Residential Residential

SUCCESS CRITERIA:
• I can explain which authority people or groups hold power in my own life.
• I can explain who held the power to control the lives of the First Nation people.
LESSON PLAN
BEFORE (ACTIVATION):
1. Lead a guided discussion with students to understand who are the people who have
power to make decisions in their lives. Start by displaying images of children in the
following situations or similar ones. For example, Who has the power to decide what
you eat for supper? Who has the power to make sure you attend school until age 16?
To choose what game to play at recess? What power do you have in your own lives?
(Could also have students share synonyms for power, such as ‘control’ or ‘dominance’
to clarify the word ‘power’)!
2. Explain that the person or group with the power is called the ‘authority’. Label the
‘authority’ on the SmartBoard lesson with another coloured pen to help students see
the definition in action. E.g.:
3. Divide the class into small groups and explain the thinking task: Your group will receive
(cut out on paper) a set of decisions that must be made in a typical Ontario Grade Six
student’s life. Your task is to sort these into groups based on “Which authority has the
power over this decision?” Encourage active, positive discussion, and model/review if
necessary how disagreement might be important, and how to respectfully disagree.
4. Hand out sets of pre-cut Decisions Cards and post-its to each group. Ask the students
to write each authority person/group on a post-it; use one post-it per authority.
5. Give the groups sufficient time to work and discuss. Encourage “not sure” responses
and listen carefully to questions that students ask or important ideas that students have,
to bring them to the group discussion after. You could also encourage students to write
down any questions on post-its to share with the group. For example, you might hear
a student say, “This decision would be different if your family is from another country/
has a different religion/has more than one child/lived many years ago“).
6. Consider taking a photo of the group’s work to assess what students’ understanding
of authority/power is at this point. Alternatively, have students glue their cards on
chart paper.
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Borrowed from FNESC and FNSA document “Indian Residential School & Reconciliation” with permission.
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