Student Choice for Learning: A Look at British Columbia’s English Language Arts 10 Curriculum
During the 2018-2019 school year, I took on an English course to finish up my Bachelor of Arts in General Studies, which I had started but wasn’t able to finish before being accepted into the Education program. I really liked the idea of a directed studies course, given my teaching philosophy on student choice, so I put in a topic proposal in June 2018, hoping to meet with my faculty mentor early in the school year. Unfortunately, the process took longer than anyone expected (although I was pleased to hear part of this was because THREE faculty members were interested in my proposal!), but I was able to work with a professor I had had for a prior class, and we worked so well together! The paper didn’t come out according to the proposed plan — I had initially wanted to reach out to principals, teachers, and students across the province to survey them about the changes to the English Language Arts curriculum (specifically at the secondary school level, for Grade 10), but I had to change my project into a more research-based assignment due to the time constraints. With all this said though, I still enjoyed working on this paper very much; it challenged some of my prior ideas I had about the changes and allowed me to reflect more on my teaching philosophy. If anyone is interested in reading the final product, the PDF link is posted at the top of the page. (Please keeping in mind though that this was written in 2019 — I recognize that some of the information about the BC schools may not reflect the current practices of secondary schools in the province now.)