Historica Canada Education Portal

This toolkit has been created to help you through the steps of creating an oral history podcast: how to conduct research, how to interview subjects, and how to incorporate an interview into a script that tells a story. It introduces activities, in-person or virtual, that guide students in planning their own podcast episodes. The toolkit focuses on interviewing a Memory Project speaker and incorporating their story into a podcast, and provides opportunities to showcase oral history as a...

The Memory Project Visit Organizers: How to complete a speaking engagement via video call

This list of resources has been compiled to further students’ knowledge of Indigenous contributions to Canadian military history. Students can read and listen to the articles and testimonies to learn more about the reasons Indigenous people joined the Canadian military, their achievements and challenges while serving, and their experiences following their service.

Teachers are encouraged to preview the testimonies before assigning them, as stories of war often include graphic content.

The Host a Speaker Kit is designed to help educators and students deepen their understanding of military history and develop thoughtful questions for a Memory Project speaker.

The Memory Project, an initiative of Historica Canada, gives veterans and current Canadian Forces members the opportunity to share their stories of military service through its online archive and volunteer speakers bureau.

Drawing on the work of the Historical Thinking Project (historicalthinking.ca), this learning tool encourages students to make connections between important Canadian military innovations throughout history and the impact of these innovations on society. Students will...

The Cenotaph Project is an engaging activity that gives students an opportunity to get to know the individual men and women who served, and potentially died, in wartime. Begun by Ontario teacher Blake Seward, teachers and students nationwide have undertaken this project. The document below serves as a step-by-step guide.

This guide is intended to assist teachers and students as they study Canada’s involvement in the Second World War. It highlights some of the significant historical themes and events of that period but is not meant to be a comprehensive history of Canada and the war; in fact, some teachers may choose to highlight different aspects of this period in their classes, such as the naval war on Canada’s doorstep or Canada’s participation in the bombing offensive against Germany. Nonetheless, the...

The guide's purpose is to enhance your students’ learning and appreciation of the pivotal role that this 1917 battle played within Canadian history. The questions and activities of the guide also aim to have students examine issues and situations from an individual, humanistic point of view as well as from a macro perspective.

Structured around five primary sources from the First World War, this guide asks students to think and to empathize as they analyze and deconstruct those pieces of...

This learning tool uses The Memory Project website, thememoryproject.com, to challenge students to rethink what it means to study history by using primary source analysis. The Veteran Stories and Image Gallery sections of the website contain a wide range of primary documents. The exercises in this guide invite students to develop their ability to analyze primary documents and other historical resources.

The First World War, often called “the Great War,” was a global conflict that divided many of the world’s nations into two opposing camps, called the Allies (originally the Triple Entente) and the Central Powers. From 1914 through the end of hostilities in 1918, more countries joined the conflict out of necessity or opportunism, including Japan, the United States and the Ottoman Empire.

The war had disastrous consequences for many Canadian individuals, families and communities: approximately...

One of the biggest criticisms our veterans have of “younger” generations is their lack of remembrance. One could argue that the reason younger generations struggle with the concept of remembrance is a lack of personal connection. The intent of this project is to make remembrance personal for the students by having them produce a Student Heritage Minute. The research that comes with this project brings the identity and character of the deceased soldier to the students first hand.

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During World War I, trench warfare was used and often caused the momentum of the war to reach a standstill. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. At the Battle of the Somme, the allies sought to shatter the German trenches with a massive attack and win the war. The first day of this battle holds the record for the most losses in a single day.

To have students develop a better appreciation of the physical efforts made by soldiers when going "over the top." To get students out of...

When honouring our war dead, how do nations express nationalism and maintain the memory of the dead individually and/or collectively?

Students will gain an appreciation for how the forces of nationalism have shaped and continue to shape Canada and the world. They will explore a range of expressions of nationalism and develop understandings of nation and nationalism (in relation to land, geography, collectivism, citizenship, ethnicity, culture, languages, politics, spiritualism,...

This lesson is based on viewing the Sir Arthur Currie biography from The Canadians series. Despite the many controversies surrounding his career, Currie was one of the most successful Canadian military leaders during the First World War.

The biography of Sir Arthur Currie is a good way to introduce the study of the First World War. Students will compare Currie to other military leaders and study several war poems.

Sir Arthur Currie, or ‘Guts and Gaiters’ as he was...

Students should:
- Know that democracy depends on the participation of the citizens
- Participate appropriately and effectively in groups
- Research for specific information
- Demonstrate an attitude of acceptance of diverse values
- Read, view and listen effectively to gather ideas and information
- Classify and present pertinent information in logical order.

Students should be able to :
- Present ideas clearly and at a rate that enables others to follow
- Explain personal viewpoint clearly
-...