Lesson Plan: Inuit Education: Sharing Information

Lesson Plan

Before Exploring

If students have not completed the activity Understanding Assimilation, they can do so now. Alternatively, have students browse the topic An Inuit Education on the CBC Digital Archives website for 30 minutes. As they browse, they can take notes about the idea of assimilation as they understand it from the site.

Outline the Opportunity

Divide the class into six groups. Assign each group one of the following sets of clips from the topic An Inuit Education on the CBC Digital Archives website:

The clips titled "To educate or not to educate?", "Welcome to the federal school", "A work opportunity or a life of confusion?", "Adaptation, evolution and control" and "Three strikes, school's out".

The clips titled "But it's breaking the family circle" and "The past will not be forgotten"

The clip titled "Inside the cultural chasm"

The clips titled "Finding a balance on Baffin Island", "A changing present, an uncertain future" and "Stereotyping at the Science Centre"

The clip titled "Linking school and suicide"

The clip titled "To save a language"

Some sections are longer than others, but some of the shorter ones are more complex and thought-provoking. Students will take notes about their sections and generate at least four questions that they can use to lead a discussion about the material. Circulate to make sure that each group has recorded accurate information and pertinent discussion questions.

Have students form new groups by including one member from each original group. In their new groups, each student will act as an expert on his or her clips. Students will take turns teaching and leading a discussion about the information they gathered. Group members will contribute to the expert-led discussions with comments, questions, responses, clarifications, and insights.

Revisit and Reflect

Gather the groups and ask each to state one important thing they learned. As a class, discuss how the information they learned is related. Ask: What is your overall feeling about the government's attempt to educate the Inuit? Why?

Extension

Ask students to generate additional questions they want to pursue and then give them time to do so. They should prepare a brief report, newspaper article, interview, position paper, or other response of their choosing to share the information they found.