Teacher(s):

Course Description:

This course builds on students’ previous experience with functions and their developing understanding of rates of change. Students will solve problems involving geometric and algebraic representations of vectors and representations of lines and planes in three dimensional space; broaden their understanding of rates of change to include the derivatives of polynomial, sinusoidal, exponential, rational, and radical functions; and apply these concepts and skills to the modelling of real-world relationships. Students will also refine their use of the mathematical processes necessary for success in senior mathematics. This course is intended for students who choose to pursue careers in fields such as science, engineering, economics, and some areas of business, including those students who will be required to take a university-level calculus, linear algebra, or physics course. 

Resources Required:

This course is entirely online and does not require nor rely on any textbook. The materials required for the course are: 

• A scanner, smart phone camera, or similar device to digitize handwritten or hand-drawn work, 
• A non-programmable, non-graphing, scientific calculator. 
• Spreadsheet software 
• Word processing software 
• Graphing software (available online through Desmos) 

Teaching and Learning Strategies:

The overriding aim of this course is to help students use the language of mathematics skillfully, confidently, and flexibly. A wide variety of instructional strategies are used to provide learning opportunities to accommodate a variety of learning styles, interests, and ability levels. The following mathematical processes are used throughout the course as strategies for teaching and learning the concepts presented: 

• Problem solving: This course scaffolds learning by providing students with opportunities to review and activate prior knowledge, and build off of this knowledge to acquire new skills. The course guides students toward recognizing opportunities to apply knowledge they have gained to solve real-world mathematics problems relating to careers that require mathematics. 
• Activating: This course scaffolds learning by providing students with opportunities to review and activate prior knowledge, and build off of this knowledge to acquire new skills. The course guides students toward recognizing opportunities to apply knowledge they have gained to solve real-world mathematics problems relating to careers that require mathematics. 
• Connecting: The course activates prior knowledge when introducing a new concept in order to make a smooth connection between previous learning and new concepts, and introducing skills in context to make connections between particular manipulations and problems that require them. 
• Representing: Through the use of examples, practice problems, and solution videos, the course models various ways to demonstrate understanding, poses questions that require students to use different representations as they are working at each level of conceptual development – concrete, visual or symbolic, and allows individual students the time they need to solidify their understanding at each conceptual stage. 
• Selecting Tools and Computational Strategies: This course models the use of graphing software to help solve problems and to familiarize students with technologies that can help make solving problems faster and more accurate. Students will also investigate software used in a career that they are interested in, and describe how it relates to mathematics. 
• Connecting: This course connects the concepts taught to real-world applications (e.g. concepts taught in geometry are related to careers in manufacturing). Students will have opportunities to connect previous concepts to new concepts through posed problems, investigations, and enrichment activities. 
• Self-Assessment: Through the use of interactive activities (e.g. multiple choice quizzes, and drag-and-drop activities) students receive instantaneous feedback and are able to self-assess their understanding of concepts. 

Assessment and Evaluation Strategies of Student Performance:

Every student attending Christian Virtual School is unique. We believe each student must have the opportunities to achieve success according to their own interests, abilities, and goals. Like the Ministry of Education, we have defined high expectations and standards for graduation, while introducing a range of options that allow students to learn in ways that suit them best and enable them to earn their diplomas. Christian Virtual School’s Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting Policy is based on seven fundamental principles, as outlined in the Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Ontario Schools document. 

When these seven principles are fully understood and observed by all teachers, they guide the collection of meaningful information that helps inform instructional decisions, promote student engagement, and improve student learning. At Christian Virtual School, teachers use practices and procedures that: 

• are fair, transparent, and equitable for all students; 
• support all students, including those with special education needs, those who are learning English, and those who are First Nation, Métis, or Inuit; 
• are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and, as much as possible, to the interests, learning styles and preferences, needs, and experiences of all students; 
• are communicated clearly to students and parents or guardians at the beginning of the school year or course and at other appropriate points throughout the school year or course; 
• are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning; 
• provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to support improved learning and achievement; and 
• develop students’ self-assessment skills to enable them to access their own learning, set specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning. 

For more information on Christian Virtual School’s general assessment and evaluation strategies, you can refer to our Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting Policy. 

To ensure that we are meeting the principles of Growing Success, we carefully plan all the assessments within our courses.  

First and foremost, they are designed as opportunities for students to improve their learning. Assessment for the purpose of improving student learning is seen as both “assessment for learning” and “assessment as learning,” according to Growing Success. As part of assessment for learning, teachers provide students with descriptive feedback and coaching for improvement. Teachers engage in assessment as learning by helping all students develop their capacity to be independent, autonomous learners who can set individual goals, monitor their own progress, determine next steps, and reflect on their thinking and learning. Examples of these types of assessments in this course include: 

Second, we focus on a balance between assessing students’ acquisition of knowledge as well as their skills of thinking, communication, and application of subject-specific material. In this course, you can expect assessment to be divided into the following balance:

Lastly, the assessments are designed so that teachers have an opportunity to gain an understanding of a student’s learning through direct observation of students, one-on-one conversations with students, and evaluating products that students submit. Examples of these methods in this course include:

For more information on our assessment and evaluation strategies, refer to Section 6, Student Achievement, in the Course Calendar.

Program Planning Considerations: