Lessons

Students have been hired to write a chapter on the First World War for a high school history book. The publisher, however, has put them on a tight budget for the number of pages and illustrations. Students, taking the roles of historians and authors, must choose only the three most important events of the time.  They are responsible for researching the events of the First World War and writing a letter to the textbook publisher outlining and defending their choice of events. Students must use the criteria for historical significance when making their argument.

Using photographs and a chronology of events and trends in the forest industry, students will identify various periods and turning points in the history of the industry. Students will continue to consider whether logging and the forest industry have progressed or declined over the last two centuries.

Students will examine a series of photographs, videos and accounts detailing the activities of the FLQ throughout the 1960's and culminating in the October Crisis of 1970. From these various documents, students will assess the necessity of the invocation of the War Measures Act in 1970 and develop an historical argument explaining why they think the use of this act was justified or not justified at this point in Canadian history.

In this lesson, students will begin by comparing a contemporary photograph of Emerald Lake with the image in the January panel of the British Columbia 150 Years Calendar by Historica and inferring the explicit and implicit messages revealed about British Columbia then and now. After being introduced to the concepts of continuity and change, students will examine present day tourism brochures and magazines to determine what is being promoted by the images and text.