Miss Vessio's Social Studies Class
Dear parents, families, and students,
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog! I hope you are as excited as I am to start a new school year. Before getting into the details of the social studies program that we will be exploring, I would like to share a little bit about myself. I have recently completed my Bachelor of Education at Brock University, where I had the chance to work with both junior and intermediate grades. On a more personal level, my passions include languages, art, sports, and working towards a more sustainable tomorrow.
In the social studies classroom, our overall program goal will be to help students explore, and think critically about the world around them. Critical thinking is the process of thinking about ideas or situations, in order to understand them completely, and to understand their implications. The purpose is to guide students towards a sense of empowerment, so that they feel more connected to the world around them. Students will be engaged in real-life problems to develop the necessary skills to challenge the current norms in society, and promote change. We will be looking at issues that are relevant in the students' lives, to promote engagement and motivation in the social studies classroom.
Ultimately, students will gain a better understanding of who they are, who they want to become, and the society they want to live in! Of course, all of our work will stem from the Ontario Social Studies Curriculum, which can be found HERE.
The first unit that we will be diving into will last about six weeks, and will be focused on First Nations and Europeans in New France and Early Canada. We will be focusing on perspectives. In our current world, understanding how perspective shapes our lives will help students gain a better understanding of who they are, and how they can impact their community.
The big ideas (questions that will be guiding our entire unit) will be:
Why might the same event have a different impact on different people?
Why is it important to understand that people have different perspectives?
The overall expectations for this unit from the Grade 5 curriculum will be:
A1. Analyse some key short- and long-term consequences of interactions among and between First Nations and European explorers and settlers in New France prior to 1713.
A2. Use the social studies inquiry process to investigate aspects of interactions among and between First Nations and Europeans in Canada prior to1713 from the perspectives of the various groups involved students will learn about key characteristics of various First Nations and European settler communities in New France up to 1713.
Stay tuned to learn more about our big idea, and the next steps of our inquiry unit. If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to contact me. I can also be reached on my professional twitter account @genevievessio
I look forward to working with you all this year!
Best wishes,
Miss Vessio