Individualized Course Planning Guidelines for Grades 7 to 9

Students should:

• Take the free Orientation to Online Courses module before taking an online course

• Take at least one online course before Grade 10

• Think about their own learning processes by reflecting on their learning styles

• Show initiative in connecting with teachers and completing work

• Show determination by reviewing teacher feedback and report card comments and applying feedback to future work

• Show diligence in keeping up on course schedules

• Show courage to take chances in their work
  

• Clearly state their opinion and understand how to support it with solid facts, details, and logic

• Have experience in note and test taking skills
  

• Know how to create bibliographies
  

• Outline both sides of an issue comprehensively

• Engage in respectful debate debate with support, research, read between lines, and summarize

• Build stamina to manage a heavier workload and busier schedule

  • Often this includes extra curricular activities, part-time jobs, and other commitments

  • Students should be prepared to set aside a block of time each day/week to consistently work on each class, and learn to take advantage of school holidays and slow times in their schedule

Parents should:

• Actively work with their suppor teacher to increase rigor and workload gradually over Grades 7 to 9 in preparation for Grade 10

• Familiarize themselves with the HCOS Academic Integrity Policy

• Explore the Student Success Centre resources, including workshop recordings and slide decks

Students should:

• Show initiative with consistent work effort

• Use an organizational system (e.g., day planner, course pacing schedule, calendar)

• Set goals for course completion 

• Contact teachers regularly in order to stay on schedule and meet deadlines

• Reach out with questions as needed and know that teachers welcome questions and are keen to help 

• Read instructions and discern how much information or detail is being asked for or required 

• Apply teacher feedback on future work submissions

• Book appointments with Education Assistants in the Student Success Centre for additional support

Students should:

• Sign up for HCOS student accounts on the following platforms:
  • Google Workspace
  • Canva for Education
  • Read&Write
  • Grammarly
  • Adobe Creative Cloud
• Learn how to use Zoom

• Understand file management (e.g., uploading, downloading, creating a .zip folder, scanning documents)

• Learn appropriate email writing skills
  

• Communicate directly with their teachers through email and/or Zoom

Parents should:

• Learn how to navigate Encom

• Explore resources in the HCOS Learning Commons
  

• Contact tech support (tickets@onlineschool.ca) when technical issues arise

Students should: 

• Explore their own areas of interest (e.g., rebuild a small engine, make a quilt)

• Learn to use at least two new tools at each grade level to better understand personal preferences (e.g., woodworking, textiles, computers, foods, metalwork, marketing, entrepreneurship, robotics, drafting, electronics, coding, media arts) 

• Work through the Applied Design process: Understanding, Defining, Ideating, Prototyping, Testing, Making, Sharing

Students should:

• Explore the four arts disciplines: visual arts, drama, dance, music

  • students can select a single discipline to focus on for their Arts Education in K-9

• Use a variety of media types in visual arts (e.g., pencil, charcoal, paints, wood, plaster, digital)

• Show basic understanding of the elements and principles of design 

• Explore art history to learn about contributions of artists across genres, communities, times, and places

• Attend in-person or virtual performances to experience arts and culture in a variety of settings

 Students should:

• Explore money management: interest rates, mortgages, investing, bank accounts

• Learn to use physical and digital time management tools

• Prepare for the term visits and present independently

• Set daily, weekly, and monthly goals for academic and holistic development
  

• Do at least one “personal inventory” online assessment to learn more about themselves  

• Attend Grad Orientation Week in March

• Research volunteer opportunities in their community to prepare for volunteer hours needed for graduation 

Students should:

• Explore the HCOS Christian Studies Curriculum website for resources
• Work on individual Bible study activities and programs (e.g., independently, with family members, at church youth group)

• Complete a variety of spiritual growth activities:

  • Journal responses that include reflections on own faith and choices

  • Book studies

  • Volunteer logs (e.g., church ministry teams, community service)

  • Reflections on experiences 

  • Acts of service
    

Students should:

• Have an understanding of proofreading, grammar, and sentence structure  

• Write well developed paragraphs and essays

  • Construct a unified paragraph with a strong topic sentence, well-researched supporting details, and a concluding sentence 

  • Write a five paragraph essay with an introduction, thesis statement, three supporting paragraphs, and conclusion

• Develop communication skills (e.g., face-to-face conversations, email and Zoom etiquette)

• Share ideas through writing, talk-to-text, and/or audio recording

• Build capacity to explore issues, themes, and deeper meanings beyond the surface of a plot

• Cite resources in-text and on a bibliography page using a standard citation format (e.g., MLA)
• Use appropriate digital citation practices
• Develop digital citizenship and ethics, including appropriate use of AI and other digital tools
• Understand plagiarism and the impact of using other people's work as their own

 Students should:

• Read a grade level text (e.g., basic word problems and convert into math equations to solve a question)

• Show their mathematical thinking on paper in an organized way (e.g., show steps to solve equations)

• Plan and complete a math project
  

• Have experience answering math questions from different resources

• Be familiar with the following topics before Grade 10:

  • • Add/subtract/multiply/divide fractions, decimals, and integers - with and without a calculator 

    • Percentages

    • Work with variables and to solve for unknowns in an equation

    • Integer exponents

    • Order of operations (e.g., BEDMAS)

    • Area and perimeter of 2D and 3D shapes

    • The coordinate plane (e.g., plot points, x-axis, y-axis)
      

Students who use an American textbook in Math 9 should supplement their learning with Theory and Problems for Mathematics 9 - Third Edition by Crescent Beach Publication. Students can also use this workbook to learn about non-algebra Math 9 concepts (e.g., Finance, Logical Reasoning, Probability, Scale Factors).

 Students should: 

• Understand the needs for consistent physical activity

• Set up a plan for physical activity and implement it on a regular basis
  

• Record physical activity in a regular log by writing out activity descriptions, durations, and physical exertion levels

• Participate in a variety of physical activities (e.g., individual/dual, locomotor/non-locomotor, throwing/catching/kicking, hand-eye coordination sports)

• Try new individual and team sports and activities (e.g., badminton, dance, ping pong, tennis, golf, baseball, pickle ball) 
  

• Engage in health learning (e.g., nutrition, personal safety, personal identity, mental well-being, physical, emotional, and social changes)

Students should:

• Write formal lab reports, including a testable hypothesis

• Use collected data to support a claim

• Apply mathematical formulas (e.g., substituting values and solving)

• Create original, labeled diagrams

• Know chemical formulas and names of chemical compounds 

• Explain the process of cell division (e.g., mitosis and meiosis) 

• Understand the idea that energy comes in many forms and can be transformed into different types of energy

By the end of Grade 9, students should have covered all four science domains: Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Earth Science. Many of the building blocks for Science 10 are taught in Grades 7 to 9 and students who do not explore all areas required by the BC curriculum are at a significant disadvantage in their high school years. Learn more by visiting the Science 7-9 Assessment, Resources, Planning page.

Students should:

• Have foundational knowledge of verb conjugation, vocabulary, sentence structure, and pronunciation
  

• Experience speaking the language with a native speaker

• Research arts and cultural experiences of countries where the language is spoken
• Read simple stories and answer basic reading comprehension questions

 Second language learning requires knowledge of verb conjugation, vocabulary, sentence structure, and pronunciation. To help develop confidence and fluency, students should focus on one language in their middle school years, and refrain from moving between multiple languages before entering Grade 10. 

 Students should:

• Write well developed paragraphs and essays

  • Construct a unified paragraph with a strong topic sentence, well-researched supporting details, and a concluding sentence 

  • Write a five paragraph essay with an introduction, thesis statement, three supporting paragraphs, and conclusion

• Conduct research using academic search engines (e.g., Explora Canada, Gale Databases), not just Google and Wikipedia

• Study Canadian history prior to World War 1

• Develop skills in reflection, analysis and investigation

  • Formulate and support an argument, and to be able to anticipate counter points or arguments)

  • Be mindful of audience as writers

  • Understand that learning is just about knowing content, but making meaning

• Reflect on how their faith tradition informs their historical understanding of the world
  

• Build capacity to explore issues, themes, and deeper meanings beyond the surface of a question
  • Students who have only been exposed to curricula that emphasizes reading comprehension with multiple choice and fill in the blanks assessments will struggle in Grade 10
• Cite resources in-text and on a bibliography page using a standard citation format (e.g., MLA)