August 2011
Monthly Outreach highlights the new content on the Promising Practices in Aboriginal Education Website.
Issue 21
Exemplary Classroom Practice
Elementary/Secondary Education
Gateway To Aboriginal Heritage: Online Exhibition
Source: Canadian Museum of Civilization
Focus: Grades 4, 5-8 and 9-12
Summary: The Canadian Museum of Civilization presents an extraordinary resource documenting the histories and cultures of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada.
Explore a selection of materials drawn from the Museum’s artifacts and archival collections. Historical and contemporary objects, images and documents vividly express the cultural diversity as well as creativity, resourcefulness and endurance of this country’s First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
Learning Activities by grade:
K-4: Students learn about the history and cultures of aboriginal peoples by identifying plant and animal materials used to make everyday objects, completing the Match the Object to the Material Activity Sheet, and engaging in a classroom discussion about materials people use to make objects.
2-4: Students learn about the history and cultures of aboriginal peoples and learn to interpret their artifacts by studying objects from the Canadian Museum of Civilization's database. Students will complete an Amazing Object activity sheet, and make a presentation in a format of their choice.
5-8: Students learn to interpret museum artifacts, and learn about the history and culture of aboriginal peoples in Canada, by studying objects from the Canadian Museum of Civilization's database, completing a Discovering Objects Activity Sheet, and making a presentation of artifacts.
Students learn to interpret artifacts, and learn about the history and cultures of aboriginal peoples, by selecting images of objects from the Canadian Museum of Civilization's database, by creating a display that features similar objects from different cultures, and by making a presentation in a format of their choice.
9-12: Students learn to interpret objects that were made by aboriginal peoples in Canada, and learn about the history and cultures of Canada's aboriginal peoples, by researching and selecting images of objects from the Canadian Museum of database, completing the Virtual Museum Challenge worksheet, and making a presentation of artifacts selected for an imaginary exhibition.
Students learn about the history and cultures of Canada's aboriginal peoples, and learn how to write concise, meaningful label text, by selecting objects from the Canadian Museum of Civilization's database, writing several labels in different ways, sharing their labels with their classmates, and making a presentation in a format of their choice.
Students learn about the history and cultures of Canada's aboriginal peoples by searching the Canadian Museum of Civilization's Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage web module, completing the Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage Database Quiz, and discussing their findings. This activity introduces students to a useful source of information.
Community Engagement
Childcare and Children’s Health: Implementing An Aboriginal perspective into any everyday early childhood environment
Source: Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne with support from Johnson & Johnson
Focus: Parents and caregivers
Summary: This publication promotes current expert advice on child health and wellbeing and current policies and practices for those who work with young children and their families.
Multi Media
Arctic Peoples and Archaeology Interactive
Source: Inuit Heritage Trust, Government of Nunavut Department of Education and a Nunavut Land Claims organization along with Inuit Archaeologists and Inuit Elders.
Focus: Students and Teachers interested in studying the Arctic
Summary: Originally conceived of as a curriculum resource for Nunavut schools, this comprehensive interactive presentation provides an excellent introduction to the Arctic, and to the people who made this environment their home for the past thousands of years.
The presentation begins by introducing the Arctic environment. An interactive migration activity concludes this first section, encouraging the student to consider the challenges of a family at the turn of a season as they decide where to travel next to find the sustenance on which their lives depend. The next section introduces the arctic peoples, their tools, shelters, and their modes of transportation.
The third section introduces the science of archaeology along with the regulatory environment for accessing archaeology sites in Nunavut today. The final section focuses on a rich archaeological site in the High Arctic. This section is also interactive, requiring the student’s assistance to identify objects and make decisions about the Tuniit and the Thule who were known to have occupied this site.
This interactive site is available in Inuktitut, English and French versions.
Related Links
Complete History of the Canadian Métis Culture: Métis Nation of the North West
Focus: Secondary students and teachers
Summary: The focus of this research is the North West Algonquian Métis culture, being distinct from the South West Mississippi or Missouri Métis, or the other Mixed Blood Peoples of America. The Red River of the North West, from a Canadian perspective, has been traditionally acclaimed as the cultural apex of the Métis culture. The Métis culture, however, finds its apex- not in the Red River- but in the story of the Grand Kitchi Gami (Lake Superior), also known as the 'Old North West'.
This site presents extensive research conducted on the Métis who are described throughout this research as a cultural tradition based on a premise of First Nation ancestry or adoption into that tradition.
Professional Development
Canadian Journal of Native Studies
Source: Brandon University Library
Summary: This site contains past online Volumes of the Canadian Journal of Native Studies dating back to 1981 until 1995.
Relevant Research
Early School Leavers: Understanding the Lived Reality of Student Disengagement from Secondary School: Final Report
Source: Hospital for Sick Children and the Special Education Branch of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities
Focus: Teachers and Administrators
Summary: Early school leaving is described as the result of a long process of disengagement and alienation that may be preceded by less severe types of withdrawal such as truancy and course failures.
This report details the findings of a qualitative study designed to understand the processes of disengagement from school, and of early school leaving, from the point of view of 193young people in Ontario who have themselves left school or are at risk of doing do. It also provides data on the process from the perspectives of groups of parents/guardians of early leavers, and of Ontario educators. This data fills a gap in the research and policy literature on the process as told from these unique perspectives. Understanding this process is intended to provide the Ministry of Education with multiple junctures in which to intervene.
Promising Initiatives
Roots and Shoots for Aboriginal Youth
Source: Jane Goodall Institute of Canada
Summary: Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots program is a youth action program and global network of young people working for positive change in their communities and beyond.
In 2009, the Jane Goodall Institute launched a pilot program to introduce Roots & Shoots to First Nation, Inuit and Métis communities across Canada. The program was funded by Indian and Northern Affairs of Canada (INAC), now known as Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development (AAND).
The goals of this program are to:
- Educate First Nation, Inuit and Métis youth and communities about Roots& Shoots and the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada.
- Support youth in taking action on issues affecting people, animals and the environment.
- Mobilize youth to become more connected to their land, people and cultural identity.
- Empower First Nation, Inuit and Métis youth to make change in their communities.
Although the program is geared toward children and youth, Roots & Shoots encourages people of all ages to get involved!
Thank you for your ongoing support. We will notify you monthly about the newly posted materials.
