English Language Arts and Literature 4-6 Overview

According to the 2023 Elementary English Language Arts and Literature curriculum, “Language is a uniquely structured system that forms the basis for thinking, communicating, and learning.” The curriculum is built around the six strands of language learning: reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and representing, with each strand touching on aspects of digital media literacy. The K-6 curriculum notes that English Language Arts and Literature “[helps] students develop deep understandings of others and themselves, build and strengthen interpersonal relationships, and engage in responsible citizenship,” integrating digital citizenship within citizenship education. To that end, digital media literacy education is integrated into elements of ethical citizenship, critical analysis of literature, differentiation of fact from opinion, access of information, and citation of sources.

Social Studies

The Nova Scotia social studies curriculum includes expectations that incorporate media education themes. The curriculum document Foundation for the Atlantic Canada English Language Arts Curriculum: Social Studies (1999) includes a section that demonstrates the complementary relationship between media literacy and arts education:

Technology Education K-12

The Atlantic Provinces technology education curriculum includes expectations that incorporate digital and media education themes. The curriculum document Foundation for the Atlantic Canada Technology Education Curriculum includes a section that demonstrates the complementary relationship between digital and media literacy and technology education:

The focus of this curriculum is the development of students’ technological literacy, capability, and responsibility (International Technology Education Association, 1996).

Business

Many curricular expectations in Ontario Business courses relate to media and digital literacy. The following excerpt from Business Studies, Grades 9 and 10 (2006) detail how media and digital literacy have been integrated into the curriculum:

Applied Design, Skills and Technologies

In 2016, British Columbia launched a new  Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies curriculum which it describes as “an experiential, hands-on program of learning through design and creation that includes skills and concepts from traditional and First Peoples practice; from the existing disciplines of Business Education, Home Economics and Culinary Arts, Information and Communication Technology, and Technology Education; and from new and emerging fields.  It fosters the development of the skills and knowledge that will support students in developing practical, creative, and innovative responses to everyday needs and challenges.”

Learning Strategies Grades 10-12

The purpose of the Learning Strategies open elective credit is to help students “gain transferable skills and strategies that will enhance and increase their school engagement…”[1] 

There are five key areas pertaining to the course:

Career Education

The Newfoundland career education curriculum includes expectations that incorporate media education themes. The curriculum document Career Development Intermediate (2012) includes a section that demonstrates the complementary relationship between media literacy and career education:

English as a Second Language Overview

In Ontario, media components are included in the English as a Second Language curriculum in the Social-Cultural Competence and Media Literacy strand. The document English as a Second Language and English Literacy Development (2007) identifies four overall expectations in this strand:

Indigenous Education Overview

Indigenous education is the overarching incorporation of indigenous perspectives across Manitoba’s curriculum. Many curricular expectations in Manitoba Aboriginal Language and Studies courses relate to media and digital literacy. The following excerpt from Current Topics in First Nations, Metis and Inuit Studies (2011) detail how media and digital literacy have been integrated into the curriculum:

Career Education

Career Development 10 “prepares students with broad strokes to prepare for the workplace.”[1]  Alongside learning self-assessment and increasing their self-awareness, students will “examine the changing world of work and analyse ways they can be prepared for a future that is constantly evolving.”[2]  Financial literacy makes up a large part of this course because students will be introduced to “budgeting, financial decision making and money management strategies…”[3] Career Development 11 carries on from its precursor, by “building on students’ developing personal and financial aw