Saskatchewan
This section comprises a curricular overview (below), as well as information about professional development for media education, and about Saskatchewan's provincial media education association, Media Literacy Saskatchewan (MLS), in the left menu.
Also included in the left menu are curriculum charts for Grades K-12 that feature media education outcomes in the Saskatchewan English Language Arts and Communication Production Technology curricula, with links to supporting MediaSmarts resources and lessons.
Last reviewed in August 2023
Curricular Overview
Saskatchewan is a member of the Western and Norhtern Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Basic Education (WNCP), formed in 1993 for curriculum development by the four Western provinces and the Yukon and Northwest Territories.
The WNCP Common Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts, completed in 1997, contains a strong media education component.
The Saskatchewan Department of Education has developed curriculum guides for Grades 6-9 English Language Arts (July 1997) and for Grades 10-12 English Language Arts (April 1999). Each curriculum is centred on the philosophy of language as the base for communicating, learning and thinking. These guides use the outcomes of the WCP as a framework, but identify specific listening, speaking, reading, writing, representing and viewing objectives for each grade level and suggest thematic and issue-based units as means of integrating and interrelating the six strands. In these guides, all six strands, including representing and viewing, are seen as important ways in which students can communicate and learn.
In addition to the five required English Language Arts courses at the secondary level (Grades 10-12), students may take elective courses that include media-related modules. Students may choose to take Media Studies 20, Journalism Studies 20, Communication Studies 20 and Creative Writing 20. Communication Production Technology, for Grades 10-12, also includes a wide range of media-related learning objectives.
The elementary level (Grades K-5) English Language Arts curriculum guide (January 2002) has been revised to reflect the WCP framework and complement the new middle and secondary curricula.
Opportunities for media studies are integrated throughout units and modules of the Arts Education curricula, Grades K-12. Some examples include:
- modules on popular culture and mass media in secondary level Visual Arts and Arts Education curricula (1996)
- activities on representation of women in rock music, violence in rock music and the creation of radio plays in secondary level Music and Drama
Additional opportunities exist for incorporation of media education in all units and modules of Arts Education. The examples cited above are only suggestions.
In Saskatchewan, Health Education is a required area of study in Grades 1-9. In Health Education: A Curriculum Guide for the Elementary Level (Grades 1-5, 1998) students begin to consider the media as a source of health-related information. They learn not to take the media's print messages, audio messages and visuals at face value. In Health Education: A Curriculum Guide for the Middle Level (July 1998) students learn to consider the media as a source of health information and to evaluate the health-related information presented in the media's print messages, audio messages and visuals.
The Saskatchewan Department of Education provides teachers with extensive resources on the Evergreen Internet site. All curricula include sample teaching units and are accompanied by an annotated bibliography of suggested resources.