STAGE 1: a) Big Ideas, Rationale & Essential Questions

Big Ideas (from Draft Curricula)

Rationale / Relevance
Identify a Big Idea from at least 3 WHY is this unit of importance to
different curricular areas.
your students learning?
Social Studies
Grade 5: Immigration and
multiculturalism continue to
shape Canadian society and
identity.
Grade 6:
Systems of government vary in
their respect for human rights
and freedoms.
Arts Education
Grade 5:
Works of art influence and are
influenced by the world around
us.
Grade 6:
Experiencing art is a means to
develop empathy for others
perspectives and experiences.
English Language Arts
Grade 5 and 6:
Exploring texts and story helps us

This unit is important for our

students because we want them
to develop an understanding of
the multiculturalism within
Canadian society and how their
own cultural identity is connected
to our society. This unit supports
the big ideas and learning
standards from the new
curriculum for Social Studies,
English Language Arts, and Arts
Education.

Essential Questions
Open-ended and thoughtprovoking questions that link the
curricular areas and engage
students.
How has Canadas identity
been shaped by the
immigration of individuals
from a wide range of ethnic
and cultural backgrounds?
What types of discrimination
have immigrants to Canada
faced?
What factors bring people to
Canada?
Why is the Charter of Rights
and Freedoms important for
Canadian Society?

understand ourselves and make

connections to others and to the
world.

STAGE 1: b) What students will

CORE Competencies
Choose from at least one of the
three CORE competencies. Create
an I statement that links to a
facet of your chosen competency.

be learning goals for the unit

Curricular Competencies
Students will be able to:
At least one from each curricular
area.

Positive Personal & Cultural

Identities
I can describe different aspects of
my identity. I have pride in who I
am.
I am able to identify groups that I
belong to. I am able to represent
aspects of my cultural contexts
(such as family, communities,
school, and peer groups) through
words and/or images.

Social Studies
Grade 5 and 6:
Use Social Studies inquiry
processes and skills to: ask
questions; gather, interpret, and
analyze ideas; and communicate
findings and decisions.
Grade 6:
Take stakeholders perspectives
on issues, developments, and
events by making inferences
about their beliefs, values, and
motivations (perspective).
Arts Education:

Content
Students will know and
understand:
(state in your own words)

Social Studies
Grade 5:
Human rights and responses to
discrimination in Canadian
Society.
Human Charter of Rights and
Freedoms.
Levels of government, their main
functions, and sources of funding.
The changing nature of Canadian
immigration over time.

Grade 5:
Explore connections to identity,
place, culture and belonging
through creative expression.
Grade 6:
Explore relationships between
identity, place, culture, society,
and belonging through the arts.
English Language Arts:
Grade 5:
Use personal experience and
knowledge to connect to text and
develop understanding of self,
community, and world.
Communicate in print, using
letters and words and applying
basic conventions of English
spelling, grammar, and
punctuation.
Grade 6:
Construct meaningful personal
connections between self, text,
and world.
Use an increasing repertoire of
conventions of English spelling,
grammar, and punctuation.

Grade 6:
Global poverty and inequality
issues, including class structure
and gender.
Regional and international
conflict.
Different systems of government.
The urbanization and migration of
people.

English Language Arts

Grade 5 and 6:
Language features, structures,
and conventions:
features of oral language
effective paragraphing
sentence structure and
grammar
conventions
Arts Education
Grade 5:
Elements and principles that
together create meaning in the
arts, including but not limited to:
Visual arts: elements of

design: line, shape, space,

texture, colour, form, value.

STAGE 2: Assessment Evidence

of learning goals

- Acceptable, authentic evidence demonstrating achievement

What evidence will I gather, reflect on and record?

How will I guide the self-assessment, goal setting and reflection?

Rich Culminating Task:

(summative)
Description of authentic activities or products that
allow students to demonstrate the desired
understandings that culminate in rich evidence of
learning.
( ie poster, showcase, presentation, video, skit,
essay, project)
-

written responses with a criteria rubric

written paragraphs
Canadian Passport activity
Family Tree activity
Presentations/Showcases
Cultural Mosaic (art)

Other Evidence:
(formative)
Through what other evidence will students
demonstrate achievement of the desired results as
they move towards the culminating task (s)?
( draft products, observations, conversations
write/say/do)
How will students reflect upon and self assess their
learning?
- written paragraphs
- pod brainstorms
- verbal conversations
- worksheets
- tickets out the door
- partner share
- group share

STAGE 3: Learning Plan

What learning experiences will you design to allow students to engage with the content and develop their
skills in the competencies? What sequence will best develop the learning?
Describe appropriate learning that helps ALL learners
acquire knowledge and skills
make meaning
transfer learning
Learning Intention
Activity
I can explain ways that Canada is bilingual.
Go through a PowerPoint which depicts facets of
living in a bilingual nation and what it truly means.
Break off into pods to brainstorm ideas and write
individual paragraphs on what living in a bilingual
country looks like to them and how it affects or
impacts their lives.
I will be able to translate and decode words in both
of Canadas official languages.

Students will take everyday items from a grocery

store and translate words from French-English and
English-French.

I can explain why the Charter of Rights and

Freedoms is important.

Key questions: What is a right? Why are my

rights and freedoms important?
In pods, students will create a chart/web/list of what
rights and freedoms they think are on the Charter.
We will discuss these as to why or why not they
should be on the charter.
Students will each get a right or freedom to
explore, discuss, and become mini experts on.
Students will present these to the class.

I can briefly describe the rights and freedoms I have

as a Canadian Citizen.

I know the difference between immigration and

emigration. I can understand the push and pull
factors for why someone would leave their country
to come to Canada.

I understand my own family's immigration story and

know why we moved to Canada, where our
immigrants come from and what challenges they
face, and how we can be welcoming to our
immigrants.

I will be able to explain with understanding the

process to obtain a Canadian Passport.

I will be able to explain the responsibilities I have as

a Canadian citizen.

Continuing to work in pods, students will create

their own Charter of Rights. (These can and should
incorporate the rights and freedoms we already
have this is to build upon our rights and explore
what may be missing in our current Charter.)
Go through a PowerPoint Presentation covering the
different terminology and vocabulary.
Pods will create t-charts with push and pull factors
that will be discussed with the entire class.
Short video with questions to follow.
TPS conversation with a partner about where their
ancestors immigrated from which will be shared out
to the class if students feel comfortable.
Discussion about what countries Canada receives
the most immigrants from and where these
immigrants may choose to settle in Canada.
Graphic organizers will be used to summarize this
information.
Go through a PowerPoint presentation about
Canadian Citizenship.
Students will participate in a Scavenger hunt
where they will gather information to obtain a
Canadian Passport.
Go through a PowerPoint presentation about
passports.

Students will create their own Canadian Passport.

I can create a family tree to represent my ancestry
and where I come from.

Go thru a PowerPoint on ancestry and family trees.

Students will bring a prepared sheet to class about
their family history.
Students will use the information to fill out their
own Family Tree.

I will be able to tell a friend where my family

immigrated to Canada from and show this in my
passport and on my family tree.

Students will participate in a partner share about

their familys ancestry and where they came from.
Students will mark on a map where some of the
ancestors immigrated from.
Students will complete their family tree.

I can explain why my piece of art represents Canada

as a multicultural country.

Students will be creating a cultural mosaic. Students

will look through magazines and find pictures of
people from different cultures. They will cut these
I can create a unique piece of art that represents
pictures out and paste it to their page in a collage
Canada using the art element of shape.
format.
On the back of their mosaic students will answer
the following question: How do these pictures
represent Canada as a multicultural country?
RICH CULMINATING TASK
Please read the lesson above for our culminating task.
Students will also have the opportunity on the last day to present/showcase a variety of the work they
have completed (passport, family tree, or their mosaic.) This will be our Celebration of Learning.