Thursday, September 21, 2017

Summary of John A Macdonald discussion, thanks from Kent Monkman, and History in action, Media Literacy, Math HW

History

This photo is a visual summary of the notes I recorded from our discussions during the Four Corners exercise.  Details of the notes are posted on the Google Classroom History site.  The photo of t he Residential School is from Carcross, YT, which can be found here:

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Carcross,+YT/@60.1762971,-152.6442385,4z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x51550bf452cd3023:0xbed32878aeaa519f!8m2!3d60.1675851!4d-134.7073506
From the initial inferencing exercise using Kent Monkman's The Subjugation of Truth, I was pleased to see his response to our exercise when I shared our finished notes with him:

The wealth of Canadian History in this photo will serve as the launching point for our first Inquiry, which will be explained soon.

On the radio and in the news today was the story about Prime Minister Trudeau speaking to the United Nations.
https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/trudeau-to-use-un-speech-to-recognize-canadas-relationship-with-indigenous-peoples/article36338926/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&
This story connects with all of the concepts of Historical Thinking we have been exploring, but I think it really zeroes in on 2 of them:

Historical Significance:  These schools have been around since 1880 and the discussion of their legacy still is a matter of importance to this day.  

Continuity and Change:  The fact that the PM is having this talk today is important.  The fact it is being discussed means that it is important to the government, but is it enough?  Will this help change conditions and offer support for the diverse Indigenous communities touched by the legacies of Residential Schools? The Canadian Encyclopedia has some more information on the Residential Schools:  http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools/

This is happening now.  This is History in action.

I will explain why I posted this video and how it relates to today's lesson on bridging the Historical Concepts we have looked at in class, with this fictional tale.  

There is a photo I will post to help guide this exercise.  It involves some higher order thinking but will be a lot of fun.  It is intended to prepare the students to engage with the following research model:



The in-class portion of this pre-research project has the students thinking about one of the concepts they are interested in working with and selecting a story they are familiar with.  In this case, we will use a Fairy Tale which will serve as the item of history they will be researching, making sense of, and then briefly presenting it in front of the class.  To model this for the class, I am using this book.  

In reading the book and thinking about what concept I am interested in linking to the story, I am PREPARING and ACCESSING the information in the book.



Here are the concepts, which have been summarized, from Google Classroom.  


I decided to use the concept of Historical Perspective to look at the story.  In the History section of Google Classroom, I will upload some jot notes and an initial draft of my report.  Both items are examples of my PROCESSING.  I plan to return to those notes, so I can have another version to share with the classes for the next History class.  

Initially, I thought I would use this as part of my report, but I don't think I will.  Having this will confuse the example I am trying to model with too much information.  Still, you may find this story amusing, given the example, I am using.  



Language:  Media Literacy

To continue from our discussions/activity from last week, we will look at one of the key concepts of the study of Media Literacy and how this relates to the idea of "Fake News."  In fact, all news is constructed because it is a medium of communication.



One of the concepts, which may seem a little abstract, is that of Confirmation Bias:


Math HW

When homework is assigned, we usually take the time to put it up on the board.  There is not a lot of space for answers to go up, but I select several questions and we review them, if necessary.
Some students are not doing their homework.  This is not acceptable and will make learning very challenging.  If you did not do your work, take the time to record it from the board, or Google Classroom, and review it later on.  If you have questions, come back to class with them.
due to time constraints, I will post this on Google Classroom later on.

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