Students explain how honouring a controversial historical figure may be both an opportunity to promote national unity and a challenge to achieving national unity. Students then determine their position on whether Canadians should revisit honouring controversial historical figures based on current understandings, and provide specific reasons and examples for choosing that position.
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 focus for assessment (identify opportunities and challenges to promoting national unity, and state and support a position).
Setting the Context for Learning
- Show students the video entitled Bryan Adams Not Canadian? Engage in a discussion about the following situation: a Canadian has co-written the lyrics and music for a song with a non-Canadian; then the Canadian performs the song, yet the song was not considered Canadian.
- Prompt students to consider how perspective, as well as criteria for judgement, can influence how something is viewed by a person or an organization.
Identify Opportunities and Challenges to Promoting National Unity
- Explore ways that the Canadian government attempts to promote national unity through programs and institutions. Examples include the CRTC, Council of Canadians, Historica/Dominion Institute, National Film Board, CBC and Canada Council for the Arts. Provide students with the opportunity to work in small groups to explore the effectiveness of the programs of these organizations. For example, does the CRTC encourage national unity or enhance a sense of national identity with its Canadian content rules?
- Engage students in a discussion about how some issues in Canada result in feelings that are divisive to our national unity; e.g., the sovereignist movement in Québec, Aboriginal land claims, multiculturalism, bilingualism or feelings of Western alienation.
- Select an issue to model for students, and demonstrate how to identify the opportunities that the issue provides for promoting national unity, as well as the challenges the issue presents to promoting national unity.
State and Support a Position
- Once students have identified opportunities and challenges to promoting national unity, ask them to reflect on the information in order to state and support a personal position regarding renaming public places based on modern understandings.
Select an example and model for students the process of stating a position and selecting credible support for a position. Some students may benefit from a structured example:
Controversial historical figures should (or should not) be publicly honoured based on our current understandings because .
- Remind students that in previous tasks they developed the qualities that make up convincing reasons and evidence to support a position. Refer back to those qualities, which may have included the following:
- focused on the topic
- supportive of the stated position
- convincing
- specific.
- Encourage students to add qualities based on their learning throughout the course.
Formative Assessment
Throughout this suggested activity, you will support students in achieving the following skills that are the focus 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
Identify Opportunities and Challenges to Promoting National Unity
Engage students in peer coaching to provide and receive feedback on the perceptiveness of their identification of the opportunities and challenges to promoting national unity. Use the feedback prompts below to provide structure in guiding students through this formative assessment opportunity.
Feedback Prompts:
- Have I identified an opportunity for promoting national unity?
- Have I provided reasons and examples that explain why it is an opportunity rather than a challenge?
- Have I identified a challenge to promoting national unity?
- Have I provided reasons and examples that explain why it is a challenge rather than an opportunity?
These feedback prompts have been incorporated into the Identify Opportunities and Challenges to Promoting National Unity: 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 20-4 Formative Assessment Summary 
.
State and Support a Position
Engage students in a self-reflection about the quality of support they provided for their position on the renaming of public places based on modern understandings. Use the feedback prompts below to provide structure in guiding students through this formative assessment opportunity.
Feedback Prompts:
- Have I stated a position, rather than simply restating information?
- Have I provided specific reasons and examples (evidence)?
- Do my reasons and examples (evidence) support my position?
- Are my reasons convincing?
- Are my examples specific and relevant?
These feedback prompts can be posted on an interactive white board or bulletin board, or incorporated into a feedback tool that can be copied for student use. Samples of tools created for a similar skill within a different formative assessment context may be found in the Social Studies 20-4 Formative Assessment Summary .
Linking to the Summative Assessment Task
- As students communicate information regarding their position on the renaming of public places, they will have completed the Summative Assessment Task: Exploring the Person Behind the Name .
- Students should consult the assessment task and the assessment task rubric to ensure that they have provided the information required.
- Encourage students to use the feedback received through the formative assessment opportunities to make enhancements to their work in progress.
- If necessary, continue to use the feedback prompts from the formative assessment opportunities to coach students toward completion of a quality product.
- If student performance does not yet fall within the three levels described in the summative assessment task rubric, work with the student to formulate a plan to address the student's learning needs.
Suggested Supporting Resources
Textbook References
Student Basic Resource—McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Understanding Nationalism:
- Pages 308–309 Does Canada Today Show That Visions of Canadian Identity Have Evolved?
- Pages 317–329 How Have Institutions Been Used to Promote a National Identity in Canada? (introduction to examples of organizations and programs)
- Pages 332–349 The Quest for Canadian Unity (national identity) Show more
- Pages 350–353 How Has the Changing Face of Canada Affected National Unity? (national identity)
Teaching Resource—McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Understanding Nationalism:
- Reproducible 3.10.4 International Agreements in the Antarctic and Arctic
- Reproducible 3.11.3 Picturing World Heritage Sites in Canada
- Reproducible 4.13.8 Meeting People's NeedsShow more
- Reproducible 4.13.9 Meeting People's Needs with the Charter of Rights
- Reproducible 4.14.3 How Institutions Promote Canadian Identity
- Reproducible 4.14.5 Institutions and Visions of Canada
- Reproducible 4.14.6 Programs and Examples
- Reproducible 4.14.7 Our Advertising Campaign
- Reproducible 4.14.8 Individuals Who Promote a National Identity
- Reproducible 4.14.10 Exploring Our Community's Identity
- Reproducible 4.15.1 Assessing a Four-Corners Debate
- Reproducible 4.15.2 My Loyalties
- Reproducible 4.15.4 How Some Aspects of the Federal System Affect National Unity
- Reproducible 4.15.5 Challenges to National Unity
- Reproducible 4.15.6 Emerging Trends and Their Impact on Canadian Unity
- Reproducible 4.16.1 Pluralism and Diversity
Web Resources
Web Links for Online Sources:
Knowledge and Employability Studio:
- Social Studies Background and Tools:
- Social Studies 20-4:
Videos:
Distributed Learning/Tools4Teachers Resources:
Critical Challenges:
