Social Justice Resource

When implementing a social justice theme into history and geography it is important that all voices are heard in the representation of the lessons. The teacher needs to make sure that biases do not exist so that no group is marginalized and students have a full perspective on the occurrence of the situation in history, geography and social studies context.

Here is a link that exemplifies social justice; this is a great tool to allow students to understand beyond the context of what has been learned outside of the classroom. There are a variety of different resources such as speeches, songs, essays, poems, different literature, letters and government implementations of social justice acts. This website is updated daily with “social justice quotes of the day”. This link is primarily geared towards students in grades 6 and higher.

SoJust

It is important to approach teaching social justice in a very sympathetic manner for different grade levels. In particular students in younger grades are very naïve to the fact of certain groups are being marginalized and may not completely comprehend the effects of this. 

Parent/Teacher letter

Dear Parents and Caregivers:                                                                          January, 2015

My name is Jeff Sa, I am a teacher candidate from Brock University’s Faculty of Education. I am currently enrolled in the Con-current Education Program where I am completing my fifth and final year. I have been lucky enough to be enrolled in your child’s grade 5 classroom where I will be teaching social studies.

I have the opportunity to teach your child two very important strands in the curriculum of social studies. The first being heritage and identity: First nations and Europeans in New France and Early Canada. The second strand being people and environments: The Role of government and Responsible citizenship.

We began our first lesson with a quick overview of the rise and fall of New France. The focus on the first strand of the grade 5 curriculum, in social studies was provided with much support. Students were provided a media link as well as images to help build their comprehension of this significant historical context. This will be the general consensus for each lesson; there will be ample amounts of differentiated instruction to further reach the multitude of each learner. The objective is that each student will understand the big idea. This big idea will focus on Canada’s identify and how our history shapes our identity as a culture and a nation.

Throughout this unit you and your child will be able to follow our progression of the social studies unit through the blog that I will be posting following each days lesson. If you have any questions, concerns or even suggestions please do not hesitate to inquiry.

Sincerely,

Mr. J. Sa

Brock University Teacher Candidate

Grade 5-Rise and Fall of New France

I have decided to focus my thread on the Ontario's grade 5 social studies curriculum. Having my next teaching placement in the junior level I feel that it would be necessary to do research and really find context within this grade level. The grade 5 strand of social studies is very interesting. With two main focuses;

Strand A) Heritage and Identity: First Nations and Europeans in New France and Early Canada and Strand B) People and Environments: The Role of Government and Responsible Citizenship

I find the first strand to be very interesting. The rise and fall of New France. Its interesting to think that Canada is a nation of two languages, and sometimes people would argue two cultures. The primary reason for this is the colonization of the French. The interaction the french had with the first nations brought on questionable decisions that ultimately benefited the french in regards to the fur trade that ultimately led to increased settlement. History of New France link will provide students with a quick overview of significant names and important battles that occurred in which the sculpture of New France or what we call today present day Quebec.

This video allows a media outlet for students to be engaged in the theme of New France and should be used at the beginning of a unit.

A map has been posted that helps students to understand which land was settled by which country, and gives students more of a perspective of the influence these settlers had in today's society.




Photo Credit-"QueenAnnesWarBefore" by User:Magicpiano - own work; structure (but not depicted areas of control) derived from File:Nouvelle-France map-en.svg. Licensed under GFDL via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QueenAnnesWarBefore.svg#mediaviewer/File:QueenAnnesWarBefore.svg

The First Post

My very first post, on my very first blog ever. Not sure how to really approach this, whether I should be very personable or reserve. Do I treat this like a personal diary? Or maybe a teaching diary? Or would this be best suited to be a commentary of social, and geographical news. I look forward to utilizing this blog as much as possible, not for others to read, but maybe more of a tool of reflection to see how much I have grown, from today, in five years, ten years and possibly even twenty years.

Farewell for now

Jeff

(Do I even sign off on these things)?