Slavery. Probably one of the most horrific things our world has
lived. Tackling issues of racism and power is no easy task for
any teacher. It’s hard to make the lived experiences of slaves
real but it’s our duty to do it and do it right. This history
can be taught in a sensitive and critical manner, especially
when we concentrate on people who fought injustice, and those
who sought freedom. I’d like to share with you a simulation that
I involved my students in while studying Ontario’s early
settlers, a little project I embarked upon first with a great
teacher, Cynthia R. when we team-taught, a few years back.
Rather than allow my students to get a one-dimensional view of
what early settler communities might have been like (as
prescribed by the Grade 3 Ontario curriculum), I found multiple
entry points to talk about communities that are usually under-
or un-represented in resources about settlers (“pioneers”). It’s
beyond the scope of this post to discuss everything that I did
to prepare my students for learn