FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
Ontario Catholic Elementary
Curriculum Policy Document,
Grades 1-8 (2012)
A first for Catholic educators in
Ontario
• The Fully Alive program of the Bishops
of Ontario has been an integral part of
the Catholic elementary school
curriculum for more than twenty years
• The Ontario Catholic Elementary
Curriculum Policy Document,
Grades 1-8: Family Life
Education (2012) aligns this
program with curriculum
policy
A document walk-through
• This purpose of this presentation is to
highlight the key aspects of the
curriculum policy document for Family
Life Education
• Specific pages will be referenced
• Educators will require a print
or electronic copy of the
document
• An electronic version can be
found at www.iceont.ca
Contents
• Introduction
• The Program in Family Life Education
• Assessment and Evaluation of Student
Achievement
• Some Considerations for Program Planning
in Family Life Education
• Overview of Grades
• Appendix: Learning Summaries
by Strand
• Appendix: Catholic Church
Teachings on Family Life Ed
Introduction
• The Ministry of Education granted
permission for the extensive use of the
elementary Health and Physical Education
policy document (pg. 1)
• Direct excerpts from the ministry
document are indented and
referenced by page
• Content specific to FLE
follows the excerpts, often
with the phrase, “In Ontario
Catholic schools…”
Catholic documents are
highlighted
• Throughout the document, key resources
from our Catholic tradition are cited (e.g.
Ontario Catholic School Graduate
Expectations – pg. 1)
• Scan through the document
• Identify other Catholic
resources in the
Introduction
• Be aware of other Catholic
resources in the remainder
of the document
Vision
The family life education curriculum is
based on the vision that the knowledge,
skills, attitudes and values acquired in
the program will benefit students
throughout their lives and help them to
thrive in an ever-changing world by
enabling them to acquire a Christian vision
of personhood, relationships,
and sexuality and to develop
the comprehension, capacity,
and commitment needed to
lead fully human lives
The Program in FLE
• The policy document identifies the
expectations for each grade and
identifies the knowledge, skills,
attitudes, and values that students are
expected to acquire, demonstrate, and
apply (pg. 10)
• NOTE: educators do not
assess attitudes and values
(footnote pg. 10)
Take a moment to become
familiar with the elements
found on a curriculum
expectations page, as
noted in the diagram
on page 11.
The Strands in FLE
• Correspond with the themes of Fully
Alive program
– A: Created and Loved by God
– B: Living in Relationship
– C: Created Sexual Male and Female
– D: Growing in Commitment
– E: Living in the World
• See pp. 12 to 17 for strand
descriptors
Overall Expectations
• Describe in general terms the
knowledge, skills, attitudes and values
that students are expected to
demonstrate
• There are three overalls per strand
• The overalls are repeated in
constant terms for each
strand from grade to grade
pg. 62
Within the same strand (A: Created and Loved by God), the
Overalls are identical from grade to grade. This reflects the
developmental nature of the curriculum from grades 1 to 8.
pg. 92
pg. 75
From strand to strand, the Overalls are of the same type:
Overall 1 – Appreciating God’s Goodness
Overall 2 – Exploring Human Nature
Overall 3 – Reflecting, Responding, and Analyzing
Pg. 62
Specific Expectations
• Find their source in Fully Alive
• Expectations of two types – cognitive
and affective
• Affective expectations are generally
clustered under Overall Expectation 1
and may not be appropriate
for evaluation (see pg. 20)
Assessment and Evaluation
• A value is assigned to represent the
quality of student work may be a letter
or percentage grade, or an anecdotal
comment, according to Board practice
• Again, it is inappropriate to try to
evaluate matters such as a
students’ spiritual or
emotional life, and their
progress in moral
development (pg. 18)
The Achievement Chart
• Take a moment to become familiar
with the achievement chart for FLE on
pages 24 and 25
• Note the similarities and differences
between this achievement chart and
those in other subject areas
Some considerations for program
planning in FLE
Some points of note include:
• The curriculum allows students to come
to a deeper awareness of self; and
teachers of students (pg. 27)
• There should be at least four religious
education classes for every
one FLE class (pg. 28)
• At times, it may be
appropriate for males and
females to learn separately
(pg. 29)
• FLE expectations provide opportunity to
develop the learning skills articulated in
Growing Success (pg. 31); the living skills
of Health & Physical Education (pg. 33);
and the Healthy Living expectations of
Health and Physical Education (pg. 33-35)
• The current provincial report card does
not have an IEP box (footnotes pg. 37
and 38)
• The FLE curriculum is a lifeaffirming, developmental
program that honours the
dignity of every student
(pg. 39)
• The FLE curriculum supports many
Ministry of Education foci:
– Environmental education (pp. 42-43)
– Healthy relationships (pp. 43-44)
– Equity & inclusive education (pp. 44-45)
– Literacy and inquiry (pp. 45-47)
– Critical thinking/literacy (pp. 47-49)
– Financial literacy (pg. 53)
Overview of grades
• Precede the expectations for each
division – primary, junior and
intermediate (for example, pp. 54-59)
• Describe (in general terms) the
physical, cognitive and affective
domains typical of learners
for each division
• Relate this understanding of
the learner to the content
of each strand
Learning Summaries by Strand
• Charts provide a summary of key
concepts and/or skills in each strand
from grades 1 to 8 (pp. 122-133)
• The expectations language used in
these charts is from Appendix A of
revised Fully Alive program
• Show how key concepts
follow a developmental
progression
Catholic Church Teachings on FLE
• An appendix identifying key documents
related to FLE from:
– The Second Vatican Council
– The Papacy
– The Holy See
– The Canadian Catholic Bishops
– The Ontario Catholic Bishops
– The Ontario Catholic School
Trustees’ Association
– The Institute for Catholic
Education