Post-War+challenges

Usha's comments in Blue.

Your name: Connor McGuinty

**Initial Reading and Assessment of Textbook Treatment of the Topic**
Name of Gr. 10 Textbook examined: __The Canadian Challenge__ **Authors:** Quinlan, Don, Doug Baldwin, Rick Mahoney et al.

Name of more "scholarly" source examined: Cameron, Ian. "Dr Montizambert and the 1918–1919 Spanish influenza pandemic in Canada." //Canadian Family Physician// 56.4 (2010): 453-454. Web.

__Your Initial Thoughts:__

This is a vague topic, for there were several challenges Canada faced following the end of the First World War. I decided to focus solely on the immediate challenges Canadian soldiers faced upon returning to Canada, the greatest being the Spanish influenza pandemic. I had the opportunity to browse through three Grade 10 textbooks. Both //Canadian History 1900-2000// and //Canada: Our Century, Our Story// make absolutely no mention of the pandemic. Fortunately, //The Canadian Challenge// discusses, albeit briefly, the devastating effects of the Spanish flu. The topic is given one short paragraph at the very end of the textbook’s first chapter “The War to End all Wars.” The article lists the death statistics and quickly summarizes how the pandemic spread from Europe to Canada. In my opinion, the lack of attention given to the Spanish influenza pandemic is unacceptable. True, the Spanish flu is nowhere near as “sexy” as the carnage that occurred on the battlefield; however, when one considers the staggering amount of deaths it caused, one quickly realizes that the pandemic probably deserves a tad more attention. I was also interested to see how the textbook would discuss other challenges Canadian soldiers faced when they returned home from the war. Surprisingly, nothing is said about soldiers’ widows or even “shell-shock” victims, the textbook simply jumps right into its next chapter: “The Boom Years.”

Thanks for your comments, Connor. You have rightly pointed out the issues around relative significance and whether you agree with the importance assigned by the text. It might be interesting to have students grapple with the concept of relative significance in this case and decide for themselves if their text "got it right" - just an idea.

Question: Despite the large death toll, the Spanish Flu pandemic is often reduced to a footnote in Canadian history textbooks. The events of the First World War often overshadow the pandemic. Given your knowledge of both the First World War and the pandemic, do you believe that the Spanish Flu pandemic receives adequate attention? Beautiful. Nicely crafted.


 * __Lesson Design-Initial Planning Stages__**

History is constructed by historians who make judgements about the relative significance of events, people and groups, who interrogate evidence, who consider historical perspective and who consider cause / consequences and issues of change / continuity. Well framed key learning.
 * Identify Key Learning / “Big Idea” / Learning Target**

Despite the large death toll, the Spanish Flu pandemic is often reduced to a footnote in Canadian history textbooks. The events of the First World War often overshadow the pandemic. Given your knowledge of both the First World War and the pandemic, do you believe that the Spanish Flu pandemic receives adequate attention? Students will be asked to create report cards that evaluate various sources’ (e.g. textbooks, war-museum website) coverage of the Spanish flu pandemic (particularly in relation to the coverage of other events).
 * Frame Critical Question**
 * How will this lesson help students build skills they will need for the summative assessment task for the unit?**

The critical challenge will force students to develop some sort of criteria that enables them to compare and evaluate the significance of two contrasting historical events. These skills should lend themselves well to the newspaper spread task, for students will have to evaluate and decide which events/topics deserve more attention. Good.

Historical Significance.
 * What dimension of Historical Thinking will students actively engage in during this lesson?**


 * __Intellectual Tools__**

__Research__: -formulate different types of questions when researching historical topics, issues, and events - gather information on Canadian history and current events from a variety of sources -evaluate the credibility of sources __Canada’s International Status and Foreign Policy:__ -analyse Canada’s response to some of the major human tragedies since World War I (e.g. Spanish flu pandemic)
 * Background Knowledge**

a) What determines whether or not a historical event is significant? What makes one event even more significant than another? Yes - this is the question you need to answer before you present it to the students. Even if you plan to have students draw out the criteria, you need to have a sense of what they might be ahead of time. So, an event is significant if...   -  -  -  -
 * Criteria for Judgement**

Critically minded
 * Habit of Mind**

Students will use a report card (mind you, the report card is part of the lesson (see above))
 * Thinking Strategies**

Seeing as how students will be forced to come up with their own criteria when evaluating sources and determining the significance of historical events, it is imperative for them to understand “criteria.”
 * Critical Thinking Vocabulary**