Digging for our Roots

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Home : 2003 : October : 23

Digging for our Roots
By Heidi

School District 2 (in New Brunswick, Canada)recently hosted “Digging For Your Roots” a program from Library and Archives Canada in partnership with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (both accessible on-line through www.gc.ca).
This program introduced the grades 4 and 5 students of my class to the fascinating world of genealogy.
To get ready for the workshop, students were led in a classroom discussion focusing on family history. The students discussed the many cultures that exist in Canada, and the possibility that some of their relatives might have come to Canada from other countries. Students

were quite excited to go home and ask questions about their family’s history. What colourful tales they had to share at the Digging for our Roots workshop!

The workshop was really well done for this age group. The facilitator from Library Archives Canada had about 10 old, black and white photos blown up to 8.5 x 11" high quality photocopies. Every photo but one had a paragraph describing what the photo was about, including a key word or clue that students would be able to look for in the photos themselves so they could match the clue to the appropriate photo. They were things like a class photo in front of a YMCA, a graduation photo, a wedding photo, etc. There was one photo of a couple that had no matching paragraph. The kids had to solve the mystery, using all the other information they dug up to figure out who the people were. They also had a photocopy of a ship's passenger list which included names and occupations of passengers. I have never seen my kids work so well in a cooperative activity, and they were all engaged, even the lower level students!

It seemed a logical extension of this successful activity to formalize the information they have gathered abouttheir own families. By participating in Generations Can Connect (a Gradssroots project in Canada), students will be able to interview seniors in their family or community to deepen their understanding of Canada’s heritage. Not only will they be learning history by connecting with a senior citizen, but also, it will be an opportunity for them to practice their language arts and information technology skills. What a great combination!

Genealogy isn't specifically addressed in our grade 4 and 5 curriculum, but knowledge of the region's cultures is one of our outcomes, so this fits.

Hope the detail helps!