Suggested Activities
In this challenge, students consider how individuals' physical, social and cultural surroundings influence their way of life. The lesson revolves around one or more class guests (or, perhaps, members of the class) who have immigrated to Canada, ideally from one of the four profiled communities in India, Tunisia, Peru and Ukraine. Explain to students that they are going to learn from a guest how the person's life has changed since moving to Canada. Develop with students a set of questions addressing various aspects of life (e.g., language, family responsibilities, rights) and how moving to Canada might have affected each aspect. As suggested below, you may want to use a "before and after" structure and, perhaps, inquire how the person feels about any changes.
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Before moving to Canada |
After moving to Canada |
Feelings about any changes |
What kind of celebrations did/do you most enjoy? |
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What were/are your most favourite things to do? |
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What were/are your main responsibilities to family? |
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What were/are your main responsibilities to other community members? |
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What rights did/do you have? |
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What language did/do you speak most often? |
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At the time of the visit, arrange for students to pose the questions and make notes of key words in the guest's answers. You may want to adapt the chart and strategies for Collecting Information (Support Material) to structure and assess this activity.
After collecting this information, invite students to identify the changes in the person's life by comparing the before and after columns, and then to decide on which change had the biggest effect on the guest's quality of life. One indicator of quality of life is the kinds of feelings a person experiences (e.g., feeling secure, loved, safe, hopeful, healthy). Invite students to consider which of the changes seems to have most affected the person's basic feelings. Arrange for students to share their choice of most significant effect and their reasons for making this choice with the rest of the class. You may want to use the strategies and chart for Justifying My Choice (Support Material) to structure and assess this activity.
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