Submitted by: Marianne Kenney (Denver, CO) Date Submitted: August 1, 2011 Lesson Plan: The New Canadians Description: After students ground themselves in Canadian immigration by drawing inferences from analyzing pictures, data, and political cartoons, they will study the profiles of five recent immigrants to Canada. They assume the role of a documentary filmmaker for the National Film Board of Canada focusing on one of the five immigrants, representing diverse backgrounds and nationalities, who have chosen to immigrate to Canada. Students create a storyboard for an episode of the documentary summarizing the reasons for immigration and the impacts on both the immigrant and on present-day Canada. Grade Level: Grades 6-8 but is adaptable for use in high school classrooms. Subject: Geography, Contemporary issues Duration: 2 to 3 class periods Goal: The goal of The New Canadians lesson is to raise awareness about the large influx of immigrants, mostly from Asia, who are painting a new landscape for 21 st century Canada as well as to investigate both the challenges and opportunities these new immigrants bring to Canada. Objectives: The students will: Use data to derive general facts and form inferences about immigration issues in Canada. Identify the primary reasons people emigrate from their country of birth and immigrate to Canada. Identify key ways in which migration impacts Canada as well as the lives of immigrants. Standards: This lesson meets 1) NCSS and 2) National/State Geography Standards as outlined below. 1) NCSS Thematic Standards: Global Connections Culture, People, Places, and Environments 2) National Geography Standards Assessed: Students will know: 6 how culture and experience influence people s perception of place 9 the characteristics, location, distribution, and migration of human populations 10 the nature and spatial distribution of cultural patterns 1
Background Information: Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification. One-fifth of the population (or 6,186,950 people) were born outside of the country and in 2001, 250,640 people immigrated to Canada. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, the largest component of Canada s immigrants came from Asia, including the Middle East, South Asia, South-East Asia and East Asia. Canadian society is often depicted as being very progressive, diverse, and multicultural. (taken from Citizenship and Immigration website) Materials: Handouts #1-9: These are for learning stations composed of political cartoons, data, and pictures. (It is recommended that each of the handouts be laminated and mounted on the walls of the classroom to create learning stations ) Handout #10: Five Immigrant Biographies Handout #11: Jigsaw Questions Handout #12: Storyboard Template Handout #13: Evaluation Rubric for grading storyboard Chart paper/markers and self-adhesive notes One classroom computer for added station (optional) Computers for student research (optional) Procedures: 1. Introduction: Tell the students they are about to begin a lesson on current immigration to Canada. They will look at people who have come to Canada in the last decade or so. 2. Lesson Launch: Tell students that this activity is designed to become well-grounded in the data and facts of immigration to Canada. Organize the walls of the classroom into nine learning stations with a handout (from #1 - # 9 in any order) posted at each station. Groups of three or four students will examine the handout Their group will try to develop a) three general facts and b) one inference about immigration to Canada that they think is supported by the data/picture, as well as chart paper and markers to use to post statements. Most of the data for the handouts came from presentations at the 2011 K-12 Study Canada Institute and can be found at http://www.k12studycanada.org/resources_pps.html#scsi. Have groups post their statements around the classroom and stand next to their chart paper. Give each group a small amount of self-adhesive notes of two different colors, one that designates agreement, one that designates disagreement. Each group should assign one member to stay with their list of statements to explain, defend, and revise it as other student groups review the group s work. If they agree that the data supports a statement, they should place a self-adhesive notes designating agreement next to the statement. If they do not agree that the data supports a fact or inference, they should discuss the statement with the representative of the group that came up with that statement and place a self-adhesive note designing disagreement. When groups are finished reviewing the lists, conduct a class discussion of the statements that received general agreement about immigration to Canada that are supported by data/pictures. At the end of this activity, ask student to free write what they think it means to be a New Canadian. Allow students time to write for two or three minutes. They can write anything they want, in any form, but to try to write as steadily as they can. 3. Cooperative Learning Jigsaw: Explain to the students that they will investigate what drew these five recent immigrants to move to Canada. Divide students into jigsaw groups of five students. Each person in the group will become an expert on one of the immigrant case studies from Handout #10: All of these immigrant s stories can be found on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website at: 2
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/stories/index.asp. There are many stories and you may chose others if you wish. The students will be responsible for teaching the members of their team about their immigrant. Distribute Handout #11: Jigsaw Questions and make sure students are clear about the procedures: a) meet in expert groups to plan together the answers to the questions on Handout #11 and b) how to teach it about their immigrant to others. Allow enough time for students to become familiar with the immigrant s biography. Tell them to read the immigrant s story at least twice and be able to present a well-organized report. Ask them to carefully take notes, and discuss the immigrant s story in their group. There are three questions to report: 1) What push factors drove you to leave your country? 2) What pull factors drew you to Canada? 3) How has your immigration affected you and the province in which you reside? Bring students back to their original jigsaw groups. Ask each student to present their findings about his/her immigrant to the other members of the jigsaw group. Circulate around the room during the reports and encourage others in the group to ask questions for clarification. Evaluation/Assessment: Set up the following scenario for students: You are a documentary filmmaker asked to create a documentary for the National Film Board of Canada about the New Canadians. You are working on case studies of five recent immigrants to Canada. Using the information you have already gathered on these immigrants from the cooperative learning jigsaw activity and the website, plus any additional research you can find, choose one of the immigrants and using the template provided, create a three part storyboard with three slides each which you would then use to organize your documentary (story boards are a visual outline of the documentary, in which you would show visuals, with captions, in the order that you would present the information in your documentary). In your storyboard you must show: Part 1 (three slides): What pushed the immigrant out of their country and pulled him/her to Canada? Part 2 (three slides): What challenges has he/she (and their family) experienced in trying to immigrate? Part 3 (three slides): How immigrants like the one you are studying affect cities and communities? Possible Extensions: Incorporate 21 st Century Skills Lesson Launch: A 10 th station could be added as a computer station with students looking at facts and making inferences from Statistics Canada on Immigration http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/110622/dq110622aeng.htm. Jigsaw: You may want students to do further research on the biographies. You could send them to the computer lab or have students work in shifts on the computer if you have a limited number of computers in the classroom. Digital Graphics: This assessment would be greatly enhanced by asking all students to develop their storyboards digitally. Websites you may want to investigate for this type of assessment are Pixton, comic strip software http://www.pixton.com/ and Toondoo for making cartoon storyboards. http://www.toondoo.com/ 3
Handout #1: Political Cartoon 4
Handout #2: Political Cartoon 5
Handout #3 Migration to Canada - 2006 Proportion of foreign born highest in 75 years: 19.8 % of the total Canadian population 70 % of newcomers are allophones (do not speak French or English as a mother tongue) 20 % of Canadians are allophones 58.3% of recent immigrants from Asia - Europe accounts for only 16 % of total 1 million persons speak a Chinese language in Canada mostly in the Canadian West Data from PowerPoint presentation given by Dr. Pierre Anctil (University of Ottawa) at the 2011 STUDY CANADA Summer Institute for K-12 Educators [posted at https://www.k12studycanada.org/resources_pps.html]. 6
Handout #4 Galician (Northwest Spain) Immigrants in Quebec City, 1911 Photo from the PowerPoint presentation given by Dr. Pierre Anctil (University of Ottawa) at the 2011 STUDY CANADA Summer Institute for K-12 Educators [posted at https://www.k12studycanada.org/resources_pps.html]. 7
Handout #5 Challenges of Multiculturalism 250,000 immigrants to Canada per year one of the highest rates of acceptance in the world TORONTO, MONTREAL and VANCOUVER welcome 70% of recent immigrants to Canada More than 200 different ethnic origins reported in 2006 census VISIBLE MINORITIES 16 % of the Canadian population in 2006 or 5 million persons Data from PowerPoint presentation given by Dr. Pierre Anctil (University of Ottawa) at the 2011 STUDY CANADA Summer Institute for K-12 Educators [posted at https://www.k12studycanada.org/resources_pps.html]. 8
Handout #6 Young Muslim women speaking in Montreal, 2007 Photo from the PowerPoint presentation given by Dr. Pierre Anctil (University of Ottawa) at the 2011 STUDY CANADA Summer Institute for K-12 Educators [posted at https://www.k12studycanada.org/resources_pps.html]. 9
Handout #7 Immigration and Diversity Global Comparisons Today Data from PowerPoint presentation given by Dr. Stéphane Lévesque (University of Ottawa) at the 2011 STUDY CANADA Summer Institute for K-12 Educators [posted at https://www.k12studycanada.org/resources_pps.html]. 10
Handout #8 Ethnic Minorities in Cities Data from PowerPoint presentation given by Dr. Victor Konrad (Carlton University) at the 2011 STUDY CANADA Summer Institute for K-12 Educators [posted at https://www.k12studycanada.org/resources_pps.html]. 11
Handout #9 Ethnic Diversity Data from PowerPoint presentation given by Dr. Victor Konrad (Carlton University) at the 2011 STUDY CANADA Summer Institute for K-12 Educators [posted at https://www.k12studycanada.org/resources_pps.html]. 12
Handout #10: Five Immigrant Profiles Immigrant Profile 1: Maria Aragon from the Philippines to Manitoba: 10-year-old YouTube Sensation In today s social media world, a YouTube video can change someone s life dramatically in a matter of hours. For 10-year-old Maria Aragon, this happened when superstar Lady Gaga mentioned her in a tweet and directed millions of her followers to Maria s video. Within a week of Gaga s anointment, the YouTube video had shot to 25 million views and is still going strong. Winnipeg s Hot 103 brought her into the radio station studio and arranged for Lady Gaga to talk to her, which was emotional for both parties. Gaga was so impressed and touched by Maria that she invited her to perform the song Born this Way on stage with her at a concert in Toronto. Maria explained: I met a lot of people before, but Lady Gaga is the reason why I am here because if she hadn t seen my video, I wouldn t be doing this interview. And when I first got to talk to her, I cried because she had time to talk to me, and she even wanted me to sing with her at a concert. I was just very overwhelmed; I was just so star-struck. Maria has also appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and has since been invited to countless interviews, performances and media outlets all around the world. Maria s success is particularly inspiring because of her family s story. Maria s mother and father emigrated from the Philippines to Winnipeg in 1997 with two older sisters and a brother in search of a better environment for their kids. Although the Aragons didn t speak that much English at first, through a combination of work, school and with the help of family already settled in Winnipeg, they became well integrated in their neighborhood. Although she liked the Philippines, Maria s sister Rojuane says that she could probably never move back. Canada is what she considers home. My parents would love to go back, she said. I know that for sure, because my mom s side of the family is all still in the Philippines. Maria is the only one of four children who was born in Canada. When asked what she considers her identity, she states, Well, I m Canadian because I was born here. But I was raised by Filipino parents, so I guess I m both. She loves Winnipeg but also knows that being Filipino is a huge part of who she is. She has a lot of fans from the Philippines and from Asia at large, which she says can be both exciting and a little strange. Many of them follow her on Facebook and have set up numerous fan pages dedicated to her. Maria has even had the opportunity to sing with Prime Minister Stephen Harper during his campaign tour during the last federal election. She reflected candidly, Well, it was an honor because, of course, he s the Prime Minister, he s like the boss of everybody! It was fun because I didn t know he could play the piano so well! Maria and her family with Stephen and Lauren Harper [at left]. Maria also took part in the annual Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill, performing in front of the large crowd which featured William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as part of their 2011 tour of Canada. When asked what made singing important to her, Maria says, Everyone is good at something, whether it is art or singing or dancing, but I think singing is special because it s the talent that I have and it s special, especially now because it s the reason why I get to go see Lady Gaga and be on the Ellen (DeGeneres) Show... It s the talent that God gave me so I m really grateful for it. 13
Immigrant Profile 2: Micheline Gélin: Coming full circle from Haiti to Quebec For Micheline, life has taken her from Haiti to Canada and back. When she arrived in Canada she was only seven years old. As a young girl she wasn t too concerned about moving to a foreign country, the only thing on her mind was to learn French quickly so she could make friends when she started school in Montreal. It just goes to show you how truly resilient children are. I came to Canada at such a young age that the only hurdle for me was to practice my French. Once I learned to speak fluently that was it I was Canadian no different than my friends. Micheline and her family settled in Montreal North where there was already a small Haitian community. My family chose Canada because of its reputation for having a culture of acceptance and welcoming towards immigrants. One of the things that surprises her the most is how ethnically and culturally diverse Canada is. She has friends from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures. When you ask someone why they came to Canada they always give the same response: They all left home because something was missing, whether it was peace, security, opportunity and they all found what was missing in Canada, she says. Micheline s ties to Montreal North and its diverse community are what motivated her to join the Montreal Police Service. She felt that her heart was in the police force serving the public. She was particularly drawn by how close the service works with the cultural communities in the area. I had lived there my whole life. It was my community and I felt a special bond to it. In the fall of 2009 Micheline was selected to participate in the RCMP s International Peace Operation Program, where Canadian civilian police are deployed to Haiti to act as advisors to the Haitian National Police. Her mission was from October 21, 2009, to July 21, 2010. When she arrived, she was first tasked with providing introduction training to the police staff coming from around the world that were participating in the Haiti mission. Then the earthquake hit...every time Micheline thinks back to that fateful day it s hard for her to hold back the tears. The devastation was unbelievable, unimaginable, she says. You never forget where you were when you experience something like that. It may have lasted a few minutes but it felt like an eternity. Micheline s first memory, after the shock of what happened finally settled a little, is of the bond she felt between Canadians. It was truly moving, she says. The first instinct we all had was to assemble together. We would go looking for a fellow Canadian in our camp, and as soon as they were located and joined the group, we moved on to locate the next fellow Canadian still not accounted for. In the first few days following the earthquake Micheline helped out as an interpreter in one of the emergency clinics. Her ability to speak French, English and Creole was a huge asset during this period of crisis. She would inform the patients of the treatment they were receiving and would also use her police skills to collect information on where they came from and if they had any missing relatives. Following this, Micheline worked in the camps, helping to set up communal police stations. She describes the work as being very gratifying. Micheline s work was so instrumental that she was invited to speak as a representative at the United Nations Stabilization Mission (MINUSTAH) conference in New York. What was paramount to me in participating in this mission was to use the advantages I had gained through my life in Canada and be able to give back, and especially to my native country. I wanted to make a difference, and being there at that time, allowed me to make a difference that s what the mission meant to me. My life came full circle it was a wonderful feeling. 14
Immigrant Profile 3: Mushfiq: From Afghanistan to Ontario Fresh Air for the Soul of his Country Afghanistan is about so much more than conflict. Just ask Mushfiq, a musician and visual artist who has brought the culture of his old home to his new home in Canada. After acting in an Afghan stage drama at age five and establishing his own arts and music school by the age of 30, Mushfiq was forced to flee his homeland in 1992, when the Soviet-backed regime fell and Kabul erupted into civil war. As long as I m with my art I feel at home, he says, recalling how he dealt with a decade-long journey that took him to several countries, including Pakistan, Kazakhstan and the Netherlands, where he earned a masters degree in Eastern classical music. Mushfiq immigrated to Canada in 2001 to marry his fiancée. While he had been offered opportunities in Europe to teach, paint and perform, he chose Canada to be closer to his extended family. Today, Mushfiq s Ottawa studio is filled with his paintings and calligraphy. He believes that, by bringing the art of their homelands to Canada, newcomers make a valuable contribution to Canada. Canada has grown richer with immigration, he says. New art and new music from other parts of the world are like a breath of fresh air for the soul of this country. Now a permanent resident in Canada, Mushfiq has used the arts to expose Canadians to the culture of Afghanistan. I come from a country with a rich cultural and artistic heritage. And I try to share that with everyone around me. In 2003, he created the Mushfiq Arts Company, the only organization in Ottawa dedicated to performing, teaching and promoting an appreciation of South and Central Asian music, arts and cultural heritage. Through the company, Mushfiq has taught Afghan music and art to students of all backgrounds. He also has a musical ensemble, which has performed at local and national music events, such as the Ottawa Folk Festival, and whose concerts have been broadcast on both CBC Radio and Radio-Canada. As a way to further express his roots, Mushfiq also uses his art to give back to his homeland. He has performed at fund raising concerts for victims of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and for landmine victims in Afghanistan. Some of his greatest joy, however, comes from seeing his culture thrive in a new land. While most of my support comes from the new immigrant communities, we re increasingly getting more fans from the mainstream society, too, he says. All Canadians are increasingly getting drawn to different forms of music and art and I feel privileged to share what I have with everyone around me. I don t feel foreign here. The whole planet is home for an artist. 15
Immigrant Profile 4: Martha and Frank from Columbia to British Columbia Martha sees herself as a warrior. We are fighters, she says of herself and her husband, Frank. You try to think that nothing is going to bring you down. As immigrants, we feel it s a privilege to be here and we want to prove we can make it. Martha emigrated from Colombia in 1998 and is now the owner of Latin Organics Inc., a fair trade, organic coffee company that sells specialty coffee beans in several Vancouver area stores. She and her husband came to Canada as landed immigrants now known as permanent residents in a bid to find a better life for their family. Earlier that year, kidnappers had taken them and their young daughter captive, and held Frank until he was rescued by a military convoy. Their decision was also influenced by a robbery at Frank s restaurant in which a person died and others were injured. Concluding that Canada was a country where they could raise their children in safety, Martha and her husband followed a suggestion from her mother to visit Vancouver. They spent three weeks there, mostly doing research at the Vancouver Public Library. After travelling back to Colombia to retrieve their children, they rented a small house in North Vancouver, a community they felt was affordable and also suitable for children. When we moved into the house and our furniture and personal belongings arrived, we opened up an antique trunk with all our family photos, she says. As we looked through the family albums, I felt as though we had just made a big and irreversible mistake and we cried about it. We were facing an ocean of uncertainty. It was an ocean, however, that they learned to navigate. While her husband travelled back to Colombia to wrap up business interests there, Martha s parents visited to help her settle in. After finding work at the Hotel Vancouver, she moved on to be a manager with Capers Community Market, a local specialty and organic food retailer owned by an American corporation. I never knew I had the potential to be an entrepreneur, she says. My husband had always said I could do it but I had to change my mindset. In Colombia, I thought that you were successful if you went to work for a large corporation and moved up the ladder. Partly to find work closer to her children, Martha drew on her experience observing how organic food products were sold and marketed to food retailers. Obtaining a list of coffee producers in her homeland, she discovered that coffee was being produced by the Arhuaco Indians, people there with whom her grandfather had done business. I went to Colombia, met with the farmers and got all the information I could. Once back in Vancouver, I spent every day I had off from work, to write a business plan. With a loan from the federal Business Development Bank of Canada, Martha launched operations for Latin Organics in November, 2005. While the business has grown, it was not an easy start. I had my daughter just as I was marketing my first coffee beans. That was a huge challenge. My belly was growing and I was visiting vendors to find accounts. Until Latin Organics grows enough to hire him as part of its team, Martha s husband Frank works as a car salesman. Martha also imports and sells hand-woven placemats and baskets made by Colombia s Kankuamo Indians at a local gallery in West Vancouver. As well, Martha, her husband and children are now all Canadian citizens, something in which she takes pride. 16
This is one of the only decent countries left in the world, she says of Canada s healthcare, education, environment and the safety for its citizens. I hope the government understands this and is careful with the process it uses to select who can come here. We believe citizenship is a privilege and we don t take it for granted. We honor it through our hard work. That hard work will include another new venture for Martha in 2008, when she plans to open a new cafe and coffee roaster. It will be called Latin Organics Café Tienda & Roastery. Immigrant Profile 5: Shen: From China to Ontario To Serve and Protect In his five short but action-packed years in Canada, Shen has gone from a computer programming masters student at Dalhousie University to a constable with the Toronto Police Service. In between, he got married, his wife had a baby son, he became a Canadian citizen and he ran his own business. While his career path is not exactly what he had mapped out when he came to Canada in 2001, Shen is happy with the way things have turned out. I ended my studies when my wife became pregnant in 2003, he says. I did everything I could delivering pizzas and working as a security guard, trying to get my own business off the ground as well. It might not have been the way I planned things, but it was what I needed to do. The idea of becoming a police officer came from a commercial on a Chineselanguage television station, and Shen was drawn to the serve and protect mission of the Toronto Police Service. It was a call for Chinese civilians who might be interested in serving on the Toronto Police Force. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. My parents were in the military, so I was familiar with some of that kind of life, and I knew there would be respect for this kind of job. Graduating from the Ontario Police College in May 2006, and becoming a Canadian citizen in June 2006, Constable Shen is now hard at work in his new career and very happy with his decision. Certainly my language comes in handy, he says. I ve been called in to translate in some situations, and in another I was able to help a woman who had witnessed a crime but she only spoke Chinese. She was very glad I was there, and I was happy to be able to help her. Both Constable Shen and his wife understand service to the public. His wife, who came to Canada in 1998, is a nurse in Toronto. Their three-and-a-half-year-old son is thriving, and a secure career path is ahead for the couple. I have had some changes in my life, that is certain, Constable Shen says. But I am now a police officer in Canada someone whose first language is not English and I have learned in a short time what it means to serve and protect. I am serving other Chinese Canadians and the City of Toronto all at the same time. The Toronto Police Service has hired a number of minority recruits, and at the division where Constable Shen is stationed, 96 of the officers speak a total of 29 languages. 17
Handout #11: Jigsaw Questions for Expert Groups on the Five Immigrants Immigrant Profile 1 (Maria Aragon): 1) What push factors drove you to leave your country? 2) What pull factors drew you to Canada? 3) How has your immigration affected you and the province in which you reside? Immigrant Profile 2 (Micheline Gélin): 1) What push factors drove you to leave your country? 2) What pull factors drew you to Canada? 3) How has your immigration affected you and the province in which you reside? 18
Immigrant Profile 3 (Mushfiq): 1) What push factors drove you to leave your country? 2) What pull factors drew you to Canada? 3) How has your immigration affected you and the province in which you reside? Immigrant Profile 4 (Martha and Frank): 1) What push factors drove you to leave your country? 2) What pull factors drew you to Canada? 3) How has your immigration affected you and the province in which you reside? Immigrant Profile 5 (Shen): 1) What push factors drove you to leave your country? 2) What pull factors drew you to Canada? 3) How has your immigration affected you and the province in which you reside? 19
Handout #12: Storyboard Template 20
Handout #13: Storyboard Evaluation Rubric: The New Canadians Teacher Name: Student Name: CATEGORY 4. Exemplary 3. Praise Worthy 2. Shows Promise 1. Needs Work Standards Thoroughly explains and critically analyzes the reasons for migrating and the impacts on them and Canada. Accurately explains the reasons for migrating and the impacts on them and Canada. Partially explains and the reasons for migrating and the impacts on them and Canada. For the most part is unable to explain the reasons for migrating and the impacts on them and Canada. Content All content is in the students' own words and is accurate. Almost all content is in the students' own words and is accurate. At least half of the content is in the students' own words and is accurate. Less than half of the content is in the students' own words and/or is accurate. Clarity and Neatness Storyboard is easy to read and all elements are so clearly written, labeled, or drawn that another student could create the presentation if necessary. Storyboard is easy to read and most elements are clearly written, labeled, or drawn. Another person might be able to create the presentation after asking one or two questions. Storyboard is hard to read with rough drawings and labels. It would be hard for another person to create this presentation without asking lots of questions. Storyboard is hard to read and one cannot tell what goes where. It would be impossible for another person to create this presentation without asking lots of questions. Spelling and Grammar No spelling or grammatical mistakes on a storyboard with lots of text. No spelling or grammatical mistakes on a storyboard with little text. One spelling or grammatical error on the storyboard. Several spelling and/or grammatical errors on the storyboard. Use of Time Used time well during each class period with no adult reminders. Used time well during most class periods with no adult reminders. Used time well but adult reminders were required on one or more occasions to do so. Used time poorly in spite of several adult reminders to do so. 21