Unit Plan

Planning Sheet
Grade Six
Strand: Heritage and Identity
Topic: Communities in Canada, Past and Present
Focus of Unit: 1900s - The Great Depression to present day
What are the big ideas of the unit?
In this unit, the students will learn that many different communities and regions (urban
and rural) made meaningful contributions to Canadas development and identity.
Students will also learn that various groups in Canada experienced the development of
Canada differently, which is why there are different perspectives surrounding the same
historical event. Students will understand that contemporary issues/events are
experienced differently amongst different groups in Canada.
Which curriculum expectations are the enduring understandings? (Ontario specific
expectations)
Social Studies
A 1.2 Evaluate some of the contributions that various ethnic and/or religious groups
have made to Canadian identity
A.1.3 Explain how various groups have contributed to the goal of inclusiveness in
Canada, and assess the extent to which Canada has achieved the goal of being
an inclusive society (p.121)
A 2.2 Gather and organize information from a variety of primary and secondary
sources using various technologies that present different perspectives on the
historical and/or contemporary experience of two or more communities (121)
A 2.5 Evaluate evidence and draw conclusions about perspectives on the historical
and/or contemporary experience of two or more distinct communities in Canada
A 3.5 Describe interactions between communities in Canada, including between
newcomers and groups that were already in the country. (122)
A 3.7 Describe significant changes within their own community in Canada (123)
A 3.8 Identify and describe fundamental elements of Canadian identity (123)
Drama
B 1.1engage actively in drama exploration and role play, with a focus on identifying and

examining a range of issues, themes, and ideas from a variety of fiction and nonfiction
sources and diverse communities, times and places
B1.3 plan and shape the direction of the drama or role play by
introducing new perspectives and ideas, both in and out of role
What do you want students to be able to do, understand, and know the end of the unit?
- Students will be able to discuss in detail the variety of ethnic and religious
groups that create Canadas identity
- Students will understand how Canadian society demonstrates
inclusiveness
- Students will use both primary and secondary sources to gather
information on at least two specific communities of their choice and draw
conclusions from the information
- Students will be able to identify why Canada has become multicultural and
what about Canada draws international migration
- Students will describe the implications of newcomers to Aboriginal groups
and understand the timeline of events
- Students will relate knowledge from this unit to experiences in their own
life and changes they have observed in their community
List possible ways that you as a teacher will have evidence of students understanding,
skills, and knowledge. For your unit, you only have to fully develop one performance task
(summative assessment).
Summative Task: News Report
Assessment: Rubric
This news report will require students in groups of 3-4 to research the event, formulate
their script and demonstrate two perspectives on a historical event. This is crosscurricular with Drama, as they will be required to present it in an engaging and creative
manner.
Summative Task: Make a Brochure Promoting Canada
Assessment: Checklist
This brochure will require students to promote the social environment of Canada. They
will show an understanding of why others should come Canada, promoting our inclusive
environment.
Summative Task: Test
Assessment: Marking Scheme

This test will evaluate students understanding of the units key concepts such as
Canadas ethnic and religious groups and the impact that newcomers had on the
Aboriginal groups, as well as definitions, labelling a map and relevant events.
Summative Task that is Fully Developed
Description:
This news report will require students in groups of 4-5 to research the event, formulate
their script and demonstrate two perspectives on a historical event. This is crosscurricular with Drama, as they will be required to present it in an engaging and creative
manner.
Curriculum Expectations Assessed:
A 1.2 Evaluate some of the contributions that various ethnic and/or religious groups have
made to Canadian identity
A 3.5 Describe interactions between communities in Canada, including between
newcomers and groups that were already in the country. (122)
A 2.2 Gather and organize information from a variety of primary and secondary sources
using various technologies that present different perspectives on the historical and/or
contemporary experience of two or more communities (121)
A 2.5 Evaluate evidence and draw conclusions about perspectives on the historical
and/or contemporary experience of two or more distinct communities in Canada
B 1.1 Engage actively in drama exploration and role play with a focus on identity and
examining a range of issues, themes, and ideas from a variety of fiction and nonfiction
sources and diverse communities, times and places.
Assessment:
Rubric

What learning experiences will students need in order to perform effectively and achieve
desired results? (For your unit, you need a minimum 10 lesson ideas)
Lesson One
Expectation(s): A 3.8 Identify and describe fundamental elements of Canadian
identity

Teaching: Introduce the idea that Canadas identity has been made up of many different
influences. Teacher will then ask the students to collaborate with their table groups to
brainstorm what they feel makes up Canadas identity today. They will be tasked with
representing their thoughts in the form of a mind map. Once they have had time to complete
their mind map the teacher will ask the groups to contribute an example from their mind map to
our class mind map. To ensure that each group has a chance to share, each group will give one
idea at a time. Once our class mind map has been completed, we will post it on the walls in our
classroom for reference.
Student Task: Students will be working in their table groups to create a mindmap on chart
paper about what they believe makes up Canadian identity. They will include fundamental
elements that create Canadas image.
Assessment: Teacher will assess the class through observation during the creation of our class
mind map.
Lesson Two
Expectation(s): A 3.7 Describe significant changes within their own community in
Canada
Teaching: For this lesson a guest speaker from the local historical society will be coming to the
classroom to share with the students major historical changes that have occurred within our
community. Previously to the guest speaker coming in, as a class we will have taken time to
talk about our guest speaker and develop questions that we have about our community to ask
him/her.
Student Task: Students will write in their journals about something that stood out to them or
they found particularly interesting about the talk.
Assessment: Teacher will assess students by reading their journal entry, making anecdotal
notes on the students areas of interest in their communities history. The teacher will also
assess their students journal entry to ensure that there was an enduring understanding.
Lesson Three
Expectation(s):A 3.5 Describe interactions between communities in Canada, including
between newcomers and groups that were already in the
country.
Teaching: This lesson will be educating students on the groups that are living in Canada
throughout the 1900s. The teacher will utilize a timeline to show the various groups, and the
communities they will have formed. The class will be divided into groups, where they will be
provided with information (articles, books, etc.) to read. The group will be responsible for then
teaching the class about the group they were assigned. The groups that will be assigned are
Aboriginal, Japanese, the French and Women.
Student Task: The students will work in their groups to create a presentation for their
classmates. They will be tasked with reading the articles, creating their presentation (they will
be provided with markers and chart paper) and presenting to the class.
Assessment: The teacher will assess each groups presentation using a checklist with
previously discussed success criteria.

Lesson Four
Expectation(s):A 3.5 Describe interactions between communities in Canada, including
between newcomers and groups that were already in the
country.
A 3.1 Identify the main reasons why different peoples came to
Canada
Teaching: This lesson will introduce students to the various reasons that people immigrate to
Canada (i.e. refuges, work, education). As a class we will view the animated video Chinese
Violin. From this video we will have a discussion regarding some of the barriers that
newcomers have when coming to Canada, including finances, lack of personal possessions and
language barrier.
Student Task: In table groups students will brainstorm ways to help newcomers with
transitioning to life in Canada. Students groups will share one of their ideas with the class.
Assessment: Teacher will make anecdotal records based on the conversations at table groups
during the student task.
Lesson Five
Expectation(s):A 3.5 Describe interactions between communities in Canada, including
between newcomers and groups that were already in the
country.
Teaching: This lesson is where the teacher will introduce and explain to students the
interactions between the groups our previous two lessons taught us about (groups that were
already in Canada and newcomer groups). We will discuss language barriers and racism by
reading the book When I Was Eight by Margaret Pokiak-Fenton. We will discuss the feelings
that Olueman experienced when learning her new language, as well as how she lost her
culture.
Student Task: Each student will be paired up, and one of each pair will be assigned to be a
refugee who has just landed in Canada and the other will be someone who has lived in Canada
their whole lives, and we want them to role play a conversation the might have when they first
meet. They will then have to write their interactions down.
Assessment: The teacher will assess each written interaction based a checklist.
Lesson Six
Expectation(s): A 1.2 Evaluate some of the contributions that various ethnic and/or
religious groups have made to Canadian identity
Teaching: As a class we will engage in a conversation to activate prior knowledge as to why
people might want to leave their home countries and move to Canada. What does Canada have
to offer that some other countries might not be able to offer? Once people decided to move
here, how did their existence in Canada change what we know as Canadian identity? These
questions will be discussed as a class to foster conversations about what creates Canadian
identity as we know it in todays society. Students will then start discussing main groups that
moved to Canada and their influences on its identity within the 1900s to present day. Teacher
will have pre-packaged resources on different groups for students to choose from for their
independent application activity.

Student Task: Students will participate in the class discussion lead by the teacher on what
Canada has to offer to migrating ethnic/religious groups and how their existence in Canada has
changed and/or influenced Canadian identity. Students will then pick an ethnic or religious
group. They will then independently study a main group discussed previously and focus on why
they moved to Canada and their contributions to Canadian identity as a whole by using the premade resource from the teacher. They will have to fill in a worksheet and answer the specific
questions.
Assessment: Teacher will assess the students independent study to make sure that the
important contributions to Canadas identity have been covered. Students will be assessed on
the completed worksheet to make sure they answered all questions by pulling out the important
information within the pre-made resources. This will be done based on the rubric made by the
teacher.
Lesson Seven
Expectation(s): A 2.2 Gather and organize information from a variety of primary and
secondary sources using various technologies that present
different perspectives on the historical and/or contemporary
experience of two or more communities
Teaching: The teacher will discuss with the class the differences between primary and
secondary research methods. They will review what forms of research fall into each category.
Students will be put in groups for their culminating tasks and discuss who will play which roles.
The students will then be asked to start research with their group on two perspectives of their
historical event.
This will take place over two days. The first class will be the review, and students discussing
within their groups to come up with ideas for their project. The second day will be class time to
do research in the library and/or computer lab.
Student Task: Students will participate in class discussion giving some examples of primary
and secondary research. Students will go to the computer lab and start research for their
culminating task.
Assessment: Students will be monitored to make sure they stay on task while doing research.
Lesson Eight
Expectation(s):A 1.2 Evaluate some of the contributions that various ethnic and/or
religious groups have made to Canadian identity
A 2.2 Gather and organize information from a variety of primary and
secondary sources using various technologies that present
different perspectives on the historical and/or contemporary
experience of two or more communities
Teaching: Teacher will have students work in their desk groups to get acquainted with various
resources. Teacher will instruct students to look through books, textbooks, articles, and
research online to find out information on a given ethnic/religious group and their contribution to
Canada in the past 100 years.. Teacher will designate an ethnic/religious group to each student
group. The groups will include Catholic, French, Protestant, British, Japanese.
Student Task: Students in groups, will look in various resources (books in class, textbook,

articles, and online) to find information about different contributions of various ethnic and
religious groups. They will write their findings on chart paper and then present their findings to
the class.
Assessment: The teacher will evaluate the findings on the chart paper as well as the
presentation in front of the class. Teacher will assess using anecdotal records to make sure that
they have presented all of the important findings and have used more than one form of
collecting information.
Lesson Nine
Expectation(s):B 1.1 engage actively in drama exploration and role play, with a focus
on identifying and examining a range of issues, themes, and
ideas from a variety of fiction and nonfiction sources and
diverse communities, times and places
Teaching: Teacher will explain the concept of a tableau and do a short demonstration divide
class into groups of 4 and instruct them to collaborate to find a fictional book that they all agree
on. They will be instructed to discuss the main ideas/themes/messages from the book and
come up with a 10-15 second silent representation of these ideas.
Student Task: Students will be in groups of 4 will read a fictional book of their choice and
examine the issues and themes within the book. They will then do an interpretive drama
presentation where they will act out the main issue/theme/message from the book for 10-15
seconds and finish with freezing in a tableau to convey the overall ideas.
Assessment: Teacher will watch the presentations and make anecdotal records on the
performances. They will look for composure, thought and understanding of the books main
ideas. When the presentation is done, the group will give a quick explanation of their
performance.
Lesson Ten
Expectation(s):A 2.5 Evaluate evidence and draw conclusions about perspectives on
the historical and/or contemporary experience of two or more
distinct communities in Canada
Teaching: The teacher will start the lesson by talking about different types of perspectives.
They will explain that most stories have more than one side to them. The teacher will explain
that sometimes people do not see things the same event in the same way and that this how
there are different accounts of the same event. We will watch a news report that shows two
different perspectives, as a further introduction to our summative task. Students will then be
instructed to individually think of a time where two different perspectives could have been taken
on one event. We will then think, pair, share their ideas. The students will then be assigned
their task.
Student Task: Students will write in their journals about a time where one event had more than
one perspective on it. This recount can be of something the student experienced or a story they
made up, or an example from their think, pair, share.
Assessment: Teacher will collect journals to assess their understanding of how more than one
perspective can be had on an individual occurrence.
Lesson Eleven

Expectation(s):B1.3 plan and shape the direction of the drama or role play by
introducing new perspectives and ideas, both in and out of role
Teaching: We will begin the class with having a screenshot of the script on the screen. The
teacher will ask the students if they can identify what form of writing this is. Then, as a class, we
will write a sample of a script between an immigrant to Canada and the students at their new
school. We will focus on showing the perspective. Then, the teacher will break the class into
groups of 3 and have them read and rehearse a predetermined script that will have an
interviewer and two interviewees that will give two opposite perspectives. The scripts will be
present day situations not involved with the social studies curriculum such as a sports news
reporter interviewing two captains of opposing teams.
Student Task: Students will be expected to read and complete the task given by the teacher.
They will have to read and practise rehearsing the script to gain an understanding of the
emotions that should be displayed. Students will be given one period to work within their group
to come up with their performance, and the next period each group with present their script and
afterwards give a quick explanation of the context of what they performed.
Assessment: During the work period teacher will circulate the classroom to oversee how
students stay on task and work as a group. During the presentation period teacher will have a
checklist to evaluate students presentations focusing on role playing, emotion, and
perspectives, as well as their explanation of their performance.
Lesson Twelve
Expectation(s): A.1.3 Explain how various groups have contributed to the goal of
inclusiveness in Canada, and assess the extent to which
Canada has achieved the goal of being an inclusive society
Teaching: The teacher will explain to the class that Canada is well known for their
inclusiveness in its societies as well as being multicultural. The teacher will explain that there
are many types of people, cultures and practices that are welcomed in our country and they can
best be seen in big central cities. Then the students will be instructed to come up with different
ways that they know Canada is inclusive and what possible groups contributed to this reputation
for Canada.
Student Task: Students will discuss in groups how Canada is inclusive and multicultural. Talk
about how different groups have helped Canada become this way. Students will discuss what it
means to be multicultural and the importance to Canadian identity. Students will be allowed to
use chart paper and markers to write down dot jots for ideas if this helps the discussion and
advances students into higher level thinking.
Assessment: Teacher will circulate the classroom to observe and listen to the conversations.
The teacher will prompt and assist student discussion to higher level thinking.