Working with Multiple Courses / Instructional Supports for All Students: High School Social Studies

Frequently, students who are enrolled in Knowledge and Employability Social Studies 20-4 are in the same class as students who are enrolled in Social Studies 20-2. Although there are similar themes in the two courses, there are differences in the learning outcomes. This will impact decisions that you must make in order to differentiate for students in the two courses.

For example, in 20-4.4, students are only asked to address examples of national symbols, institutions and government programs when exploring methods used in Canada to promote a national identity (20-4.4e). In Social Studies 20-2 Related Issue 4, students are also asked to address examples of mythology (4.5). In 20-4, students are also asked to focus on the following examples to explore historical perspectives of Canada as a nation: Fathers of Confederation, First Nations treaties and the Indian Act, Métis and Inuit self-governance, and Pierre Trudeau (20-4.4f); whereas in 20-2, students also explore Louis LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin, Louis Riel, French Canadian nationalism, and the National Indian Brotherhood (4.6). The additional 20-2 examples do not need to be explicitly addressed, and they should not be summatively assessed for students in Social Studies 20-4.

There are similarities in the Skills and Processes outcomes for both courses; however, subtle differences exist in the complexity of the skills that students are required to demonstrate. When designing assessment tasks, it is essential to focus on the verb of the outcome to ensure that the assessment task is true to the level of cognition embedded within the outcome. When adapting 20-4 materials for a 20-2 class, it may be necessary to increase the complexity of the assessment task to align with a higher level skill.

Samples of how this adaptation plays out in an actual classroom context are provided in the Instructional Example.

Note: A full comparison of the outcomes from Social Studies 20-4, 20-2 and 20-1 can be found in Programs of Study Outcome Correlations for Social Studies 20-4, 20-2 and 20-1 PDF .