C_McFarlane

2009

Canadian Immigration Unit Plan

Digital Storytelling
This project explores Canadian Immigration and infuses technology in the Grade 9 Social
Studies Curriculum. There are numerous technological tools used. Please do not feel
overwhelmed, nor feel that you need to use all of the tools listed. The essence of the
project will stay the same, whether you use all or one of the tools.
Inquiry Questions: How do government policies impact immigration and how have they
changed to reflect provincial, federal and international issues?
Program of Studies Links:
9.1.8 critically assess how legislative processes attempt to address emerging issues of
immigration by exploring and reflecting upon the following questions and issues:

What factors influence immigration policies in Canada (i.e. economic, political, health,
security)? (C, ER, PADM)

How are changes to Canadian policies on immigration and refugees a reflection of world
issues? (PADM, GC, C, I)

What impact does increasing immigration have on Aboriginal peoples and communities?
(C, I, GC, PADM)

How are provincial governments able to influence and implement immigration policies?
(PADM, GC)

How is the implementation of immigration policies in Quebec an attempt to strengthen the

French language in North America? (PADDM, GC, C,I)

What is the relationship between immigration policies in Canada and the rights guaranteed
in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms? (I, PADM)

To what extent does Canada benefit from immigration? (GC, PADM)

9.S.1 develop skills of critical thinking and creative thinking:
Access diverse viewpoints on particular topics, using appropriate technologies
Assemble and organize different viewpoints in order to assess their validity
9.S.2 develop skills of historical thinking:
Create a simulation or a model, using technology that permits the making of
inferences
Identify patterns in organized information
9.S.4 demonstrate skills of decision-making and problem solving:
Articulate clearly a plan of action to use technology to solve a problem
Identify the appropriate materials and tools to use in order to accomplish a plan of
action
Evaluate choices and the progress in problem solving, then redefining the plan of
action, as necessary
9.S.5 demonstrate skills of cooperation, conflict resolution and consensus building:
Access, retrieve and share information from electronic sources such as common
files
Use networks to brainstorm, plan and share ideas with group members
9.S.7 apply the research process
Evaluate the relevance of electronically accessed information to a particular topic
Make connections among related, organized data and assemble various pieces into
a unified message
Refine searches to limit sources to a manageable number
Analyze and synthesize information to create a product

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2009

The Task:
(Included as a separate Student Assignment Sheet)

What has been the Canadian immigrant

experience?
Since 1869, Canadas immigration programs have helped build a
community of citizens respected around the world. 1
For years, Canada has relied on immigration to support our national goals. For the past
140 years, the factors influencing Canadas immigration policy have evolved based on
provincial, national and international events. For this project you will research a group
of immigrants to Canada and tell their immigration story to Canada digitally. The major
immigration groups are:
Early Western European settlers
Eastern European immigrants
Jewish settlement
Chinese and Japanese immigrants/ Asian Immigrants
Middle Eastern Immigrants
African Immigrants
South American Immigrants
The Task
Although these are large immigrant groups, I would like you to pick a specific nationality
and examine their immigration history to Canada. Your final project will be a digital
story including the following:
Why did your immigrant group decide to move to Canada? What were the factors
influencing their immigration?
How has Canadian immigration policy impacted this group? Be specific to the
policy and how the changes have impacted your group.
What criteria (points system, refugee status, etc) enabled this group of people to
immigrate to Canada?
How did their quality of life improve with immigration to Canada?
Examine how their immigration has impacted the Canadian Francaphone and
Aboriginal populations.
What obstacles did the immigrants face in Canada?
Highlight the connections between the immigration policy of the time and the
rights guaranteed today by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Use examples.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/index.asp

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2009

The Process
1. Pick an immigrant group.
2. Pick a partner to work with.
3. Create a plan as to how you will research this topic and what technology tools
you will use. Identify which resources you will want to use. This plan must be
approved before proceeding with research.
4. Visit the resource page and begin researching. Remember to document each
resource you use, so that you will be able to provide references for all information
and pictures. Make sure to assess validity of all information taken from the
internet, especially if you are doing a general search.
5. Create a storyboard
6. Produce a digital story to be presented to the class.
Follow-up Activity
It will be important to take notes while the other students are presenting because you will
have to create a graphic organizer using Inspiration to show the connections between all
of the class projects. Carefully listen for any trends and patterns in the presentations.
Graphic Organizer:
Connect all of the class projects using:
1. Canadian factors influencing immigration
2. Immigration policies that enabled groups to immigrate
What commonalities are there between all immigrant groups? What differences are
there?
What are the trends in Canadas immigration policies and how has this affected the
immigrant experience?
Reflection Podcast
Now you have the opportunity to create a podcast. A podcast is an audio recording of
your experiences that can be downloaded for others to listen to. Using the podcast tools
listed on the resources page, create a digital file of your project reflection.
Questions to answer: What did you learn during this project? What are you most proud
of? What was the most challenging part of this project? What did the use of technology
enable you to do that you wouldnt otherwise be able to do? What would you do
differently next time? What was your favourite part of this project?

Student Prior Knowledge:

Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadas Legislative Process
Introduction to Quality of Life
Introduction:

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2009

An additional introduction activity, to the ranking assignment, would be to have the

students interview family members about their immigration experience. This is a good
humanities approach to this topic. For a laid out lesson plan, please the Immigration in
20th Century Canada text put out by the Critical Thinking Consortium. Students could
use digital tape recorders (mp3 players) to record the interviews.
Ranking Exercise
Intel Ranking Tool can act as a good formative assessment tool to observe students prior
knowledge. Each teacher can create an account that can then be access by students. One
of the exciting aspects of this tool is that teachers will be able to compare groups of
students and see what the class felt were the most important factors affecting
immigration. The factors that I used in the ranking exercise were:
economic
war
political
family
birthrate
personal character
health
literacy
safety
race
labour shortages
religion
cultural
business
refugee status
skills
Digital Story
For further information on Digital Story telling visit:
Digital Storytelling
Digital Storytelling in the Classroom
Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
Follow-up Activity
It will be important to take notes while the other students are presenting because you will
have to create a graphic organizer using Inspiration to show the connections between all
of the class projects. Carefully listen for any trends and patterns in the presentations.
Graphic Organizer:
Connect all of the class projects using Inspiration or Gliffy. Your graphic organizer
should include:
3. Canadian factors influencing immigration
4. Immigration policies that enabled groups to immigrate
Questions to think about when making the connections between all the projects are:
What commonalities are there between all immigrant groups? What differences are there?
What are the trends in Canadas immigration policies and how has this affected the
immigrant experience?
Reflection
To be completed after the Digital story or after the creation of the graphic organizer
showing the connections between the presentations.

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2009

Complete a reflection using Voice threads. Voice threads is a digital tool enabling you to
take still pictures and provide either an audio or written narration for your experience
working on this project. To see a class example of a reflection click here.
Directions for using Voice thread:
1) Go to the Voice thread website and click on create from the buttons at the top of the
page and register. http://voicethread.com
2) Upload a picture that represents the digital story you completed. Add a title to your
voice thread.
3) Click on Comment and using a microphone, you and your partner will address
some of the following points (Hint: jot down some ideas before you start recording).
Note: Assessment rubrics for the Major Project and the reflection are included as
summative assessment.