Course Selection
Guiding Principles
This chart should be used as a guideline. Check the box that best describes the student’s habits then use the results to assist you in selecting their pathway. The student’s abilities and efforts should be examined for each subject area. What may be true in English may not be true for math.
Generally, if a student has obtained marks in the high seventies or above in grade 8, the recommendation would be to take academic courses in grade 9. If lack of academic effort and success is a concern in grade 8, the academic courses with their accelerated pace and increased depth of material covered may not be the appropriate choice.
Course Types
Academic Courses
• Develop students’ knowledge and skills through the study of theory and abstract problems
• Focus on the essential concepts of a subject and explore related concepts as well.
• Course materials are taught at an accelerated pace.
Open Courses
• Designed to broaden students’ knowledge and skills in subjects that reflect their interests.
• One level of study for all students.
Course Selection
Students may:
• Take a combination of Academic, Applied, and open courses
• In most cases, change between Academic and Applied when moving from grade 9 to grade 10. Math is an exception to the rule (Grade 9 applied to grade 10 academic requires a reach ahead summer school course.
Alternately, a student can take MPM1D > MPM2D in their grade 10 year.)
When selecting courses, students and parents are encouraged to consider:
• Academic abilities (grade 8 marks and teacher comments)
• Interests
• Work habits
• Organizational skills
• Learning styles
This year, our school starts with de-streaming. That means Northern offers Grade 9 Academic courses in the mainstream (English, Math, Science, and Geography. That being said the students will take Academic grade 9 courses (English, Math, Science, Geography, French, and Languages). The rest of the courses are open. Please see course selections sheet for the details. But we do offer Grade 10, 11, and 12 Applied courses in D/HH Dept.
Northern SS Course Selection Frequently Asked Questions:
Please find answers below to the following questions:
What does Out-of-Area Status “Closed” mean?
What are the restrictions if my student does not fall into our Secondary catchment, but does fall into both Technological and Commercial catchment.
What does the 6th character on a course code indicate? For example, grade 9 English code is “ENL1W __”
What French course should our grade 8 students select for grade 9 at Northern SS?
What does Out-of-Area Status “Closed” mean?
A ‘Closed’ status means that grade 8 students who can attend Northern in grade 9 must fall into our catchment via home address. Northern has three catchment areas: Secondary School, Technological Programming and Commercial School.
The TDSB determines the Out-of-Area status for a school. It is not determined by the individual school.
When grade 8 schools are working with their students, they will need to ensure students meet the address catchment requirement before being transitioned in Power School to Northern SS.
What are the restrictions if my student does not fall into our Secondary catchment, but does fall into both Technological and Commercial catchment.
Northern has three catchments:
Secondary – home school catchment
Commercial School – business catchment
Technological Programming – technology catchment
Any student based on home address who falls into Northern’s catchment ONLY for Commercial (Business) and/or Technology, and not for the Secondary catchment, must take a minimum of 1 commercial (business) and/or technology course per school year depending on their catchment.
Please note: if a student does not fall into the Secondary catchment by home address, but falls under BOTH the Commercial and Technology catchments, they have the choice to take either a Business or Technology course per year, with consideration that all pre-requisites are met.
Students who fall into the Secondary catchment (even if they also fall into the Comm or Tech catchments) have no restriction on their elective course choice – they have the freedom to select what they want, without the Tech/Comm restrictions.
What does the 6th character on a course code indicate? For example, grade 9 English code is “ENL1W __”
The 6th character on a course code indicates the stream. To access Special Education Streams (LD/Core or Gifted) or ELL streams, students must meet criteria.
‘6’ as the 6th character - indicates the Gifted stream.
‘9’ as the 6th character- indicates the grade 9 Special Education LD/Core stream.
‘H’ as the 6th character - indicates Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) stream.
‘8’ as the 6th character- indicates English and a Second Language (ESL/ELL) stream.
‘0’ as the 6th character- indicates AP or pre-AP
What French course should our grade 8 students select for grade 9 at Northern SS?
FSF1D1 - grade 9 Academic French
For incoming grade 9 students who have been enrolled in an Ontario school since grade 4 (600 hours of instruction).
These students HAVE NOT achieved a min. provincial standard level 3/70% in French Immersion (grade 6) or Extended French (grade 8). No placement assessment required.
FSF1O1 - grade 9 Beginner French
For students with fewer than 600 hours of French instruction. THis could be a student who enrolled in an Ontario school grade 5 or later.
FSF2D1 - grade 10 Academic French
Recommended for incoming grade 9 students that achieved a min. provincial standard level 3/70% in French Immersion (grade 6) or Extended French (grade 8). No placement assessment required.
Students from a Francophone household or school should contact lori-ann.moulton@tdsb.on.ca for placement.