Digital Collections

Divide the class into 6 groups. Assign each group a geographical area of Canada:

The North (Inuit, goldrush immigrants)

The West (British, Chinese, Japanese, Haida, Plains Indians, etc.)

The Praries (British, Ukranian, Polish, Japanese, Metis, etc.)

Ontario (A number of choices)

Quebec (British, French, Native, etc.)

The Maritimes (British, French, Native, Portugese etc.)

Give each group one of the assignment sheets below. The class will be responsible for the art gallery showing. You should already have the space arranged for them and the materials on hand but the organization and scope of it depends on them. It is a good idea to assign some roles at this point. The class may be divided into committees that look after setup, cleanup, photography, and tours. Depending on where they take the project they may create more. One idea is to have each group 'reproduce' the area they are covering by creating artifacts, bringing in music, drawing murals etc. A good resource for stories is Making a Difference: Canadian Multicultural Literature (see resources).

REGIONAL STORIES OF CANADA PROJECT

Find several stories and articles from your area of Canada. They must be written by members of a variety of cultural groups, including immigrants and First Nations. Have each member of your group choose one story or article. It should be something that tells you something about the culture and the area of Canada. The Internet is a very useful tool for these projects. Be sure to search through the schoolnet digital collections in your research ( http://www.schooolnet.ca/collections ).

Draw a portrait of a character that figures in your story and write a synopsis of the story. It will pre presented as part of the Canadain Culture Art Gallery that the class will present on the final day of this topic.

As a group prepare a short (10 minute) presentation that tells about the geography of your area, how it influences culture, what major cultural groups are there and some contributions each group has made to Canadian culture.