Here in the United Kingdom, we are used to the idea of assessing pupils' work against Levels. In fact, perhaps we are a little too used to it. Our familiarity with the Level Descriptions in the National Curriculum, and the ways they might inform our Key Stage 3 assessments, can stop us from thinking even harder about exactly what it is that we are…

Provides advice on visiting military sites and battlefields across Canada. Taking students on field trips to battlefields allows them to reconstruct the past in a creative and exciting way. (RM)

One of the key requirements of the Common Core State Standards for Reading is that all students must be able to comprehend texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through school. By the time they complete the core, students must be able to read and comprehend independently and proficiently the kinds of complex texts commonly found…

A Canadian project that concentrates on the development of curriculum materials and teaching strategies related to the growth of the cities and the problems of urbanization is described. (DB)

Despite the inadequacy of much historical fiction, these novels can awake students' imagination and interest. As records of individual and societal life, historical novels can provide a key to historical understanding and engage students' attention and sympathy. Provides a list of relevant Canadian fiction. (KC)

The roles and procedures for holding a mock trial based on actual events that took place during the Canadian Cariboo gold rush are described. Intended for use with secondary history students, the trial can be conducted in one classroom period. (RM)

Describes a history unit in which secondary students use the mysteriously carved Champlain's Rock (near Renfreu, Ontario) as a starting point for inquiry into the evidence of the French exploration of Eastern Canada. Students learn about hypothesis formation and testing, frames of reference, bias and prejudice, and they write two essays. (AM)

Teaching the history of Native North America is difficult. Teachers must ask students to read and to write about past peoples whose transmission of knowledge was oral and performative. The available pool of books and articles for assignment often work more as exercises in "othering" than understanding. And everyone in the classroom must…

This paper examines the debate over the teaching of Canadian history that has been in progress in Canada since the early 1990s. It considers four criticisms: schools do not teach enough Canadian history and students, therefore, do not know it; the history that is taught is no longer sufficiently national; social history has destroyed the old…

The degree to which Canadian history and social science textbooks inform and sensitize Canadian students to the events of the Holocaust is examined. Evaluated by a panel of independent judges and presented in comparative perspectives, 72 history and social science textbooks authorized for use in Canada's secondary schools were found to have…

Eight secondary seniors participated in an archaeological excavation, an experience in confluent learning, that is, an attempt to duplicate real life in the context of an education discipline. The three week experience gave the students an exciting sense of history, archaeological skills, and a feeling of camaraderie among new friends. (JH)

Military activities have played a part in shaping the nature of contemporary Canada. The main books dealing with recent Canadian military history that might be of interest to high school students are discussed. (RM)

Shows how F. R. Scott's poem, "Laurentian Shield" can be used to teach Canadian history and geography. (RKM)

As part of a project in working class history, ninth grade students conduct a bean bake for 1500 people. They cook pork-and-beans in huge black pots fueled day and night by two cords of wood and bake 1500 rolls of bread. An old-fashioned hoedown follows the feed. (KC)

Discusses resources for students and teachers about working class and labor studies. Books, journals, slides, films, filmstrips, and recordings are listed under the topics of contemporary issues about work and the workplace, and Canadian unions. (KC)