Aboriginal+Rights



Usha's comm ents in Blue.

Your name: Cathy Humes

**Initial Reading and Assessment of Textbook Treatment of the Topic**

Name of Gr. 10 Textbook examined: __Canada: Face of a Nation__ (Angelo Bolotta, Charles Hawkes, Fred Jarman et al.)

Name of more "scholarly" source examined: __Canada's First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from Earliest Times__ (Olive Patricia Dickason)

__Your Initial Thoughts:__ I appreciate that __Canada: Face of a Nation__ makes a point to highlight Aboriginal rights as an ongoing "challenge" in Canadian society, acknowledging that "Canada's Aboriginal peoples have not always been treated well" in the book's introduction (xi). While I was pleased to see this highlighted as an issue to be revisited throughout the textbook, I still found the treatment of Aboriginal rights between 1914 and 1929 to be lacking in depth and to have diminished the seriousness of the mistreatment experienced by Aboriginal peoples during this period. The key areas related to Aboriginal rights discussed in __Canada__ during this period are: assimilation efforts (primarily through residential schools), land rights and Aboriginal participation in WWI. While the scholarly source I consulted also emphasized these three issues, albeit in much greater detail, the reality it describes is much less rosy than the depiction provided by the textbook. This leads me to feel that although the __Canada__ textbook touches on the appropriate key issues related to Aboriginal rights from 1914-1929, its treatment of the issues fails to convey the true scale of the abuse experienced by Aboriginal peoples as a result of institutionalized racism in Canada.

Thank you for your comments, Cathy. It's interesting that although there seems to be a superficial alignment between the 2 sources, you feel that the issue is not just lack of depth in the textbook but, rather, mild (perhaps?) distortion. This will be an interesting dilemma to solve if you choose to pursue this route through your lesson plan.

Here is my critical challenge: Write two short letters (a half page for each letter): · one from the point of view of an Aboriginal mother or father trying to convince her/his son not to enlist in the Canadian army in order to fight in WWI; · one from the point of view of the son explaining to his mother or father why it is that he has decided to join the army. Please be sure to build your arguments by referencing all three of the key issues we have discussed in class (i.e., land disputes, residential schools and Aboriginal participation in WWI). Why and how might these issues factor into such arguments?

This is a great idea, Cathy. I really like it. My only concern is that it only focuses on WWI and not the issues of land and residential schools that you identify above and below. I think it's a great idea, though. Is there some way to broaden the task so that it encompasses more of the issues? Let me know what you think.

Thank you for your feedback. In reviewing what you wrote I realized that perhaps I had not made it clear enough that my intention is that the letters would have to address all of the issues related to Aboriginal rights that would have been covered in the lesson. In other words, I would like the students to use their understanding of land rights, residential schools and Aboriginal participation in the war in order to build their arguments. I have added a line above explicitly indicating this - please let me know if you think that this adequately broadens the question. Yes - sorry if I misunderstood. I realize what you were getting at now.

This is a "rework the piece" challenge as it will require students to draw on the textbook’s treatment of Aboriginal rights at the time, as well as class discussion, in order to think critically about the material and then rework it from two different perspectives. I believe that this will help students get a sense of the complexity of the issues surrounding Aboriginal rights at the time. I would also like to organize an activity or provide an additional source (perhaps a testimonial from a modern day residential school survivor on video) in order to supplement the textbook’s treatment of Aboriginal rights, so as to address my own concerns about the textbook’s portrayal of the relevant issues, and also in order to tie the discussion to the present, so as to make it more relevant for the students. I believe that this challenge satisfies the 4 criteria of a critical challenge.

= Lesson Design - Initial Planning Stages =

Key Learning/ "Big Idea" / Learning Target Students will understand that the rights of Aboriginal peoples have often been abused in Canada. They will also understand that this abuse has impacted the ways in which Aboriginal peoples understand and express their Canadian identities. Well framed key learning.

Frame Critical Challenge Write two short letters: Please build your arguments by referencing all three of the key events we have discussed in class - why and how might these key events factor into your arguments?
 * One from the perspective of an Aboriginal mother or father trying to convince her/his son not to enlist in the Canadian army in order to fight in WWI;
 * One from the perspective of the son explaining to his mother or father why it is that he has decided to join.

How will this lesson help students build skills they will need for the summative assessment task for the unit? This lesson will help students develop letter-writing skills in preparation for the "Letter to the Editor" component of the summative assessment.

What dimension of historical thinking will students actively engage in during this lesson? Historical perspective-taking

Background Knowledge: Specific Expectations -Forging a Canadian identity (identify contributions to Canada's multi-cultural society by regional, linguistic, ethno-cultural, and religious communities), from Communities: Local, National, and Global strand -Demographic patterns and their effects on society (evaluate the social and demographic change on Aboriginal communities), from Change and Continuity strand

Background Knowledge: What content/skills will students need to learn to be successful? -Students will need to learn about key issues/events related to Aboriginal rights (land rights, residential schools and Aboriginal participation in WWI) -Students will also need to learn perspective-taking and letter-writing skills

Criteria for Judgement a) What criteria will students use to make a decision about the question being asked of them?

Criteria for a convincing letter

-Take a stance on an issue -Deliver 2-3 key points -Use evidence to support your points You have clearly articulated the requirements for the letter but these are not criteria yet. The difference between criteria and requirements are: requirements outline what all students must include but do not help students or teachers distinguish between the work of 2 students who have both met all the requirements. The criteria help outline what makes one letter MORE convincing than another. Try finishing this sentence and see if it helps clarify the criteria: "A highly convincing letter is one that... I totally agree! And I should have remembered to consider criteria vs. requirements after we spent time talking about it... Oops. See below for my attempt. -Takes a reasonable stance on an issue; -Delivers 2-3 convincing points to support the stance;  -Provides appropriate evidence for each point.  Good - to some it may seem like semantics but it certainly makes a difference when you start unpacking it with students. Good tweak.

b) What criteria will students use to develop an effective product? Same as above

Habit of Mind Open-mindedness

Thinking Strategies A "perspectives" grid as a hand-out. I would love to have your opinion on this Usha. I was thinking I could use this grid in my mental set activity and then have students use it as they prepare their letters to help them distinguish between the two perspectives they will have to consider in their letters, as well as (perhaps) the perspective(s) of the Canadian government and/or textbook. I am worried about including too many pieces here and I am not sure if I am making things more complicated than they need to be. The key events as described in the grid below are those that I hope to focus on in the lesson, and then to have students include in their letters. By having the both the day's challenge and the grid delivered to students up front, they can use it as we cover the background content to help themselves understand and track the possible different perspectives. I would be sure to include enough space in each perspective square to allow for more than one word answers. Great idea, Cathy. I don't think you have two many pieces at all - this is precisely the point of scaffolding - so that students have some basis upon which to craft their final decision or product. In fact, I think I might add a piece: Students have a great deal of difficulty understanding what informs or constitutes a group's perspective. When you think of what informs someone's perspective, what do you think of? I might suggest that perspective is informed partially by: - past experiences - fears/hopes and other emotions - vantage point (i.e. what information I have access to; what I can see/know from my position) - etc.

If we could identify what elements help inform a person's perspective, and help students internalize that, it might help them understand others' perspectives in a whole host of different situations. So, might it be worthwhile to have a thinking strategy before this one that invites students to consider the details that would affect each perspective so that they could make a more informed decision on this thinking strategy below? Just some thoughts - what do you think?

Thank you so much for your feedback - it is much appreciated! I agree with you here, too. I was feeling as though there was a piece missing. What if during my mental set activity I broke down the process of isolating some of the elements from which perspectives are informed using a mind map. I could share my minds-on resource with students and then ask them to think about two perspectives on the chosen issue. We could then fill in the mind map on both sides and have a discussion about what elements they took into consideration when separating the two perspectives on the issue - as you mentioned, past experience, emotions, perhaps socio-economic status, among other things. This would allow us to isolate some elements to refer back to when talking about perspectives, which I think I might also raise in discussion as we examine the primary sources we'll be using, and then again as the students build their perspectives grids prior to beginning the critical challenge. Critical Thinking Vocabulary Perspective
 * Key Event || Perspective #1 || Perspective #2 || Perspective #3 ||
 * Aboriginal land is taken by the Canadian government ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Aboriginal children are forced to attend residential schools ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Aboriginal men enlist in the Canadian armed forces in order to fight in WWI ||  ||   ||   ||

=Idea for a Mental Set Activity = -The purpose of this mental set activity is to get students thinking about perspective-taking in a context that is familiar and (hopefully) engaging. -Draw a very large (but simpler) "perspectives" grid on the chalkboard before class. (See below.)


 * Key Event || Perspective #1 - KFC || Perspective #2 - Health Canada ||
 * KFC Double-Down is coming to Canada ||  ||   ||

-When students arrive in class, distribute copies of the article "KFC's Infamous Double-Down Comes to Canada" from the Toronto Star with them. [] -Get students to take turns reading the article aloud to the class. -Highlight the key event in question here: the Double-Down coming to Canada. -Get students to work with a partner for 2 minutes to determine: -Have a class discussion about these two different perspectives. Explain and fill in the "perspectives" grid as students outline both perspectives on the issue. -After the mental set activity is over, distribute the larger perspectives grid hand-out and introduce students to the critical challenge for the day. I love the context - very engaging and timely. You might want to add a different perspective too - e.g. family with young children on a limited food budget OR someone whose job requires them to be on the road for long hours (e.g. a delivery person). I think this will really get at the nuances that inform perspectives to show that it's more than just 2 opposite sides of an argument. Nicely done.
 * from the perspective of KFC, why the Double-Down should be brought to Canada and,
 * from the perspective of Health Canada, why it should not.

