The 100 Greatest Events in Canadian History



Global History – introductory activity

Date assigned _______________________

Due in 2 weeks

Complete these four activities.

Activity 1: Write a short response to answer these questions about “Your Views About History”

Activity 2: Write a short response to answer these questions about “Your Experience Studying History”

Activity 3: Read “Narrowing Questions for Historical Investigation

– 5 W’s & an H”

Activity 4: Apply 5 W’s & an H questions to complete a “Brief Historical Investigation”

Activity 1: Write a short response to answer these questions about “Your Views About History”:

• What is your definition of history?

• If you had the chance to document your own life, how would you go about this? What documents should be kept about your life history?

• What is the most important information that should be passed on about you and your family? What is the best way for this to be gathered? What is the best format for this history?

• How would your history change if your history was told by these people

- your mother, your best friend, a favourite uncle, someone you always quarrel with, someone who did not know you personally, etc.?

Activity 2: Write a short response to answer these questions about “Your Experience Studying History”:

• Have you ever been interested in historical events? Which ones? Why?

• What is the most effective way you learn about historical events? What are the pros and cons about getting historical information this way?

• Do you think you can ever understand the “truth” about an historical event? Explain your thoughts about this.

• Explain what you know about how historians and archivists work. Why would historians and archivists say it is important to record history?

• Name a few historical topics that interest you to learn more about. Why?

Activity 3: Read Narrowing Questions for Historical Investigation

– 5 W’s & an H

The 5W’s and the H questions are the ones used most often to describe historical situations.

a) Who? Who is involved?

Who made it? Who used it? Who is in the picture? Whose opinion does it show? Are there people who got left out?

b) What? What happened? What does it say? What is it used for? What does it show?

How would each participant involved in this event describe what happened? Are there differing points of view about what happened?

c) Where? Where did this take place? Why did this happen here and not somewhere else? Where was it made? Where was it used?

d) When? When did this happen? When was it made? When was it used? What was going on at the time (the context) that made allowed this to happen?

e) Why? Why did this happen? Why did these people do this? Why was it made? Why has it survived?

f) How? How was this allowed to happen? How did this event affect other events at the time? How was it made? How was it used? How has it survived?

Activity 4: Apply – 5 W’s & an H Questions to Three (3) Brief Historical Investigations

Explore an historical event, person, place or topic that interests you. How many of the 5W’s and the H questions can you answer? Using these questions as a guide, write up a one page overview about the historical topic or situation.

If one does not come to mind, you might watch a video or explore some websites with history timelines.

Internet Sites with Online Global History Video Documentaries

1. National Film Board of Canada (NFB) – hundreds of award-winning Canadian made documentaries, in both English and French, on a wide range of topics. Search by topic or “channel”, or by subject, or by title . Some that might interest to students are:

- The Man Who Discovered America -Vikings in Newfoundland

- Children from Overseas -British children sent to Canada in WWII

- A War Story -based on diaries of Canadian doctor in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, made by his daughter

- The Enemy Within -German WWII POWs held at camps in Canada, film made by a POW’s daughter

2. Documentary Wire - Online history documentaries A wide range of documentaries to be viewed online. Some that might be interesting to some students are:

- History : Hitler’s British Girl – offers a personal story about a relationship between Hitler and a young English woman.

- Biography:

- Economics: The Crash of 1929

3. Top Documentary Films – online videos about a wide range of topics. Some that may be of interest are:

- Leonardo Da Vinci

- Genghis Khan

- Charles Darwin

- Bomb Harvest - graphic documentary about Australians deactivating bombs dropped in Laos by Americans during the Vietnam War

4. Online videos about the industrial revolution in Britain, part of a British TV series. Go to website and login by using this User ID and password:

UserID/Email: NovaScotiaCC

Password: Digital

Watch how the Industrial Revolution made changes in: City Living, Material World (steam engine factories), Modern Medicine , On the Move (transportation), War Machine , Working Wonders (rural to urban)

5. Global History Videos by theme- watch documentaries from all over the globe on a wide range of topics. Select by theme, or location.

Some Internet Sites with History Timelines

1) The 100 Greatest Events in Canadian History



Quote from the website : “SIGNIFICANT EVENTS An "event" is something that happens, something that takes place in time. An historical event is something that affects many people in an important way. 

The significance of an event cannot be measured scientifically. Every historian, journalist or student could make their own top 10 or 100 lists. This selection is meant to draw attention to 100 events in Canadian history that left an indelible mark on the lives of the people of the time and an indisputable memory in the minds of later generations.”

2) Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia Timeline



Quote from the website: “Between 1783 and 1785, more than 3000 Black persons came to Nova Scotia as a direct result of the American Revolution. They came from slavery and war to take control of their lives, making choices within the limits they faced.

More than two centuries later, descendants of the Black Loyalists are calling to the spirits of their ancestors and discovering the stories of their struggles and triumphs. Meet some of the courageous men and women who founded two Nova Scotian Black Loyalist communities, Birchtown and Tracadie in the late 1700s and early 1800s.”

3) Canada and the World: Current Events with a Canadian Perspective

Site links to wide range of themes such as Natural Disasters, Human Rights, Crime, etc.  

Quote from the website: “Who we are - For 75 years, Canada and the World published materials on current events designed for use by high school students, although our efforts always seemed to appeal to a wider audience.

 

The website offers many opportunities to dip into historically significant events as well as some more ‘quirky’ events. Here are a few that may capture your interest:

Aboriginal Timeline

Natural Disasters

Writing the Rules of War

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