5 Minutes Prep - 2 Hour Interactive Lesson!
This lesson is suited to classes learning the names of Canada's provinces and territories and their abbreviations and to those learning the names of the statutory holidays of Canada. It is also relevant to study of employment law.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a habit of defining who we are as a country by referring to our highest values. He recently said, "I really do want to highlight that Canada is a country where we look out for our neighbours and we are there for each other in difficult times. And certainly in Fort McMurray, the difficult times they are going through right now is something that we are going to unite around."
Field testing of Callan's New Canada Jigsaws has been completed with over 35 field testers from all across the country. Here are a couple highlights of some of the fun field testers had.
Teachers and their classes across Canada have begun testing the material from Callan's New Canada Jigsaws.
Canada Day is approaching. After teaching a unit on Canada, it can be fun to divide students into groups of three, give each group a large sheet of chart paper and ask them to draw the map of Canada. Make sure all Canada maps in your classroom are covered for this exercise. Have each group label the provinces and their capital cities on their map. Once each group has finished, you can display the maps around the classroom. Worthwhile learning can take place as they compare their maps to a real map and realize what they had out of proportion or incorrectly labeled.
Making your study of Canada for beginner and intermediate ESL come alive is easy with the use of some supplemental materials, like pictures, video and songs. Over the years I have collected about 15 images per province or territory from free Canada calendars, depicting such things as wheat fields, fishing villages, salmon, Douglas Fir trees and igloos that perfectly illustrate aspects of the jigsaws in Callan’s Beginner Canada Jigsaws or Callan’s Canada Jigsaws. I also like to use the video Destination Canada, found in most tourist shops. I show the section of the video related to a given province or territory, either with the sound off and my own narration for lower levels or with the sound on for higher levels.
Discussion of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms can make for an interesting lesson in an intermediate ESL class. Students often assume freedom of expression is the right to say anything about any person or about the government. Here’s where you can let them know about libel laws and Canada’s Hate Speech Laws. Unlike the United States, the Criminal Code of Canada prevents “hate propaganda”. Is this a good thing? Why do we have those laws?