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Learning Module: Indigenous Perspectives & Primary Junior Social Studies: Exercise: Grades 3 & 4

A guide on how to find indigenous perspectives on topics taught in the Ontario primary-junior social studies curriculum

Group Work

It's the end of the school-day on Monday and your associate teacher would like you to teach your first social studies unit on Friday. She's advised you that the Tyndale Libraries printed and electronic collections have a number of great resources. Your task now is to search the Tyndale collections to find background and supporting materials for your unit. She has a lot of confidence in you and has given you the freedom to teach any expectation that you would choose.

Your task for this portion of the workshop are to do the following:

  1. Discuss and answer questions 1 to 3 listed beneath this box
  2. Use the WorldCat catalog or the Library of Congress Subject Headings website to identify relevant subject headings for question 4
    (Hint: WorldCat subject headings are listed in the bibliographic record of a relevant resource)
  3. Use the WorldCat catalog to search for resources by keyword or by subject heading
    (Hint: To search for resources by subject using use the su: index search)
    [ie. su: Native peoples Ontario History]
  4. Present your findings to the class
  5. Have fun

Discussion Questions

Discuss the following questions and present them to the class:

  1. Which recommended expectation will you address in your unit?
  2. What background information would you need to teach the recommended expectation?
    (Hint: "Aboriginal traditions in Ontario")
  3. What keywords can I use to find these resources?
    (Hint: aboriginal AND traditions AND Ontario)
  4. What subject headings can I use to find these resources?
    (Hint: Native peoples Ontario History)
  5. What search strategy worked better for your group? And why?

(15 minutes)

First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Connections: Scope and Sequence of Expectations (2014)

The Ontario Ministry of Education document "First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Connections: Scope and Sequence of Expectations 2014" outlines the different expectations in the Ontario curriculum where connections to indigenous perspectives in the different subjects can be made.

The Ontario Social Studies curriculum (2013) contains a series of framing questions and big ideas that are designed to assist you in designing your lessons and finding resources to teach the curriculum.

The two documents below contain excerpts from the Ontario curriculum and the Scope and Sequence of Expectations documents. Select one document and use the content contained in the document to inform your research strategy. 

Note: you are only teaching one specific expectation, not a whole strand.

Resource Links to Complete Exercise