13 Dear Canada

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Dear Canada

In the hands of great writers, Canadian history is riveting and lively. In the hands of three great children’s authors—Sarah Ellis, Kit Pearson and John Wilson—history positively jumps off the page and into the imagination of young readers. Through more than 20 titles and 850,000 copies, Scholastic’s Dear Canada series has brought Canada’s past alive for girls and the I Am Canada series has enlivened history for boys. Ellis’ latest contribution to the series focuses on a 12-year-old Titanic survivor, Pearson has created a young girl’s imaginary diary during the War of 1812 and Wilson writes an account of a youngster who lies about his age to be a Canadian soldier in World War I.

This is the way history should be told!

Curriculum Connection:

• Canadian history
• Developing writing from a different point of view
• Learning to respond to a text personally, critically and creatively

Activities:

1.      Ensure students have an accurate historical understanding of the conflicts outlined in the novels.

2.      Discussion: Ask students how or if they were able to relate to the characters and their problems. Why? Why not?

3.      Using the interactive timeline of Canadian history found here: http://www.scholastic.ca/dearcanada/activities/timeline/, have students pick a significant point in Canadian history that interests them, research this time period and write their own Dear Canada diary entry.

4.      Give each student a cue card on which they write the name and age of a character, year, setting and situation (for example, name: Martha; age: 13; year: 1937; setting: Toronto; situation: the Great Depression). Then randomly distribute cards and have students research that place and time, and write a short fictional account, a journal entry, a letter, or a short story.

More Resources:

Dear Canada series lesson plans: http://scholastic.ca/dearcanada/index2.htm

I Am Canada series lesson plans: http://scholastic.ca/iamcanada/

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