NB Heritage Fairs – Empowering Students to Re-Think History

(District 14 - Curriculum Delivery Workshop - January 4, 2010)

“We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are.”
(Anaïs Nin, 1903-1977)

Objective: To familiarize students with links between 6 concepts of Benchmarks of Historical Thinking, community-based research, and project-based learning as reflected through Heritage Fairs;

To understand the dynamics of personal, collective and historical memory in action.

Target Audience: Grade 9 (Canadian Identity)

Subject Focus: Canada and New Brunswick in the 1960’s

1. Conceptual Framework:

• Starting points for “History” (2004)
• Personal Memory/Collective Memory/Historical Memory
• Thinking like a Historian (Benchmarks of Historical Thinking)
• Heritage Fairs in New Brunswick

Marshall McLuhan - Explorations - 05-18-1960 -
The World is a Global Village

2. Historical Memory: Historiography – the fundamentals of history research

• “Re-writing the book” activity (source: Exemplars in Historical Thinking) - "Analyzing the Account"

3. Collective Memory: Community-based Project Learning:

• Canada in the 1960’s
• Begin with the textbook
• Develop a research question
• Analyze the evidence:
• Analyzing the secondary sources - "Analyzing the Account"
• Analyzing the documents - "Analyzing Additional Documents"
• Analyzing the images - "Interpreting Images"
• Analyzing the artifacts - "Analyzing Traces"
• Analyzing the discourses - "Analyzing Propaganda"
• Using the concepts of Historical Thinking to reach a conclusion - "Historical Inquiry Checklist"
• Community heritage resource brainstorming

4. Personal Memory - Identity: Creating a Heritage Fair Project Storyboard - "PBL Designing Your Project"

• New Brunswick in the 1960’s
• Visualizing historical thinking - "Heritage Fair Project Storyboard"
• Conducting oral interviews
• Reaching conclusions @ moral judgment (teachings) and significance to the present

5. On-line Resources:

Teaching Historical Thinking:• Benchmarks of Historical Thinking
• Online Teaching Resources for Social Studies in Alberta
• History Matters
• Nine Habits for Success in Teaching History

Heritage Fairs in New Brunswick:• NB Heritage Fairs
• NB Heritage Week

Warm-up Activities:• Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History
• The Virtual Historian

Primary and Secondary Resources:• CBC Archives – Les Archives de Radio-Canada
• Library and Archives Canada Learning Centre
• Youtube
• Flickr
• McCord Museum - Keys to History
• Virtual Museum of Canada
• Provincial Archives of New Brunswick
• Centre d'études acadiennes
• Ancestry.ca


Handouts:• Presentation Overview
• Heritage Week 2010 planning kit
• Heritage Fairs funding application
• Events in New Brunswick – 1960’s (This Week in NB History)
• Self-directed Project Learning Rubric
• Exemplars in Historical Thinking blacklines
• Writing about an Artifact activity
• NB Heritage Education resource list
• Project-based storyboard outline (with Benchmark concepts)

Additional material:• Variety of discontinued textbooks
• Collective Memory suitcase (classroom artifact collection)
• 1960’s Newspaper Activity
• Posters etc.
6. Bibliography:

• Mike Denos and Roland Case. Teaching about Historical Thinking: Tools for Historical Understanding. Vancouver: The Critical Thinking Consortium, 2006.
• Mike Bowman et al. Exemplars in Historical Thinking: 20th Century Canada. Vancouver: The Critical Thinking Consortium, 2008.
• Thom Markham. Project Based Learning Handbook: A Guide to Standards-Focused Project Based Learning for Middle and High School Teachers. Novato: Buck Institute for Education, 2003.
• Ian Hundey. 9 Habits for Success in Teaching History. Toronto: Edmond Montgomery Publications Limited, 2007.
• Avis Fitton. Canadian Identity: Teacher's Resource. Toronto: Thomson Nelson, 2007.