Teaching SEL When You Need Graded Evidence in Northwest Territories

Quick answer: Collect the evidence in class, because nothing else will do it for you. Under the new NWT graduation requirements the literacy and numeracy assessments appear on transcripts but no longer count toward final course grades, so an SEL course mark rests entirely on dated work students produce in front of you.

Why does classroom evidence carry more weight now?

The graduation requirements that started rolling out with Grade 10 in 2024-25 replaced subject-specific diploma exams with literacy and numeracy assessments. Those results sit on the transcript, but they do not feed the course grade any more. Whatever a student earns in your room is the mark, which makes the quality of what you collect a professional question rather than an administrative one.

Choose material that produces an argument on paper. Forgiveness & Reconciliation – Arendt · Luke 15 · Truth Commission | Ethics & Religious Studies (11-12) works through forgiveness and reconciliation with Arendt, a biblical parable and truth-commission material, and it ends with students taking a position they have to support. That position paragraph is your evidence: dated, specific, and defensible to a parent or a principal who asks in June how the grade was reached.

What counts as evidence under curricular competencies?

The territory is converting from Alberta's programs of study to British Columbia's competency-based curriculum, grade by grade, with the transition targeted for completion in 2028. Practically, that means the wording in front of you changes depending on which grade you teach. Evidence built as a described performance survives both: what the student did, under what conditions, judged against criteria they saw first.

Keep the record in three columns and it will fit any labelling system: the date, the task, and one sentence of what the student demonstrated. Curricular competencies and content are described in words, so a mark alone answers nothing when a file is reviewed. Northwest Territories Curriculum Teaching Resources (K–12) gathers the Northwest Territories material by grade band if you are rebuilding a course this year.

How do I collect it without doubling my marking?

One artifact every two weeks is plenty, provided it is short and scored on the spot. A single-point rubric helps here: write the standard in the middle column, and only note what fell short or went beyond. Students self-assess first, you confirm or adjust, and the whole thing takes the last eight minutes of the period.

Middle-years material has to be worth a mark on its own. Happiness and a Good Life – Ethics Unit: Worksheets, Projects & Slides (Grades 6–9) gives grades six to nine a unit on happiness and a good life with worksheets, projects and slides, which produces written positions rather than a discussion that evaporates. Ask for one paragraph on what a good life requires, and you have something to file at the end of it.

What does the credit change mean for planning?

Graduation is moving from a five-credit to a four-credit structure, so check what your course is worth this year before promising a student anything about their transcript. Where course values shift, the safest design is a unit that stands alone and reports cleanly, rather than a year-long build whose evidence only makes sense to the person who taught it.

For a full year of material rather than a single unit, Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Curriculum: Build Connections, Foster Growth runs an SEL curriculum you can break into course-sized pieces as the credit structure settles. Teachers whose grades have already converted to the British Columbia model can compare wording with Yukon colleagues through Canadian Curriculum Navigator: Resources by Province, since Yukon adopted the same curriculum outright, starting with kindergarten to grade nine in 2017-18.

Frequently asked questions

Are these resources endorsed by Education, Culture and Employment?

No. They are independent classroom resources, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment or any territorial authority. Matching them to the curriculum in front of you is your own work: read the unit objectives beside the competencies or outcomes your grade currently uses.

Can SEL work carry a real course grade?

It can, when the scored thing is a piece of academic work. Grade the written position, the completed organizer or the presentation, and leave personal disclosure out of the mark entirely. Tell students which pieces count before they begin, then keep the scored work with its date attached.

What if my grade level has not converted yet?

Teach to the wording you have been given and record evidence the same way regardless. A dated task, criteria the students saw, and a sentence describing what was demonstrated will translate into either system. Conversion is targeted for completion in 2028, so most teachers work across both for a while.

Related reading

• Northwest Territories SEL: Planning a Unit to the Standards
• Assessment and Reporting in Northwest Territories SEL
• Northwest Territories Curriculum Teaching Resources (K–12)