Social Studies 10-4: Living in a Globalizing World
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Reflecting on Residential Schools in Canada

Activity: Origins of Residential Schools

Formative Assessment

Throughout this suggested activity, you will support students in achieving the following skills that are the focuses for assessment:

The following formative assessment opportunities are provided to help students unpack and develop the focus skills for assessment. Feedback prompts are also provided to help students enhance their demonstration of the focus skills for this activity. Formative assessment support is not intended to generate a grade or score.

Formative Assessment: Assessment for Learning Opportunities

Describe Historical Background

Involve students in a think-pair-share with peers, having them provide and receive feedback on the comprehensiveness of the information recorded in their graphic organizers. Use the feedback prompts below to provide structure in guiding students through this formative assessment opportunity.

Feedback Prompts:

  • Is the information on topic?
  • Have I included information about:
    • the treaties?
    • the Indian Act?
    • why residential schools were established by the Canadian government?
  • Is there enough information to help the reader understand?

These feedback prompts have been incorporated into the Describe Historical Background: Peer Coaching Tool , which can be copied or adapted for student use. Samples of tools created for a similar skill within a different formative assessment context may be found in the Social Studies 10-4 Formative Assessment Summary PDF. 

Explain Multiple Perspectives

Involve students in a self-reflection to examine the quality of the information gathered representing multiple perspectives. Use the feedback prompts below to provide structure in guiding students through this formative assessment opportunity.

Feedback Prompts:

  • Have I accessed more than one source?
  • Have I gathered information on Aboriginal perspectives and the perspective of the Canadian government?
  • Have I used respectful language when recording information?

These feedback prompts have been incorporated into the Explain Multiple Perspectives: Student Self-reflection , which can be copied or adapted for student use. Samples of tools created for a similar skill within a different formative assessment context may be found in the Social Studies 10-4 Formative Assessment Summary PDF. 

Linking to the Summative Assessment Task

  • As students describe historical background and explain multiple perspectives through the suggested activity Origins of Residential Schools, they will have completed the first two portions of the Summative Assessment Task: Reflecting on Residential Schools in Canada .
  • Students should consult the assessment task and the assessment task rubric  to ensure that they have provided the information required.
  • Encourage students to review the feedback received during the formative assessment opportunities and to consider enhancements they wish to make.
  • If necessary, continue to use the feedback prompts from the formative assessment opportunities to coach students toward completion of a quality product. 
  • At this point, students should determine the format they wish to use for their final assignment. Invite students who have chosen the same presentation format to work together to brainstorm a list of the technical presentation qualities that would be necessary in order for their presentation to have the desired impact on the audience. For example, a PowerPoint presentation would need to balance text and visuals, ensure that the animations do not detract from the message, use fonts that can be read easily, and so forth.

Students use oral, print and multimedia sources to investigate the origins of, and multiple perspectives surrounding, residential schools in Canada, and they use graphic organizers to record their information.

Instructional Support

A number of possible tasks are provided in this suggested activity. It is not intended that you work through all of the tasks, but rather select those tasks and resources that will best meet the learning needs of your students. The focus should be on ensuring that students have the background and support to be successful with the skills that are the focuses for assessment (describe historical background, and explain multiple perspectives).

Each assessment focus is presented sequentially in this suggested activity, although these focuses actually occur in a more integrated format.

Setting the Context for Learning

The suggested activities for Perspectives on First Contact asked students to gather background information on first contact and to consider the impacts of imperialism. The skills of describing background information and considering impact are important as students extend their inquiry into residential schools.

  • Ask students if they know what a residential school is. Depending on their knowledge, explore with them how they might react if they were taken at an early age from their families and sent to a boarding school where they could not speak their language, where discipline was strict and where they could not talk about their past or their families.
  • Explain to students that this scenario was the experience of thousands of Aboriginal children in Canada for more than a century.
  • Let students know that as they work through their inquiry over the next several classes, they will be working on the skills that they need in order to be successful with the Summative Assessment Task: Reflecting on Residential Schools in Canada .
  • Share the summative assessment task and the assessment task rubric  with students. Point out the different parts of the task, and let students know that they will be working on the various parts of the task as the classes proceed. Invite students to begin to consider the various formats that can be used to complete the summative assessment task.
  • The language of the assessment task rubric is clarified through the formative assessment opportunities provided for each suggested activity. The boldfaced descriptive words in the rubric are also clarified in the Summative Assessment Task Rubric Glossary PDF.

Describe Historical Background

In this suggested activity, the historical background helps students understand the events and policies that led to the establishment of residential schools. The students' descriptions should be accurate, reflect multiple perspectives and provide enough detail so that the information makes sense to the person reading it. Describing historical background is not an end unto itself but rather an important first step, providing necessary information to which students will refer as they work through their inquiry.

  • Review the definition of a treaty and examine an Alberta map of signed treaties PDF. Discuss the motives each participating group might have had for signing these treaties. Use the idea of treaties to introduce the concept of policy, the causes and effects of the Indian Act and the subsequent creation of residential schools. Identify how treaties link to the Indian Act, and the Indian Act links to residential schools, and discuss the effects of historical legacies.
  • Use a guided reading strategy to read about the Indian Act on page 160 of the Oxford student basic resource, Living in a Globalizing World. Have students organize information in a two-column chart .
  • Make the connection with students about how the policy of the Canadian government (the Indian Act) directly permitted the establishment of residential schools and how this furthered the goals of the Canadian government to assimilate First Nations into mainstream society as quickly as possible.
  • Assist students in accessing information about residential schools. Provide students with graphic organizers, and model how students can use these to assist in recording information and making meaning when completing various parts of the task.
  • Students might examine the historical map on page 161 of Living in a Globalizing World and the questions about the experience of a residential school survivor to determine some of the factors in deciding the location of residential schools.
  • Ensure that students build understandings of the various perspectives surrounding the origins of residential schools in Canada by accessing a variety of media:

Explain Multiple Perspectives

As students gather information to describe historical background, they will come across ideas that represent the perspectives of Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian government. The suggestions that follow provide opportunities for students to reflect on the information they have gathered to ensure that they have the information they need to continue their inquiry.

  • Involve students in a discussion as to why people have different views on the topic of residential schools.
  • Discuss the need for students to access various sources of information in order to ensure they have gathered information representing the perspectives of Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian government. Ask students to revisit the information they have previously gathered to see if they have information on various perspectives, or if they need to revisit some of their sources, looking for specific information.
  • Emphasize the need for students to use respectful language as they record information on this topic.

Suggested Supporting Resources

Textbook References

Student Basic Resource—Oxford University Press, Living in a Globalizing World:

  • Pages 158–163 (with a focus on pages 160–161) Legacies of Imperialism Today

Teaching Resource—Oxford University Press, Living in a Globalizing World:

  • RM 0.2 Venn Diagram (to compare sources)
  • RM 0.3 Analyzing & Discussing Issues
  • RM 0.10 Paragraph Organizer Show more
  • RM 0.11 Critical Assessment: Plus-and-Minus Chart
  • AM 1 Demonstrating Understanding Rubric 
  • AM 2 Generating & Organizing Ideas Rubric 
  • AM 3 Considering Multiple Perspectives Rating Scale
  • AM 4 Considering Multiple Perspectives & Viewpoints Rubric
  • Pages 169–172 Section 2: Responding to the Legacies; Activity 3: Considering One Legacy of Imperialism

Teaching Resource—Oxford University Press, Understandings of Ideologies:

  • RM 4.2 Using Criteria to Determine Historical Significance
  • RM 5.2 Identifying Points of View and Perspectives

Teaching Resource—Duval House Publishing, Aboriginal Studies 10: Aboriginal Perspectives:

  • Pages 423–429 Protocols

Web Resources

Web Links for Online Sources:

Knowledge and Employability Studio:

Videos:

Community Resources (e.g., Elders, Knowledge Keepers, Cultural and Community Experts)

  • Arrange for interviews with Elders. Contact your area's FNMI liaison (within your school or jurisdiction, or through the community Friendship Centre).

Stories and Other Media (e.g., films, stories/literature, nonfiction, graphic novels)

  • Muffins for Granny (documentary, 2007, Mongrel Media, Nadia McLaren, 88 minutes)