Culminating Activity: History Close to Home

To the Students

In this activity, you will:

• explore your community's history from its earliest days to the present
• use primary and secondary sources for research
• use electronic resources for research
• select a possible site for commemoration using a decision-making process
• create a virtual presentation about the selected place, person, or event
• collaborate with members of the community
• be introduced to the process of commemorating Canada's national historically significant places, persons, and events
   

PART A

1. Group A - Find out what your community looked like when it was first established. Your local library can help you find old illustrations or photographs.

Group B - Find your community's oldest surviving structure. Note when it was built, its history, and its present condition. You may find information at the local library or city hall, or by interviewing an elderly resident to discuss what he or she remembers about the structure.

Group C - Research the origins of your community's name. You may find information through a local historical society, the mayor's office, or at http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/index_e.php.

Group D - Research the Aboriginal people who first lived in your area. Find out about their beliefs, culture, and way of life.

Group E - Find out about the first Europeans to visit the area. What were their beliefs, culture, and way of life?

Click here to view a larger version of this image. (This image is larger than 450 pixels) Outremont Theatre National Historic Site of Canada © NAC/PA-8156

2. Share your findings with the rest of the class and discuss the following:

• Why was your community formed? What were its origins?
• What features of the natural landscape might have attracted people to your area long ago?
• How has your community changed since it was first settled? (e.g., landscape, people, activities)
  Are the original reasons for its formation still relevant today?
• What differences would the community's founders see today? What has stayed much the same?
• How has the racial and ethnic makeup of your community changed over the past 100 years?
  What factors contributed to that change?
   

Click here to view a larger version of this image. (This image is larger than 450 pixels) Black Migration to Vancouver Island, Event of National Historic Significance. © Parks Canada, photographer: C. Ferguson

PART B

1. Each group will locate the information it needs at the Parks Canada Web site: www.pc.gc.ca

The following resources will be particularly helpful:

• Teacher's Corner > Commemorating Canada's History >People, Places, and Events
• National Historic Sites of Canada > the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada
• National Historic Sites of Canada > the National Historic Sites of Canada System Plan
• National Historic Sites of Canada > administered by Parks Canada (search by geographic area)
   

Group A - Find out about the places in your local area that have been designated by the Government of Canada, why they are nationally significant, and how they have been commemorated, e.g., plaque, monument, etc.

Group B - Go to Teacher's Corner > Commemorating Canada's History > People, Places, and Events and use the theme search for your province or territory to find out about people in your local area who have been designated by the Government of Canada. Why are these people nationally significant and how have they been commemorated?

Group C - Use the map in the National Historic Sites of Canada System Plan to find out about the events in your local area that have been designated by the Government of Canada, why they are nationally significant, and how they have been commemorated.

Group D - Find the criteria used by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada to designate a place, a person, and an event.

2. Summarize the information you find and create a chart or poster using words and pictures. Present the information to the class and post it for use in Part C of this activity.
 

PART C

1. Brainstorm with the rest of your class a list of history-making places, people, and events in your community that you feel may be nationally significant but that have not yet been designated as such by the Government of Canada.

2. Review the criteria used by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada to recommend places, people, and events for designation. Discuss each item on your list in terms of its importance to all Canadians across the country. Delete any items that are not of national significance. Find out what provincial/territorial or municipal criteria are used to make historic designations. Can any of your deleted items be reinstated at these levels?

3. Prioritize your revised list from most important to least important.

4. From your list, choose the item that you think is most important to Canada's history. Record questions about what you need to learn about this item and its place in our history.

Click here to view a larger version of this image. (This image is larger than 450 pixels) Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church National Historic Site of Canada © Parks Canada

5. Your group will be assigned several questions from the list the class recorded. Your task is to find the answers to these questions and report the information to the class. The local library and historical society are two possible sources of information. You can also interview people who live near the site about what it means to them.

6. Create a virtual field trip of the site and, if possible, post it on your school or class Web site.
 

PART D

1. Write a proposal about why you think this place, person, or event should be designated as being historically significant. Present this proposal to your community, e.g., town council or provincial/territorial heritage committee to see if they would consider this place, person, or event worthy of a municipal or provincial/territorial heritage designation. Your town council or local heritage committee may also agree to send this proposal to the Executive Secretary of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada for consideration. The address can be found in Teachers' Corner > Commemorating Canada's History > Destination: Designation.

2. Discuss what information should be included on a commemorative plaque of your chosen place, person, or event. In what other way might it be commemorated? Visit the Glossary in Teachers' Corner > Commemorating Canada's History for the definition of "commemoration."

3. Celebrate the completion of this activity by holding a Heritage Fair in which you share your knowledge about local history with parents, other students, and community members. Invite all of the people who helped you with your local history research.