Drama Marks
Overview of Your Marks
The Ministry of Education of Ontario mandates that all course knowledge and skill be divided and evaluated based on 4 separate strands that can be applied to all courses, regardless of specific content:
Knowledge
Thinking/Inquiry
Communication
Application
However, these categories aren’t considered equal when it comes to their worth. Each course may place a different importance or weight to each of these categories or evaluation strands, as they are called, based on specific course content. For more detail on the weighting used in specific courses, please click on the course pages under the "Dance Courses" page in the side bar.
Additionally, not every assignment will evaluate a skill that falls under each category. For example, a research project that requires a fact-based presentation may evaluate student skills in knowledge (how much did the student know about the topic) and Communication (how well did they present their topic and related information). Therefore, you would see the assignment name twice: once in the knowledge category and once in the communication category. Each mark is independent although they may, coincidentally, be the same mark.
Weight and how it affects your mark
As per Ministry of Education requirements, each course must be comprised of class assignments, tests, quizzes and presentations (which should total 70% of the final report card mark) and a final cumulative assignment (which should total 30% of the final report card mark).
Within the 70% class work section, the weighting of the assignments must follow the mandates set out in the course outline (which reflects Ministry Curriculum guidelines). For example, if these were your Evaluation category weights:
Knowledge=20%
Thinking/Inquiry=25%
Communication=25%
Application=30%
Then, when you figure out what they would be worth in the overall final mark, you need to figure out what those percentages would be out of 70%:
Knowledge = 20% of 70% = 14%
Thinking/Inquiry = 25% of 70% = 17.5%
Communication = 25% of 70% = 17.5%
Application = 30% of 70% = 21%
However, the other difficult part is including the requirement to assess each student based on the most consistent marks and the most recent marks, which affects the overall weighting of each assignment.
The final cumulative 30% may comprise of assignments, exams or a combination of both. To help reduce pressure on students, teachers are encouraged to split the cumulative 30% into more than one item (e.g. 3 parts: 2 assignments, 1 exam), so that students have more chances to succeed. The cumulative 30% must evaluate all of the above categories
Where to get more information:
For more information on grading and the standards of the Ministry of Education of Ontario, please see the Ministry of Education web site at: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/
You can also view specific information on required curriculum for individual courses at the high school level at: