Pocahontas

I have previously made a post about the movie Pocahontas, but since I have now figured out how to post documents on blogger I decided to attach these files:

Pocahontas - What really happened
Pocahontas - Assignment

In the cartoon, we are presented with this narrative:

•Big Bad Europeans vs. Noble Savages

•The American Hero saves the day!

•Natives beliefs lead to compromise

•Peace wins out over conflict

In reality, I propose that the history of Eastern North America went more like this:

•Good/Bad Europeans vs. Good/Bad Natives

•The “American” immigrants were often worse than their leaders in Britain

•Mutually beneficial relationship?

•Brief peace, but conflict won out

Early Contact Review

Socials 10 starts in 1815, and there is some prior context that students should know in order to understand what was going in Canada by 1815. After reviewing some European history, I then review early contact in North America. My outline looks like this:


Early Contact in North America
(discussion of stereotypes)


A. The French
     -meeting Algonquian and Iroquois
     -traders and missionaries
     -pre-existing conflict (ex. the Huron)
     -New France


B. The English
     -Hudson's Bay
     -Jamestown


C. Alliances and Conflict



Here is a copy of my powerpoint lesson. Feel free to modify and use:
Early Contact Review

European History Review

Socials 10 starts in 1815, and there is some prior context that students should know in order to understand what was going in Canada by 1815. I always start with a map of Europe locating England, France, and Spain and then a quick review of European history. Students usually enjoy reviewing this stuff quickly and seeing how it all fits together. Here are my key points:

A. The British Monarchy

          King Henry 8th

          Queen Elizabeth 1st

                  Sir Francis Drake

                  Sir Walter Raleigh

B. Revolutions

          The English Revolution

                  King Charles vs. Oliver Cromwell

          The American Revolution

          The French Revolution

C. Colonialism

          Spain

               Christopher Columbus

          France

               Jacques Cartier

          England

               Sir Walter Raleigh

Britain Won:

     The Battle of Trafalgar

     The Battle of Waterloo

Here is a copy of my powerpoint lesson. Feel free to modify and use:
European History Review

Unsolved Mysteries

Unsolved Mysteries

This site is very well done. I have never gone through any of the mysteries with a class, but I have explored some of the cases myself and they are interesting with well-developed activities attached. Many of them would fit into the Socials 10 curriculum (if you have the time to spare - which I am not sure that you would) But this would be a great enrichment activity, or just something different to try. If you do, let me know how it goes.

Gapminder

"Gapminder" is a fascinating website that visually represents all types of historical data. In particular, if you load gapminder world, it will display the graph above of life expectancy and GDP over time. (It also tracks population with the size of dot). I selected "Canada" from the list and it created a graph of how Canada has changed over time. Notice that in the early 1800's (when Socials 10 'starts') the life expectancy in Canada was less than 40!

I use this website to introduce what life might have been like in the early 19th century, but of course the students just want to know which country is the biggest dot and which country is the richest, etc... I figure that can't hurt, and I know some students go home and check out the graph when they get home.

Fathers of Confederation

This book says "grades 4-8" and the front cover looks like it is for children, but it is one of the most useful teaching resources that I ever bought for Socials 10. The book is 76 pages of resources on Canadian confederation. It consists of good overview notes on confederation with a simple worksheet, and then a picture and description of every "father of confederation".  I don't think it is at all useful or important for students in Socials 10 to memorize names or details about the Fathers of Confederation, but there are lots of other interesting activities you can do with this. I use this resource in class by cutting up the descriptions and then organizing a 'mock conference'. They each read a summary of their character, we do a "human bingo" with it and then each person writes a very short speech to communicate their character's opinion on confederation.
I did a quick search online, and found an updated version of the resource for a decent price here. It even has a link to the table of contents and first few pages of the book. Check it out.