Perspectives on Alberta's Oil Industry

Formative Assessment: Assessment for Learning Opportunity

Describe Perspective

Involve students in a peer review to provide and receive feedback on the comprehensiveness of their description of the selected perspective on the issue. Use the feedback prompts below to provide structure in guiding students through this formative assessment opportunity.

Feedback Prompts:

• Is the description of the perspective I am presenting clear to the listener?
• Have I described the key points of the perspective?
• Have I provided information about the reasoning behind the perspective?
• Have I used language that is free from bias?

These feedback prompts can be posted on an interactive white board or bulletin board, or incorporated into a feedback tool that can be copied for student use. Samples of tools created for a similar skill within a different formative assessment context may be found in the Social Studies 10-4 Formative Assessment Summary .

Linking to the Summative Assessment Task

• As students describe perspective through the suggested activity Investigating Perspectives on Prosperity and Sustainability, they will have completed the first portion of the Summative Assessment Task: Perspectives on Alberta's Oil Industry .
• Students should consult the summative assessment task and the assessment task rubric  to ensure that they have provided the information required.
• Encourage students to use the feedback received during the formative assessment opportunity to make enhancements to their work in progress.
• If necessary, continue to use the feedback prompts from the formative assessment opportunity to coach students toward completion of a quality product.
• Note that students are not being graded on the quality of their oral presentation but rather on the quality of the information they are providing.

Setting the Context for Learning

• Ask students to work in small groups to discuss how the extraction of oil affects their daily life—the benefits (e.g., resource revenues, what we are able to do because of oil), and the challenges (e.g., taxation, resource depletion, political or international perceptions). Have each group record their ideas on a T-chart.
• Post the T-charts and provide time for students to view the contributions of other groups.
• Remind students that many aspects of globalization are interconnected, including sustainability, prosperity, land use, resource use and the impact on society.
• Let students know that over the next several classes, they will be working on the skills that they need in order to be successful with the Summative Assessment Task: Perspectives on Alberta's Oil Industry .
• Share the summative assessment task and the assessment task rubric  with students. Let students know that they will be working on the various parts of the task as they proceed with their inquiry.
• Make a connection between this summative assessment task and the previous summative assessment tasks in Related Issue 3—A Day in Your Life  and Competing Interests: Water Privatization under the Microscope . Note both the similarities and differences in the assessment focuses among the three tasks.
• The language of the assessment task rubric is clarified through the formative assessment opportunities provided for each suggested activity. The boldfaced descriptive words in the rubric are also clarified in the Summative Assessment Task Rubric Glossary .

Building Background Understanding

• Help students consider the factors that have led to society's dependence on oil and gas. Help students realize that industrialization was the causal factor.
• Pages 132 to 141 of Living in a Globalizing World may be useful in order to guide a discussion with students on the rise of capitalism and industrialization.
• Ask students to consider the process of oil extraction, and to create a list of questions that will provide focus for their inquiry as they continue to think about the benefits and challenges of oil extraction in Alberta. Some possible questions include the following:
  • What are the different methods of oil extraction in Alberta?
  • How is land used when oil is extracted?
  • What are the short-term impacts on the land?
  • What are the long-term impacts on the land?
  • Who is benefitting from oil extraction?
  • Who is/are facing challenges due to oil extraction?
  • How sustainable is oil as a natural resource?
  • What are the decisions governments make public regarding oil extraction? How do those decisions affect the economy?
• Review with students that political issues have an impact on the decisions the government makes; economic issues deal with such things as the economy, jobs and money; and environmental issues deal with the use of land and resources. Have students classify their questions into political, economic and environmental categories.
• Have students watch Huge Oil Reserve Struck Near Leduc, Alberta and Resource Industries: The Norwegian Way. As a class, compare the issues presented in the videos with those collected during the brainstorming session.

Describe Perspective

• Provide current news articles or video clips related to the four questions posed in the summative assessment task, or related to a new question based on a relevant topic: 
  • Should Alberta have more regulations for the oil industry to protect the environment?
  • Should Alberta produce less oil and sell less oil so we have it for a longer time to protect our economy?
  • Should we be looking for other sources of energy to replace oil?
  • Should we let world demand for oil affect local communities in Alberta?
• Work with students to determine which question they wish to select as the focus for a class inquiry. If students are more experienced with inquiry processes, all four questions may be researched, each by a different group of students.
• Encourage students to work in groups to share resources and information and to clarify their understanding. The group work portion of the task is formative and is not graded. Working together provides students with feedback and support as they build background understanding to assist them with the summative (graded) portions of the task that follow.
• Help students consider the different perspectives that need to be considered regarding the issue, such as those of government officials, oil company executives, oil patch workers, community members, First Nations or Métis representatives, and environmentalists.
• Ask students to select a role on which they will base their research. As they access and retrieve information, they will need to look for specific clues that will help them identify the perspective in the sources used. Some examples of things to look for, which indicate the perspective in their source, include:
  • the organization/nation/people whom the source represents
  • the words the source uses to describe different sides of issues
  • the aspects that are addressed positively
  • the aspects that are addressed negatively
  • the first topic addressed.
• This research can be conducted using various sources, which may include:
  • Interviews
    • You may wish to set up a video conference to allow students to interview an individual working in some capacity in the oil industry.
    • You may bring in guest speakers, allowing students to ask appropriate questions to gather information.
    • Students can access individuals in the oil industry via e-mail to acquire information.
  • Media Sources; e.g., news articles, magazine articles, news broadcasts.
  • Websites of Organizations; e.g., environmental organizations, oil companies, political parties.
• Students may create tables or charts to organize their information. Some students may require additional assistance in accessing, retrieving and organizing their information.
• Help students prepare speaking notes that they can use as they present to the class the perspective they have researched. Speaking notes could be in the form of an outline, mind map or list. These notes are usually written in point form so the student can talk from the notes rather than reading them.

Textbook References

Student Basic Resource—Oxford University Press, Living in a Globalizing World:

• Page 177 The Photographs: Benefits for Whom?
• Page 179 Conduct an Interview
• Pages 232–233 Key Terms and Chapter Issue Show more
• Pages 234–235 Assess a Position
• Pages 236–240 Resource Development and the Environment
• Pages 241–246 Resource Development in Canada

Student Basic Resource—McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Exploring Globalization:

• Pages 351–354 Alberta and Oil

Teaching Resource—Oxford University Press, Living in a Globalizing World:

• Pages 234–235 Activity 2: Perspectives on Resources
• Page 236 Voices: Perspectives on Oil Sands Development
• RM 0.3 Analyzing & Discussing Issues Show more
• RM 0.4 Recording Information
• RM 0.5 Fact, Opinion, and Bias Graphic Organizer
• RM 0.10 Paragraph Organizer
• RM 0.21 Analyzing an Issue
• RM 0.22 Organizer to Present an Informed Position
• RM 0.23 One Structure for Presenting a Position in Response to an Issue
• RM 14.1 Concerns about the Environment
• RM 14.2 My Ecological Footprint
• RM 14.3 Resource Development Note Taking Chart
• AM 1 Demonstrating Understanding Rubric
• AM 2 Generating & Organizing Ideas Rubric
• AM 3 Considering Multiple Perspectives Rating Scale
• AM 4 Considering Multiple Perspectives & Viewpoints Rubric
• AM 5 Evaluating Sources Checklist
• AM 13 Report Writing Rubric
• AM 14 Analyzing & Addressing Issues Rating Scale

Teaching Resource—Oxford University Press, Understandings of Ideologies:

• RM 5.2 Identifying Points of View and Perspectives

Teaching Resource—McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Exploring Globalization:

• Reproducible 4.15.4 Tar Sands Development 1788–Today

Teaching Resource—Duval House Publishing, Aboriginal Studies 10: Aboriginal Perspectives:   

• Page 472 Appendix B: Interviews

Web Resources

Web Links for Online Sources:

• Wikipedia:
  • History of the Petroleum Industry in Canada (Frontier Exploration and Development)
  • Petroleum Industry
• Greenpeace website—section: Tar Sands
• Calgary Herald—articles:
  • Number of Oilsands Jobs to Jump by 70 Per Cent in Next Decade, Report Suggests
• CBC News website—article: First Nations Say They Will Fight Oilsands, Pipeline
• Financial Post—article: Fort McKay Aboriginals Take "Good with the Bad" of the Oil Sands
• Macleans.ca—articles: After the Oil Boom and Oil Sands Bust

Knowledge and Employability Studio (Social Studies): 

• Social Studies Background and Tools:
  • Issue Analysis 
• 10-4.3 Globalization and the Economy: Global Economic Issues 

Videos:

• CBC Digital Archives: Huge Oil Reserve Struck Near Leduc, Alberta
• Vimeo website: Resource Industries: The Norwegian Way Show more
• LearnAlberta.ca: 
  • CBC News The National: Road Stories – North of 60 (Part 2)
  • Tar Sands: Canada for Sale
  • What's the Economy For, Anyway?
  • CBC News in Review: The Great Oil Pipeline Debate

Distributed Learning/Tools4Teachers Resources:

• LearnAlberta.ca: Social Studies 10-2 Module 5: Stewardship and Sustainable Prosperity

Critical Challenges:

• LearnAlberta.ca:
  • Globalization and Free Market Conditions
  • Transnational Corporations and the Interests of the Country
  • The Tools of Economic Globalization Show more
  • Modelling the Tools: Interpreting and Reinterpreting Images

Stories and Other Media (e.g., films, stories/literature, nonfiction, graphic novels)

• Crude – The Incredible Journey of Oil (Documentary film, 2006)
• Erin Brockovich (film, 2000, Universal Pictures, Steven Soderbergh [Director], 131 minutes)
• Black Bonanza: Canada's Oil Sands and the Race to Secure North America's Energy Future, by Alastair Sweeny (nonfiction [for teachers], John Wiley & Sons, Canada)