A Glimpse Into Our Unit

Since my last post on our social studies unit, we have made some progress, and our big ideas have evolved along the way! While we will still be focusing on perspectives, we will be applying our understanding of perspectives to conflicts, and conflict resolution.  Our new big ideas are the following:

What happens when individuals or groups have a conflict?
What is the result for each side?
Do conflicts have resolutions?

By applying our understanding of perspectives to conflicts, students will be able to think critically about conflicts that have occurred in the past, and apply their understanding to conflicts in the world today, and in their personal lives.

One of our focuses will be to look at conflicts that occur within the school community.  As we discuss these issues, we will also look at the various perspectives within it.  The purpose of this is to get students to think about conflicts that are relevant to them, right now. Creating modern day parallels will facilitate their understanding of conflicts that have occurred throughout history.  While doing so, we will also be emphasizing the importance of critical literacy, and considering alternate and diverse perspectives.

The curriculum expectations that we will be focusing on are:

·      A1.1 describe some of the positive and negative consequences of contact between First Nations and Europeans in New France

·      A1.3 explain some of the ways in which interactions between and among First Nations and Europeans in New France are connected to issues in present-day Canada

·      A2.1 formulate questions to guide investigations into aspects of the interactions among and between First Nations and Europeans in Canada prior to 1713, from the perspectives of the various groups involved

With these in mind, we have also created our learning goals to help us understand what we are trying to get out of our next few lessons:

• I can explain three traits that describe the First Nations and Europeans in New France
• I can tell why and how people in First Nation and European settlers’ communities interacted with each other
• I can create a question to help me better understand the conflict between the First Nations and the Europeans
• I can explain how the issues between the First Nations and Europeans are similar or different to issues or conflicts today

Here is our lesson overview:  

OVERVIEW: Whole Class Activity / Introduction

Students will brainstorm a list of the various groups living in Canada during the 16th and 17th centuries, emphasizing the groups living in the area known as New France. From maps of the time period, students will identify where the groups lived.

Students will participate in a “culture game.” Students will be assigned fictional and contrasting cultural criteria (e.g., in Culture A, you are forbidden to look others in the eye when you greet them; in Culture B, you must shake hands while looking others in the eye in greeting). Students will interact with each other using their assigned cultural criteria. 

Following the game, we will engage in a discussion about the students’ experiences as they interacted with one another. We will discuss how what they learned could be applied to real-life situations where individuals of different cultures interact.

As whole group and in a discussion format, students will then share their thoughts regarding what a conflict is, and the consequences of conflicts in their own lives. 

Ex: get in a fight with a sibling, loss of a privilege 

DEVELOP QUESTIONING / INQUIRY QUESTIONS: Small Group Inquiry

In groups of 3–5, students will investigate positive and negative consequences of interactions between one of the First Nations and one of the settler communities in New France.

Students will look at images of the time period and generate questions about the images.  
Students will also use the available print and non-print resources (including maps). They  will identify and record information about the two groups of communities in a google doc provided by the teacher.

They will consider the social and environmental responsibilities, economic consequences, relationships, and interrelationships.

Groups will share their findings with another group, explaining their findings and giving feedback on the clarity of information to one another. Each group will revisit their organizer and makes changes based on the peer group feedback.

SHARING: Whole Class / Identifying Common Information from Inquiry

As a class, examine information the groups recorded on their organizers. Record the positive and negative consequences that were common in all group findings.

CONSOLIDATION: 

Students will apply their understanding of conflicts during the 16^th and 17^th century to conflicts of today or in their own lives. Ex: Environmental implications: Consider attitudes or perspectives on obtaining trade goods from natural resources. What has stayed the same and what has changed?