Books to use when teaching history and citizenship Education

There are many great books that can introduce students to ideas of citizenship education as well as books that get students to think historically as well. Picture books are great to introduce students to new ideas, but also gets them to start thinking about the role of history within these books. The few books listed are only a few that I wish to highlight to show that there are wonderful books out there to look at!

Some Great Books:

• Rose Blanche by: Christophe Gallez 
• a great book to get students to start thinking about what it means to be a democratic citizen and to live in a democratic society. This book takes part during the Holocaust and has a young girls who start to question what is happening
• The enemy by: David Cali and Serge Bloch
• a great book to get students to understand what war is and what happened. A story of two men in WW1 across from each other in the trenches, where the characters learn that their enemy too has a family, friends and a life, similar to what they too have.
• Iqbal by Francesco D'Adamo/Translated by Ann Leonori
• a story to introduces children to human and children's rights, as well as introduces them to a recent history. A story about a child's rights advocate, who was a child who fought for his own rights. The book follows the path of his life from when he was sold till his early death.
•  In Flanders Field: The Story of the Poem by John McCrea by Linda Granfield
• a story about the famous poem that allows students to learn the poem and the history behind it. This can be a help book to use when introducing students to the meaning of remembrance day.

Other great books that have been well used are "A Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank, "The Breadwinner" by Deborah Ellis, and many books written by Kit Pearson. These are only a few, and there are so many more that can be used to teach history, citizenship education, and be easily integrated into what students are already learning.

Role Playing

The act of playing out a character can help teach students understand the past. Allowing students to try out and step into the role of a past child of the era their studying. This could be taking part in education programs at museums and even in the classroom. For example, at Black Creek Pioneer Village, there are programs for Grade 7 students that has students tour through out the village taking on a certain perspective. They then end their tour arguing the side/perspective to see which side is the strongest. Or even the Dickson Hill program we have at Black Creek, where grade 3 student spend the week at the village. Each morning starting their day with their teacher teaching them in the historic Dickson Hill School house and completing their day doing 3 apprenticeships each day, in buildings such as the doctors house, printshop, weavers shop, broom makers shop, first and second Stong house, and more. Or even just having the chance to go to a historic school house for the day, many school boards own their own or local museums offer this.

If you are unable to go on a field trip, then bring it to the classroom. This could be done, by having students dress up like students from the past for a day, and give them a identity card of a child that lived during the period being studied, so that they have someone to link onto. Or even create stations for students to go through that has them try out historic activities. Such as making a historic recipe or craft, playing games that were popular in the past, or anything that gets the students to understand children of the past that they can compare to their own lives. With older students, have them re-enact historic events, such as political events, or important events that impacted upon the present. This could be allowing students to try out new ideas and think about the reasons to why certain political powers won, or new laws come about, or even our ideologies.

Primary Sources

Many of us look at primary sources as the truth of the past. Did you realizes that this is not always the case, that there can be primary sources that don't offer a general impression of the past? Well sometimes this can occur and when it does this should be embraced and discussed. A few times you may have students who find the primary evidence that doesn't support general opinion. Discuss why this differs to what the textbook might say, and how we should take this information. (It should be also said that the textbooks might lie too!) We need to teach students that history is not set in stone, and that it too can change. For example, many times students will research monuments, believing that it is created in memory of an event that occurred, to find out that this monument was really created for another purpose and re-created/re-named in terms of something else. (You will find this especially common for war monuments.)

Primary sources can also be difficult to find too, if you wish to have students use them in your lessons. But did you realize that many provinces have archives that create and post lessons for teacher to use that contain lots of helpful and wonderful resources. For example the Ontario Archives just published a large collection of lessons with primary source evidence for students to use in the past year or two. This is a great way of introducing your students to primary source evidence and getting them use to using and analyzing the evidence they can view. So, don't be fearful of using primary source evidence, that are many places to go to find primary evidence to use in your lessons.

War of 1812

Teach your grade 7's about the War of 1812, I realizes that we have heard so much about it lately because it's been 200 years since the war (1812-1814). But that means that there are a lot of resources to use. One that I found really interesting is this one made by the Canadian Government (http://www.1812history.com/teachers.html).

It offers a whole unit to teach that is fun and gets students to get involved in learning history. Great for young teachers who are just starting out, or teachers who are new to teaching Canadian history. It has students learning about different events and also getting students involved in being a historian and stating if it is historically relevant to look at in terms of this event and why. I especially like lesson 10, where students need to look at a collection of artifacts and justify if it should be part of their museum collection/display.

The Baby Boomers

A fun and exciting time to look at and to study in history. But usually forgotten or left off because of a lack of time. But what about having your students research and write up a presentation to teach the time period to their fellow classmates. Have groups that look at different subject areas such as the economical and social reasons to why it occurred, who the baby boomers were and why they changed Canada, and the social and cultural impacts upon Canadian society. Allow students the chance to research the topic for a week or two, and then give each group a class or half a class to present and teach their subject matter.

This is a great area for students to research on because they can ask their parent/grandparents about growing up as a baby boomer. There is a large collection of research done on this time period and can be easily accessible through the use of the internet. Allowing students to be able to collect and analyze primary evidence and be also able to compare and contrast this time period with their own This allows student the chance to learn about a time period not so long a go, but very different to their own even. While also allowing students the chance to take on the role of historically thinking about the past and offering their own interpretation of the past.

Field Trips for Grade 7s

Fun and Historical Thinking Field Trips to do with Your Grade 7's

Field trips are always a great place to go to promote historical thinking. It offers a new site for learning and can make learning history a fun too. It can especially help get students to take on historical perspectives because they can take on the role of stepping in the footprints of the past. But also allows students to have access to resources and primary materials that can be unique to the location of the field trip.

Here are some great places to go for field trips:

Black Creek Pioneer Village
Of Course I must share this, as I am one of the many education personalities for these programs listed and know that these are great programs to do and promotes historical thinking skills.
It is more than just a place to go when your in Grade 3 learning about early settlers! But they offer some great programs for grade 7's too, the ones for grade 3 are awesome and wonderful to go on too!
War of 1812 Program- Students get to go through out the village to learn about the different perspectives of the people who's life was changed and impacted on during the war of 1812.
1837 Rebellion Program- Students go through the village as either a rebel, or for the family compact. Where they get to meet character from the past when visiting buildings, that support their perspective.
http://www.blackcreek.ca/v2/learn/group-programs.dot

Mackenzie House Museum
This is a great museum to go to, to learn about the 1837 Rebellion. Especially since this is the home of William Lyon Mackenzie, the little rebel. I have done this program myself and strongly recommend it for schools who are able to travel to this museum for its 2 hour long program. This museum also offers some programs also for the War of 1812 and other curriculum areas.
http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=512d2271635af310VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD

Historic Forts
Throughout Ontario there are some great forts to go to and allows students to learn about the War of 1812. For example Fort York in Toronto,  Fort Henry in Kingston, and Fort George in Niagara. It can be great to just allow students the chance to have a tour of a heritage fort, or do a education program at it too.

British Home Children

Ever thought about teaching your students about the British Home Children, that were brought to Canada from 1869 to 1930, many against their will or families knowledge. This can offer a interesting topic to discuss with your students and offer students a chance to take on a stance in a social justice debate the positives and negatives to the issue.

If your interested in setting up your class for a debate on the British Home Children set up your classroom into groups. Have one group represent the "reformers" who are all about reforming these poor children's lives by sending them to Canada, and another group to represent the families of the British Home Children, who's children are being ripped away from them or their signing their children over in hopes of a better life. If you would like another two groups in addition to represent a different view point, one could be the family receiving these children in Canada and the other group could be the British Home Children themselves. After assigning each group a different perspective, allow students time to research and form a strong argument for their perspective.

This activity is excellent for promoting historical perspectives with your students. This will get students to begin developing historical thinking skills that will get students to start taking on the role of a historian.