My Literacy Philosophy and Assessment Plan

Students will become historians in their ability to analyze primary and secondary
documents. Students will explore the documents to investigate how such historical
events are relevant to the student of history and to todays present society. Students will
create their own personal understandings, opinions and positions on these events and
controversies.

Literacy
Aims

What I will do

What students
will do

What success
looks like

To become
critical
writers

I will provide
examples of
professional
reviews and
model how to
write arguments
towards primary
and secondary
sources. I will
show students
how to write
their own
argumentative
thesis
statements.
I will model how
to decode
specific texts.
We will as a
class learn how
to find the
authors
argument
and/or purpose
for writing. We
will examine its
importance for
the
understanding
of the text.

Students will be
writing both factual
responses and
argumentative
essays throughout
the semester.
Students will have
more checkpoints
and peer edits in the
beginning of the
semester.

Students will
develop
responses arguing
a specific
viewpoint and will
create well
developed thesis
statements with
supporting
evidence
throughout the
writing.

Students will be
highlighting,
underlining and
writing in the
margins on their
papers. This shows
that they are
interacting, engaged
and thinking deeply
with the text.

There is
Highlighting on
student papers of
the main idea/ key
supporting
evidence relating
to the main idea.

To become
critical
readers

Assessment:
How I will
measure
success
The thesis
statements will
become clearer
and more
specific as the
semester goes
on. The thesis
should be
supported with
evidence
throughout the
writing.

Students will be
able to identify
the authors
main argument
in a text while
being able to
justify the
purpose
/argument with
supporting
textual based
evidence.

To become
critical
speakers

To become
skill full
researchers

To
synthesize
information

I will use
academic
language in my
dialogue and
question
student
responses with
higher level
follow up
questions.
Class time will
be provided for
debate like
situations.
I will hold
research days
to teach how to
properly sort
through and
investigate both
print and web
based sources.
I will model the
difference
between a
credible and
non-credible
source.

I will model how

to examine
different
sources and
pull out
information
regarding a
common theme
to create a new
idea/argument.
This will be
done by looking
at both primary
and secondary

Students will be
expected to use
academic discourse
such as After
evaluation I found
or I interpreted the
authors argument to
mean Students
will be able to
verbally defend their
position on certain
topics.

Open round table

discussions will
occur, where
students are
questioning each
other and
providing well
thought out and in
depth arguments
and responses to
each other.

Participation
during
discussions will
be monitored.
Students will be
assessed on
the
improvement of
their vocabulary
and discourse.

Students will be
sorting through
different texts to
seek its relevance to
their topic of
interest. They will be
following guidelines
to ensure their
sources are credible
by finding the
author/copyright
information/publishe
r of the source. They
will be examining
their sources from a
non-biased
perspective so they
can form their own
opinions.
Students will be
examining various
primary and
secondary sources
as well as doing
their own research
to find similar
documents with a
common theme.
They will then be
creating their own
argument/opinion
based on the
historical topic.

Students are
interacting with
various sources
and are finding
information from
both print and web
sources. The
students are
excited about their
research and their
investigation
keeps leading
them to new
sources.

Students will
find enough
credible
information to
gain a full
understanding
of a specific
topic, which will
allow them to
form an opinion
and create their
own argument.

The themes that

students find
between
documents will
become stronger
and more defined.
Students will have
an easier time
finding these
themes. Students
will be confident
on the position
they take towards
the historical

The ability of
students to
extract linking
themes among
various different
primary and
secondary
sources in
order to form
well researched
strong
argumentative
statements.

sources and
trying to find the
common link.

topic. Their
arguments will
become stronger.