My Personal Journey Through the New Curriculum
Socials 10
Assignment 1: Create a newspaper editorial examining the point of view/opinions of the various regions of Canada after World War 1
Review the war, and discuss the consequences
Examine the nature of an editorial as an opinion from a certain perspective
Ask students to review the legacy of the war, and examine how the war had an impact on the various regions of Canada (i.e. the effects of the Halifax Explosion and rebuilding in the Maritimes, the anger in Quebec over Conscription, the industrialization of Southern Ontario, the impact of the Winnipeg General Strike, and how Vancouver was dealing with it changing face)..In their editorials, I also asked them to use the information they had gathered and try to make a reasonable guess about how their particular region would view the future (positively, negatively) and why they think so.
I had the students read out their editorials to the class.We discussed the idea that even though Canada was one country, there were a lot of very different concerns.
As a class, we discussed the concepts of historical perspectives-how things were viewed by people at the time.
My original assessment plan was for the newspaper, but in the end I chose only to assess the editorial. The students were OK with that, even though some had spent more time finding other materials to pad the front page. We worked as a class to design the rubric.
If I had to do it again-From the start, stress the legacy of the war. We had looked at it for about 20-30 minutes, but they really had some issues tying the impact of the war in their region to the editorials they had written. Also, really hammer home to them the nature of an editorial.
Also, in my original assignment, there are other items to examine, but I decided to narrow the focus of the students. Originally I had planned to have them create a front page of a newspaper, but it really confused them. They had difficulty organizing/categorizing, etc., most of the tasks I had given them. They also had a lot more difficulty with the idea of an editorial than I thought they would have-some local examples would have been a better place to start.
Big Idea: Global and regional conflicts have been a powerful force in shaping our contemporary world and identities.
Curricular Competencies: Historical significance, using evidence, historical perspective, continuity and change, cause and consequence