectations. Unless learning skills are an integral part of the Ministry Curriculum Expectations, their assessment is not included in the final grade (pp 10, 45) . All teachers will assess the learning skills and will include their learning skills comments integrated into the academic comment as necessary or appropriate.

Assessment and Evaluation Practices (OS 2.3)

Havergal’s Assessment and Evaluation practices are aligned to the guidelines outlined in Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Ontario Schools, 2010 . The page numbers in this document refer specifically to the Growing Success document.

1. Purpose of Assessment and Evaluation The primary purpose of student assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning (p 6) . The assessment and evaluation process involves the continual gathering and interpreting evidence of student learning in a way that promotes a positive learning experience and improves student learning. Teachers’ professional judgements are at the heart of effective assessment, evaluation and reporting of student achievement (p 8) . 2. Fundamental Principles of Assessment and Evaluation The assessment and evaluation policy is based on fundamental principles that guide the collection of meaningful information that will help inform instructional decisions, promote student engagement and improve student learning (p 6) . To ensure that assessment, evaluation, and reporting are fair, valid and reliable, and that they lead to the improvement of learning for all students, teachers use practices and procedures that: • are fair, transparent and equitable for all students (p 6) ; • support all students to show what they have learned (p 6) ; • are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and as much as possible, to the interest, learning styles and preferences, needs, and experiences of all students (p 6) ; • are clearly communicated to students and parents at the beginning of the school year or course and at other appropriate times (p 6) ; • are ongoing, varied in nature and administered over a period of time to provide multiple opportunities and a variety of ways for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning (p 6) ; • provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to support improved learning and achievement; feedback tells students what they are doing well, where improvements are needed and how to improve (p 6) ; • develop students’ self-assessment skills to enable them to assess their own learning, set specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning (p 6) ; • include evaluations based on evidence of student learning that are consistently graded with reference to established criteria for four levels of achievement (pp 2, 19) .

24  HAVERGAL COLLEGE | Course Calendar 2019–20