Unit Plan Central Question and Culminating Task

I am working with 3 of my peers to create a unit plan. My group is looking at Strand A, Heritage and Identity: Communities in Canada, Past for grade 6. We are focusing on 3 Big Ideas:

• Shared goals, values, attitudes, and experiences from our collective Canadian identity.
• Stories of the past, told from different perspectives, continue to shape Canada today
• The experiences of diverse communities in a challenging environment have contributed to a Canadian identity that is complex and ever changing.

Our overarching question is “what does it mean to be Canadian?” We developed this question after the week 4 which focused on inquiry and we had to come up with questions for the inquiry presentation, which asked us “what it means to be Canadian”. This question stuck with us because it was challenging for us to come up with a definite answer. We thought it would be a good inquiry question for grade 6 students to research and look at their own identities as Canadians. We have two lines of inquiry which ask what it means to be Canadian today, and how has history contributed to our Canadian identity? Our culminating task will be a website welcoming people to Canada.

My group has decided to have our students create a website in groups to welcome people to Canada. This website will welcome and inform tourists, permanent visitors, and immigrants to Canada and will answer the overarching question of what it means to be Canadian. Throughout the unit, students will create an artifact at the end of every lesson and add it to their website. These artifacts will represent Canadian culture and history and will help to define Canadian identity. We have 12 lessons that will look at different aspects of Canadian history, culture, and life, and at the end of each lesson students have to produce an artifact in their group and add it to their Welcome to Canada website. We plan to separate students into Regional Groups so each group will focus on a different region of Canada and share it with the class. The Regional Groups are:

• Newfoundland
• Maritimes
• Quebec
• Ontario
• Manitoba and Saskatchewan
• Alberta
• British Columbia
• The Territories

Students will create all of these products throughout the unit, but will only choose 6 of the following to post on their website:

o   New Canadian citizen test

o   Map

o   Paragraph about Canadian symbol

o   Multiculturalism 

o   Filmed Skit

o   Data chart/budgeting (math)

o   Menu

o   Letter outlining personal impacts on an environmental issue

o   Create a self portrait

o   Google form

o   Culminating task - FAQ

By the end of the unit the students should have all of these artifacts that represent their region and will hopefully answer the question “what does it mean to be Canadian?”