Sharing our Histories
Goals: To explore your family history as it connects to the history of Canada and
to write a biography.
Definition of Biography: An account of someone’s life written by someone
else. (Synonyms: life history, memoir)
Task: Choose one parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent who was born
outside of Canada. Through family conversations and research, write a
biography, create a map, and art piece about him/her and his/her journey to
Canada. The biography should be based on facts, but where information is
limited you may fictionalize some of the biography, as long as it is realistic and
based on actual research you have done on the time of history that you are
writing about.
*If you are unable to write about a parent/grandparent/great-grandparent due to
lack of information, you may alternatively choose to write about a famous person
in history who settled in Canada.
1) Research and Writing the Biography
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Begin by gathering facts about your chosen person.
Use the attached Biography Questionnaire to organize your information.
Write the Biography.
2) Create a Map
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Create a map to show your person’s journey to and within Canada.
If your character moved around Canada a lot, you may want to show his/her
journey within Canada only.
If your character did not move around much, you may want to include your
character’s home country and Canada.
3) Art Component
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Create a piece of art that deepens your knowledge and understanding of the
journey and experience of immigrating to Canada.
Some suggestions are:
-a hand-drawn black and white portrait of your character (based on a photo)
-a landscape painting of the place your character lived or moved to
-a box of items that your person might have brought with him/her to Canada and
put some of these items into a box, or create a picture of the items
-an image of you, photo-shopped to appear like your chosen person and
reflecting the time period he/she lived in.