A Timeline of Canadian History
Task: Students will summarize the major events that contributed to
Canadian identity onto a timeline. They will then create their own Smart
board interactive activity to quiz other students about those events.
Specific Outcomes:
Social Studies:
5.3.1 appreciate how changes impact citizenship and identity:
• recognize how economic and political changes impact ways of life of citizens
• recognize the effects of Confederation on citizenship and identity from multiple
perspectives
• recognize the historical significance of French and English as Canada’s official
languages
5.3.2 assess, critically, the changes that occurred in Canada immediately following
Confederation by exploring and reflecting upon the following questions and issues:
• How did John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier contribute as partners of
Confederation?
• How did the circumstances surrounding Confederation eventually lead to French and
English becoming Canada’s two official languages?
• How did the building of Canada’s national railway affect the development of Canada?
• Why were Aboriginal peoples excluded from the negotiations surrounding
Confederation?
5.3.3 assess, critically, how the Famous Five brought about change in Canada by
exploring and reflecting upon the following questions and issues:
• Who were the Famous Five?
• How did they identify the need for change in Canadian laws?
• How did the changes brought on by their actions affect individual rights in Canada?
5.3.4 assess, critically, how economic booms and crashes affected ways of life in Canada
by exploring and reflecting upon the following questions and issues:
• How did the First World War contribute to the industrialization and urbanization of
Canada?
• In what ways did the Great Depression of the 1930s affect ways of life in urban and
rural
communities?
• How did the economic boom immediately following the Second World War affect ways
of
life in Canada?
ICT:
C.1: 2.1- access and retrieve appropriate information from the Internet by using a
specific search path or from given uniform resource locations (URLs)
2.2 - organize information gathered from the Internet, or an electronic source, by
selecting and recording the data in logical files or categories; and by communicating
effectively, through appropriate forms, such as speeches, reports and multimedia
presentations, applying information technologies that serve particular audiences and
purposes
C.7: 2.1 - use a variety of technologies to organize and synthesize researched
information
P.1: 2.1 - create and revise original text to communicate and demonstrate understanding
of forms and techniques
P.3: 2.1 - create a multimedia presentation, incorporating such features as visual images
(clip art, video clips), sounds (live recordings, sound clips) and animated images,
appropriate to a variety of audiences and purposes
Task Details:
Students will research and summarize the following major events onto a
timeline:
1. French and English Become Canada’s two official languages
2. Confederation of Canada—include who was excluded? Why?
3. The Last Spike—building of Canada’s national railway—record 2
dates: when it began and when it ended and the issues surrounding
it
4. The “Persons” Case
5. Women’s right to vote
6. Equal pay for equal work
7. The divorce inheritance law
8. The Great Depression
9. World War I
10. Economic boom following World War II
11. Indian Act – to model with
12. Adoption of the Canadian Flag – to model with
To start, students will need to research 10 of the events using books and
the internet (see resources). Use the last two events to model with. They
can type each of their summaries onto a Word document. In each
summary they will need to include:
a) the event,
b) who was involved in the event,
c) when it took place,
d) where it took place,
e) what changes were brought about in Canadian identity as
a result of the event, and
f) who was affected by the changes
After they have completed their research, they will use their summaries
to visually represent each event on a timeline. Students will use Glogster
(a website where you create multi-media posters) to create their
timelines. This will allow them to create a multi-media timeline that can
include images, videos, sounds, and text to visually represent each event.
Students will have to choose appropriate medias to represent each
event. The timeline will need to be organized in the appropriate order
and must also include the dates in which each event occurred.
You will need to use EDU Glogster. Go to www.edu.glogster.com and
create a teacher account. You will then be able to create up to 200
student accounts on this. For information and help on setting this up, go
to www.edu.glogster.com/faq/#part4 for frequently asked questions.
Another teacher, Neil Stephenson, has also used Glogster for students
to create a timeline about Canada’s events. If you go to
http://firesidelearning.ning.com/profiles/blogs/creating-historicaltimelines
you can read how he engaged students in this.
Smart Board Extension:
After the students have created their timelines, they can create a trivia
game/interactive activity on Notebook that the other students can play
on the Smart board. **Note: Students will have to have some experience
and time playing with different interactive tools in the Lesson Activity
Toolkit on the Notebook software as well as knowing how to search the
gallery for interactive/multimedia templates. They will also need to know
some of the basic tools on it.**
Attached is an example of a few activities the students could create on
Notebook that can be used by the teacher to model with.
Page 1: The first page is a balloon pop to reveal the answer. The “balloon
pop” can be found under the Lesson Activity Toolkit 2.0 – Tools –
Balloon Pop. You can edit the text on the balloon to put the question
on it. You then need to create text behind the balloon that will be
revealed when the balloon is popped. If the text is going in front of the
balloon, then you need to highlight the text, click on the grey arrow and
choose “order” and then “bring to back”. There is only one balloon on the
page but the students would create a page of them with many balloons
for a variety of questions.
Page 2: The second page is a multiple choice interactive activity that is in
the Lesson Activity Toolkit 2.0 – Activities – Multiple Choice. In this
example there is only one question but the students can create as many
questions as they want.
Page 3: The third page is another interactive game that is in the Lesson
Activity Toolkit 2.0 – Activities – Word Guess. The students can type in
keywords that can be guessed and then create clues that can help the
students guess the words. Again, there is only two examples of words on
this one, but the students were create more.
Resources:
1. Confederation for Kids
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/2/2/index-e.html
2. The Last Spike
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/05/0529/052920/05292086_e.html
3. The Canadian Encyclopedia- search for events individually, or follow
the link to the “100 Greatest Events in Canadian History”
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com
4. Wikipedia
www.wikipedia.org
5. Images Canada
www.imagescanada.ca/index-e.html
6. Canada History-Eras
http://www.canadahistory.com/sections/eras/eras.htm
7. The History of Canada and the Canadians –Follow the links on the
right hand side
http://www.linksnorth.com/canada-history/
8. Notebook software
Assessment: Rubric for Timeline
Category
Time Management
Needs
Improvement (2)
Students did not
complete the timeline.
Work completed was
minimal
Satisfactory (3)
Project was
completed in the
time given, no
homework done to
aid the project.
Proficient
(4)
Excellent
(5)
Project was
completed in the
time given.
Homework was
done as needed.
Project was
completed within the
given time. Clear
evidence of extra
work done at home.
Content/ Facts
Facts were often
inaccurate for the
events that were
reported on the
timeline. Facts were
missing many of the
elements required for
most of the summaries.
Facts were accurate
for most (~75%) of
the events reported
on the timeline. Facts
included most of the
elements required
for each summary.
Facts were
accurate for
almost all events
reported on the
timeline. Facts
included almost
all of the elements
required for each
summary.
Facts were accurate
for all events
reported on the
timeline. Facts
included all of the
elements required
for each summary.
Dates
Dates are inaccurate
and/or missing for
several events.
An accurate date
has been included
for almost every
event.
An accurate,
complete date has
been included for
almost every
event.
An accurate,
complete date has
been included for
each event.
Media
Media chosen is not
effective and
reflective of the
events researched.
Some media chosen is
effective and
reflective of the
events researched.
Almost all media
chosen is
effective and
reflective of the
events
researched.
All media chosen is
effective and shows
an accurate
representation of the
events researched.