Big Ideas
Big Ideas
Learning about indigenous peoples nurtures multicultural awareness and respect for diversity.
People from diverse cultures and societies share some common experiences and aspects of life.
Indigenous knowledge is passed down through oral history, traditions, and collective memory.
Indigenous societies throughout the world value the well-being of the self, the land, spirits, and ancestors.
Content
Learning Standards
Content
cultural characteristics and ways of life of local First Peoples and global indigenous peoples
- Sample topics:
- potential First Peoples and global indigenous people for study could include:
- Local BC First Peoples
- Canadian and other North American indigenous people
- local indigenous peoples of South America
- ethnic Chinese and Koreans
- ethnic European groups (Germanic, Slavic, Latin, Celtic)
- worldview, protocols, celebrations, ceremonies, dance, music, spiritual beliefs, art, values, kinship, traditional teachings
- potential First Peoples and global indigenous people for study could include:
aspects of life shared by and common to peoples and cultures
- Sample topics:
- family
- work
- education
- systems of ethics and spirituality
interconnections of cultural and technological innovations of global and local indigenous peoples
- Sample topics:
- transportation
- clothing
- pottery
- shelters and buildings
- navigation
- weapons
- tools
- hunting and fishing techniques
- building techniques
- food cultivation and preparation
- ceremonies
- art
- music
- basketry and weaving
governance and social organization in local and global indigenous societies
- Sample topics:
- consensus
- confederacies
- Elders
- reservations
- band councils
- traditional leadership
oral history, traditional stories, and artifacts as evidence about past First Peoples cultures
- Sample topics:
- tools
- earth mounds
- petroglyphs
- oral stories
- sacred or significant places and landforms
- weapons
relationship between humans and their environment
- Sample topics:
- protocols around the world that acknowledge and respect the land
- reshaping of the land for resource exploration and development
- domestication of animals
- organization and techniques of hunting and fishing
Curricular Competency
Learning Standards
Curricular Competency
Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze ideas; and communicate findings and decisions
- Key skills:
- Ask relevant questions to clarify and define a selected problem or issue
- Demonstrate a willingness to use imagining and predicting in relation to a selected problem or issue
- Compare, classify, and identify patterns in information about a selected problem or issue
- Recognize that symbols are used to represent concrete and abstract ideas (e.g., the sheaves of wheat on the Saskatchewan flag represent the importance of wheat farming to that province; a dove represents peace)
- Identify the significance of symbols and colours on maps (e.g., colours to represent economic activity, various types of lines to represent roads and railways, symbols for capital cities)
- Interpret information on simple maps using cardinal directions, symbols, and legends
- Create simple maps to represent the community and one or more other communities within BC and Canada
- Use simple map grids (e.g., letter-number co-ordinates) to identify specific locations
- Gather information on a topic from more than one source (e.g., book, magazine, web site, interview)
- Apply strategies for information gathering (e.g., using headings, indices, tables of contents)
- Record information from various sources, demonstrating appropriate strategies for note taking (e.g., key words, main ideas, point form)
- Cite information sources appropriately (e.g., simple bibliography)
- Select information for a presentation on a topic (e.g., a specific province or territory)
- Draw simple interpretations from personal experiences and oral, visual, and written sources
- Organize relevant information for a presentation
- Deliver an engaging presentation on a topic
- Generate a variety of responses to a specific problem or issue
- Consider advantages and disadvantages of a variety of solutions to a problem or issue
- Individually, or in groups, design a course of action to address a problem or issue, and provide reasons to support the action
- Demonstrate willingness to consider diverse points of view
Explain why people, events, or places are significant to various individuals and groups (significance)
- Key questions:
- Why are stories important to indigenous people?
- Why do Elders play and important part in the lives of First Peoples?
- What values were significant for local First Peoples?
Ask questions, make inferences, and draw conclusions about the content and features of different types of sources (evidence)
- Sample activity:
- View different artifacts from indigenous cultures and speculate on what they might have been used for
Sequence objects, images, or events, and explain why some aspects change and others stay the same (continuity and change)
- Sample activities:
- Use examples to show that events happen in chronological sequence (e.g., last month, yesterday, today, tomorrow, next month)
- Organize and present information in chronological order (e.g., before, now, later; past, present, future)
- Key questions:
- How has the way of life changed for indigenous people?
- How are indigenous cultures viewed today?
- How have First Peoples government and leadership changed over time?
Recognize the causes and consequences of events, decisions, or developments (cause and consequence)
- How might present-day Canada be different if First Peoples had not been moved to reserves?
- How has the way of life changed for indigenous people?
Explain why people’s beliefs, values, worldviews, experiences, and roles give them different perspectives on people, places, issues, or events
- Sample activities:
- Distinguish between fact and opinion on a selected problem or issue
- Identify features of indigenous cultures that characterize their relationship to the land
- Indigenous peoples’ use of oral tradition rather than written language
- Key questions:
- How do the values of indigenous people differ from the values of people from other cultures?
Make value judgments about events, decisions, or actions, and suggest lessons that can be learned (ethical judgment)
- Key questions:
- Is the technology we have today better than the traditional technology of indigenous peoples?
- What would be the advantages or disadvantages of consensus decision making?
- Should indigenous cultures and languages be maintained? Explain your reasons.
- Should anything be done about the loss of indigenous lands? Explain your reasons.