Indigenous Education

Social Studies, K-7 Unit | Gr 8-12 Unit

In this unit, students will learn about the importance of Orange Shirt Day and about honouring residential school survivors. This outline lesson can be broken down into separate lessons at the Elementary level but is broad enough to be expanded on for older students high school.

Applied Design, Skills & Technology, Gr K-7 Unit

In this unit, students will learn about the ancient craft of “weaving.”  Weaving has been used by numerous cultures in Canada both historically and presently.  Here, students will learn about the cultural significance of Métis sash weaving and their connection to the land. Students will develop knowledge and skills around the process of weaving and will finish by creating a Métis-inspired group or individual weaving sample.

Math, Visual Arts, Language Arts, Gr 4-7 Unit

This unit is an interdisciplinary unit that explores shapes you typically see in Coast Salish and other First Nations works of art.  Students begin by exploring 2D and 3D shapes in math, and making connections to the typical First Nations shapes (i.e. ovoid, split-u, etc).  After this, student are asked to create their own paper paddle design that incorporates these shapes, using a template and some method of colouring them in.  Lastly, once the paddles have been completed, students work through the writing process to create a story of their paddle (i.e. how they made it, the story it represents), that they can then share orally.

Language Arts & Social Studies, Gr 5 Unit

This unit will cover the history of Indian Residential Schools starting with pre-contact of First Peoples in Canada through colonization and moving towards Reconciliation.

Core French, Gr 6-7 Unit | Gr 8-10 Unit

This unit with provide students with the opportunity to explore a First Nations story and create their own using basic French vocabulary suitable to their grade level. Students will explore First Nations culture as well as their own cultural identity.

English Language Arts, Gr 10 Unit

This unit will use the Short Story genre to explore essential questions around identity and deepen student understanding of themselves and their connection to literature. The unit could also be used with poetry, a class novel study, or literature circles. Identity could also be the overarching, theme/big idea for the entire year of study in English 10. The interdisciplinary links between Art and Socials could be explored and used to enrich the learning events and support the transfer goals.

Social Studies, Gr 10-12 Unit

This lesson on identity is designed to span over two classes and allows students to examine the concept of identity through a critical lens to understand differing world views of identity. The lesson starts with the identity as individuals, then shifts to the community and then to a national level by examining three case studies. The two day lesson is scaffolded to allow students the opportunity to examine and discuss specific case studies and apply critical thinking skills.