Historical Thinking
Students are regularly expected to learn about history without being asked to think historically. Thinking historically requires attending to the kinds of questions that historians pose. These questions typically focus on six concepts:
- Historical Significance: What and who should be remembered, researched and taught?
- Evidence and Interpretation: Is the evidence credible and adequate to support the conclusions reached?
- Continuity and Change: How are lives and conditions alike over time and how have they changed?
- Cause and Consequence: Why did historical events happen the way they did and what are the consequences?
- Historical Perspective: What does past look like when viewed through lenses of the time?
- Ethical Judgment: Is what happened right and fair?
What is Canadian Identity?We will investigate how artistic and literary expression reflects the following aspects of Canadian identity:
landscape, climate, history, people-citizenship, and related challenges and opportunities.
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Parliament HillWellington St,
Ottawa, ON The centrepiece of Ottawa’s downtown landscape, Parliament Hill is the political and cultural heart of the city and country. The Parliament Buildings sit atop "The Hill", the gorgeous Gothic-style structures overlooking the Ottawa River, as the politicians within debate the present and future issues of the country. |
Units to be covered
Geographic Influences
Canada is the world's second largest country in area. It borders three oceans and extends across six time zones. Canada is not only geographically large –- it is also incredibly diverse. The size and variety of Canada's geographic landscape, and the response of the diverse peoples who have inhabited it, have played a significant role in shaping Canadian identity(ies).
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Decades of Change
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In comparison to many other nations, Canada is often termed a young country -- one which officially came into being in 1867. The history of what is now Canada, however, goes back much further. Beginning with the First Nations and Inuit, continuing with early European colonists, and including the diverse racial and ethnic array of our contemporary country, many peoples have contributed to the story of Canada. Identity is a product of experience -- of individuals, groups, and nations. The events, actions, traditions, and decisions of both our past and present
inhabitants have played an important role in shaping the identities held by Canadians today.
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Citizenship
This unit focusses on citizenship and the corresponding political identity of the peoples of Canada. The notions people hold, individually and collectively, about citizenship are a powerful expression of their beliefs about identity. The political institutions created, the systems of governance constructed, the laws passed, the rights and freedoms upheld, the responsibilities expected, as well as the evolution of all these things, are expressions of beliefs about who people are as local, national, and global citizens. In Canada, as in many other countries, such beliefs have variously served both to include and exclude peoples.
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Challenges and opportunities
students explore some of the complex environmental, political, social, and economic issues facing contemporary Canada. The unit focuses on both the present and the future as it examines both the challenges and the opportunities fostered by such issues. Understandings from previous units in geography,
history and sociology, and political science are important in helping to understand the issues of today and tomorrow. Also, the discipline of economics will serve as an additional analytical tool. Ultimately, students will theorize how responses to the challenges and opportunities facing Canada might affect the evolution of Canadian identity(ies).
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Year End Summative Assessment Project |
Use the following document to guide you through the final class project. Further details will be provided in class and in future updates.
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My Canada Project | |
File Size: | 20 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Useful or Interesting Links
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Gord Downey, singer for The Tragically Hip has teamed up with award-winning author and artist Jeff Lemire to tell the story of Wenjack, a 12 year-old Indigenous boy from Kenora, Ontario who died after running away from a Residential School in 1966.
How does this tragic story reflect Canada's past? How does the history of residential schools impact Canadian identity? |