We were lucky enough to have Mme Kareena Butler, an educator within our OCDSB community and our Indigenous Education Instructional Coach visit us on Tuesday. She worked with our classes to build further understanding of issues in First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities as well as our comprehension of residential schools and reconciliation. One of the powerful learning activities we did with her on Tuesday (Grade 6s) and with me on Wednesday (Grade 5s) helped us build our understanding around community and identity, and what it means when this is taken away. To begin, we formed a circle. This became our community. We discussed:
Our circle was outlined with a string - we became connected and joined together by the ideas above. Check it out below... In each class, we had eight volunteers that represented the following important parts of a community:
Things were looking pretty good in our little community! Everyone was working together, sharing their culture through stories, languages and learning from each other. Unfortunately, from our learning on First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities in the past in Canada, we've learned that this was not the case. These voices and identities were silenced, through many different ways: residential schools, judgement from others, stereotyping, segregation, and more. These parts of community were cut out (we literally cut the string to represent this), voices were silenced, and people were left on their own. The sense of community was lost. Students noted:
We began to invite our missing members back, through a process we call reconciliation. This is a big word that means first of all recognizing what happened in our Canadian past and taking action to prevent further separation in our future. We invite peoples of First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities (Knowledge Keepers) to share their stories and experiences, languages, and culture. In doing this, we begin to repair ties. In doing this, students noted:
Looking for more at home? Take a peek at this video below full of ideas and questions to continue the discussion!
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Mme SamuelThis page is written by Mme Samuel. Our class switches back and forth between learning about Science and Social Studies. Click here to see a tentative timeline of our different units. Categories |