Part B: Learning Plan

In this inquiry students will:

  • Honour the differences of stories, traditions, and celebrations among individuals in their classroom and school.
  • Understand how past family experiences and stories connect them to their place and community.
  • Explore kinship/family relationships according to traditional teachings.

CITIZENSHIP INQUIRY

Curricular Outcomes

  • Relate family events and stories of the recent or distant past to the students’ place. (DR1.1)

Students will understand how past family experiences and stories connect them to their place.

  • Describe kinship patterns of the past and present and describe according to traditional teachings (e.g., Medicine Wheel teachings). (DR1.2)

Students will explore kinship/family relationships according to traditional teachings.

  • Describe the diversity of traditions, celebrations, or stories of individuals in the classroom and school. (IN1.1)

Students will honour the stories, traditions, and celebrations of individuals in their classroom and school.

QUESTIONS TO GUIDE INQUIRY

Essential questions are posted and discussed with students at the start of the exploration of study. These open-ended questions are continually revisited; encompass concepts that students will explore throughout the unit of study; form the evidence of understanding; and, frame the assessment at the end of the unit of study. Guiding questions are posed to support student thinking as they explore the answers to the larger overarching questions.
Teachers may want to consider putting the questions into a “Before, During, After” chart to note the changes in students’ thinking as a result of the inquiries.

Essential Questions – Guiding Questions:

  • How are present events related to past events?
  • How does the past influence:
    • Your present behaviour, ideas?
    • Your future behaviour, ideas?
  • How does my background/point of view influence my behaviour?
    • What do I think about the past?
  • What story is my behaviour telling?
    • Is my behaviour thought about and planned or am I reacting?
    • How do I change my behaviour? Change my story?

Vocabulary
Culture

  • knowledge
  • shared beliefs and values of group
  • people with shared beliefs and practices
  • shared attitudes

Point of View

  • opinion
  • viewpoint
  • position

Tradition

  • custom or belief
  • handing down of customs
  • accepted unwritten guidelines/ideas

Diversity

  • social inclusiveness
  • variety
  • consisting of different things
  • differing from one another

History

  • family history, background

CONNECT TO TOPIC AND SURFACE STUDENTS’ THINKING ABOUT …

This section introduces the concepts and helps teachers gain an understanding of the current thinking of the class.  Present essential questions and allow students to think about and talk about.  Student answers will give teachers a baseline or beginning understanding of the amount of specific and incidental teaching required to explore these outcomes. Vocabulary is introduced and noted here.  This section frames the “We do” portion of the lesson where teachers guide the initial structure of the inquiry.
As teachers work with students to develop meaning it is important to reinforce the following connections to long term independent accomplishments:

  • Steps/processes required to learn a task/behaviour/solve a problem
  • Actions today will affect how students choose/are able to do things in the future
  • Consider the impact of culture on behaviours and worldview
  • Think about their thinking – (Develop awareness of their thinking)
Inquiry Question:
Are cultures more alike or different?

Surface what students know about their family history and cultural traditions.

  • What do their names mean? First name, Last name.
  • Why were they given their name?
  • If community buildings or streets have names of people important to the community ask students if they know, and find out the origin of the name of the building or street.
  • How is their community impacted by different cultures?
  • Look for similarities and themes in naming practices of people, buildings.

Students are learning that differences among people or diversity creates a rich culture that is valued and respected by citizens and Canada. Students will explore the similarities and differences that exist among different cultures, beginning with similarities.

  • Everybody Bakes Bread – Norah Dooley. This book talks about the many different kinds of bread there are in a child’s community, including chapatis, challah, and papusaa. This book gets students thinking about the similarities between cultures regarding food.
    • Create lists for many different kinds of breads
    • Create lists for many different kinds of similar foods
  • Every culture has a way of saying hello. Brainstorm and have students research the many different ways of saying hello. Hello, Tansi, Bonjour, Hola, Aloha, etc.

Teachers should continue to connect learning outcomes to previous learning/ future learning.

Process

  • Pose the essential and guiding questions and allow students to discuss their thoughts on the matter.
  • Determine what the students know, understand, need to be able to do to master/answer the essential questions (connect to content). Additional guiding questions can be added as required.  Students are encouraged to add their questions to the others.
  • Create Know, Want to know, Learned Chart – identify vocabulary that requires development
  • Surface any additional questions students might have as a result of their discussions about the essential questions.
  • Post student answers for reflection at end of study.
Students will use information to understand that:

  • Events and ideas from the past influence the present.
  • Lives of people in the past can serve as models of how to live as a contributing citizen.
  • Actions and behaviours are learned.
  • Past actions affect people and relationships in different ways.
  • Diversity can have a variety of impacts.
  • Background can impact points of view.
  • Cultural practices that have their roots in history or another country are constantly changing and often have many similarities.
DEVELOPING UNDERSTANDING
This section is the core of the lesson.  It describes the main activity(ies) involved.  In inquiry-based learning, the teacher facilitates the activities that lead to the understandings that student make of the essential questions.  It is critical then, that students be allowed to raise questions and talk about issues that develop as they explore the learning activities.
Resident Experts
Identify local people whom students might want to interview to support their research.

  • Elders
  • Knowledge Keepers
  • Family members
  • New Immigrants – Youth and Adults
  • Community support members
  • Consider technology links with youth in provincial, national, and global communities
Students will:

  • Explore the similarities and differences that exist among different cultures; and,
  • Look for connections between current practices and celebrations and past cultures and traditions.

Every culture has similar customs or celebrations. Brainstorm family traditions or special events like marriages, births, birthdays, graduation, anniversaries, deaths, family reunions

  • Generate wide variety of cultures for students to research or survey classroom for the variety of cultures represented there.
  • Research and present information in pairs or groups of three.

Presentations should include information on:

  • Special Events
    • What are they?
      • Names, times
    • How do they celebrate?
      • Ceremonies?
      • Foods?
      • Music?
    • How are families involved?
    • What is the history of celebrations – link to place/country of origin
    • Why is the celebration important? What do families or celebrants believe about the celebration?
  • Highlight differences, similarities
    • foods eaten,
    • songs sung,
    • prayers, verses,
    • leaders at celebrations,
    • special clothes worn
  • Has celebration or recognition of event changed over time? How?
  • The manner in which similar holidays are celebrated or recognized indicate different points of view and beliefs about traditions. Cultural practices that have their roots in history or another country are constantly changing and often have many similarities. In a variety of ways, provide examples of traditions and celebrations that connect people to the past, and consider why these traditions and celebrations are important today. Chart similarities and differences.
    • Students will understand how past is connected to the present
      • Students have been talking about how they celebrate traditions and family events. Have student create a personal family timeline documenting significant episodes in student and/or family life.
        • Family connections to community before student birth (before)
        • Birth of student, birth of siblings, extended family members (after)
        • Significant events linking family/student to community
        • Consider linking to Medicine wheel teachings where direction indicates times of life.
    • Students will explore the kinship/family relationships according to traditional teachings. (Check treaty education resources for info on traditional teachings)
  • What are the benefits of living as a family?
  • What are the different roles in a family and what are the responsibilities of those roles?
  • What makes families special?
  • What would our community be like without families?
  • Discuss why learning about the past is important to be a good citizen, and how it affects the future.
  • Give examples of decision making in their families and community.
  • Give examples of community/ family/ cultural heroes.

APPLY AND EXTEND KNOWLEDGE

This section includes ideas to extend the inquiry or apply concepts explored. This section may also include additional reflective questions to promote student connection to the topic.  This forms the “You do” section of the inquiry – may be “you do it collaboratively” or “you do it alone”.   Invite students to extend their thinking beyond the classroom discussions and inquiry experiences.  Pose additional reflective questions that have been raised to encourage critical and creative thinking. 
  • Consider how lives of people in the past can serve as models of how to live as contributing citizens and how people in the past are connected to place today.
    • Research community names, building names, street names to find out history of name and why it is important to the community
    • Connect info to study about responsibility toward community stewardship
      • What story was the individual’s behaviour telling?
      • Have student indicate how individual demonstrated community stewardship
  • Invite an Elder or Knowledge Keeper to explain the teachings of the Medicine Wheel: 4 directions – South – infant/childhood, West – adolescence, North – adulthood, East – old age, death.

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING

This section suggests ways in which students may demonstrate their understanding.  Ideal demonstrations will be in authentic performance tasks.  Each citizenship study may have its own smaller assessment piece or be compiled to support one larger performance task assessment.  Assessment pieces vary, but should allow students to demonstrate their understanding in a variety of ways.  Demonstrations of understanding may be done collaboratively or independently.
  • Review students’ original thinking on the essential questions. Has their thinking changed?
  • What new learning supports their change?

Inquiry Question:
Are cultures more similar or different?
What are some of the big ideas that students are seeing?
Why is this important to know?
Students will demonstrate their understanding that we act based on our worldviews, our cultural experiences and therefore may have different points of view.
What is my story?

  • Have student choose one custom, tradition, celebration practiced in their life.
  • Have students describe the event and tell:
    • how the event is rooted in the past;
    • how the event is important to the student (influences present behaviour); and,
    • what the event says about what the student values.

Informal Indicators of Understanding
What story is my behaviour telling?

  • Give examples of situations and ask students to predict what might happen next.
  • Identify thinking or reasons for predictions i.e. similar past experiences, read about similar situation in stories
  • Recognize behaviours and attributes of appropriate role models (i.e. Identify and/or model behaviours of a supportive reading buddy.
  • Revisit K-W-L chart as a whole class to see if questions and ‘want to knows’ were addressed

STUDENT CITIZENSHIP JOURNAL OPPORTUNITIES

Students are keeping a Citizenship Journal to reflect upon their developing views of citizenship.  This section provides prompts for student journals.  Students are invited to choose one that interests them or propose their own. Students can also respond to any of the essential questions.

Students are encouraged to respond using a variety of genres.

  • An interesting cultural practice or tradition that I learned about is…
  • A cultural practice that has its roots in history and/or another country but has changed over time is …
  • A cultural tradition that is celebrated in similar ways across cultures is… The reason I think this is so is because…
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Grade 1 ResourcesGrade 1 Lifelong Learning Citizens Part B