Hands-On Residential School Truth & Reconciliation Day Lesson
***note based on feedback: 1. Doing simulations where kids are the oppressed people can re-traumatize kids. Please make sure you know your class and unpack any activity like this before/after 2. This activity might not be for you, but I am glad it has started a conversation . Conversations are uncomfortable and messy but important to grow. What is not built into this overview is all of the unpacking/class check-ins. We will continue to talk this morning. 3. You could stop after step four on the simulation and have a powerful conversation. 4. This was not my first lesson with indigenous content this year. We have learned about Nuu-chah-nulth ceremonial curtains and perseverance of culture, the territories our school is on, the questions we have, and a few of the First Peoples Principles of learning. This was not a one off sudden deep dive. Context is important. Knowing your kids is important. 5. Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback both positive and negative.****
few weeks ago, I designed a hand-on lesson with just a few materials for kids to explore the refugee crisis in Afghanistan. Creating something concrete with real values built a strong connection for the kids. After the success of that lesson, I started to think about how I could do something similar to explore themes around truth and reconciliation. The lesson I ran today was the result. It was a hands-on simulation lesson with a written reflection.
I trusted that my students knew a little bit about residential schools as our grade four teachers are wonderful! After reviewing the education calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I wanted to pull my perspective back for the students to teach about the legacy/multigenerational impact of residential schools. They had a basis of understanding and I wanted to build on it.
Lesson Goals
Learn hard truths about Canada
Create an emotional connection
Build joint understanding of some of the impacts of residential schools on the kids and their communities
Identify questions to explore over the next few weeks about First Nations, Inuit, and Metis people living on the land we define as Canada
Create a kinaesthetic/hands-on experience to deepen understanding
Materials
Whiteboard markers
Sticky notes
Tubs of 2 types of manipulatives (1 colour/shape = adults in the community and 1 colour/shape = kids)
A different type of manipulatives that you keep in a tub at the ‘school’
A piece of paper/reflection sheet for the end
Logistics
90 -120 minutes
Front load First Nations, Metis, and Inuit students (I let them know if they felt overwhelmed, they could take a break. We made a signal)
The Lesson
Part 1: Building a Happy Community
The prompt written on the board was simple, the kids had to build a community on their tables using two different math manipulatives and whiteboard pens. The groups were also allowed to use sticky notes.
We unpacked the challenge to build a successful community. I even added trade routes between specific places. The kids were able to find out what they would be able to trade for and groups started to specialize. The kids were laughing and having fun. They enjoyed drawing details and speech bubbles for all of the little ‘people’. I gave them about 10 minutes to create their happy community.
Part 2: Reflecting on the Happy Community
Each group was given a T-Chart with ‘Before’ written on it. The kids worked within their groups to brainstorm what the community felt like, sounded like, and looked like. They wrote down what they traded and how the community functioned.
At this point, none of the kids had any idea how things were going to change….they just knew change was coming, because after completing ‘Before’ and sharing ideas as a class, I had them write ‘After’ on the other side of the column.
Part 3: Introducing Residential Schools
I asked the kids to leave their communities and come sit at the board. I had written one sentence on the board:
What is the history and legacy of residential schools?
As a class, we talked about that question meant. First, several kids told me facts about residential schools. Things they had learned in the past that stuck with them. Things like:
The schools were bad
They cut off the hair of kids
They made them work
It was so sad
Then we unpacked the word history:
Facts
Things that have happened that we should know about
Things that are important that we should know about
Things that are real
Then we got to legacy…that was tricky but I was impressed:
The impacts that residential schools are still having on culture/society
The impacts generation to generation
The kids got it…. Then I warned the class that I was about to get mean. I warned them that everything I was about to say/do really happened somewhere in our country. I stood before the group and told them they had to send one representative from each community to the rainbow table with all of the kids from their community.
There was a horrified noise through the room, but they complied. A few tried to hide kids, but other kids in the group stopped them…at first.
Part 4: Destroying the Community
So, I stood at the rainbow table and the simulation began…
I had my students line up all of their ‘kids’ and I renamed them/told them about chopping off their hair.
I sent the ‘adults’ (my students) back to their communities.
I made reserves and took away trade routes.
We paused and the groups filled in the ‘After’ section of the T-Chart.
It was Christmas and I said, the community could send one representative to get the ‘kids’….if they could pay their own way! Some of the groups used sticky notes to make fake money…I didn’t return all of the ‘kids’. SHOCK!
Suddenly, when I told my class they needed to return the ‘kids’ to school after Christmas break, more of my students tried to hide their children. I had two of my students arrested (20 jumping jacks) and got all of the ‘kids’ back lined up in school.
I invited one member to come up at the end of the year to get ‘kids’. Toooooo many students came, so I sent them all back empty handed. I told them, they could do better next year.
After a year had passed (I hummed the Jeopardy theme), I invited them back. Tooooo many students came again. I sent them back. At this point, my students gasped. They offered me more money. They just wanted the ‘kids’ back. I said no. They could try again next year.
The third time, my students had learned. Only one member from each community came up and got ‘kids’. Not all of the ‘kids’. But some. I would not let them see the other ‘kids’ or tell them what happened.
When I told my students the break was over and they had to send ‘kids’ back, my students were frantic. They tried again to hide ‘kids’ and not bring them back. This time, I let some succeed.
I dumped all of the ‘kids’ into my secret second box and pulled out 24 counters that were all the same. Why were they all the same? My students knew…residential school had changed the ‘kids’. They no longer fit in the same in their community. They no longer could speak the language or remembered the customs.
As my students looked at their broken communities, I brought their attention back to the front. I asked them if they wondered about the lost children. I took a handful of the manipulatives and explained the 60’s Scoop…then I dumped the rest on the table and said…these are the unmarked graves.
Silence…Shock…Connection
Teacher Note: Throughout the simulation, I pressed pause several times to provide true historical facts or talk about specific schools. This means that your simulation/lesson might unfold differently from mine. I knew my big goals and worked what my students were doing into these goals.
Part 5: Reflecting on the Activity
I had five questions for each student to answer. The kids cleaned up and then spent 25-minutes quietly writing/reflecting.
Several told me that it was a hard lesson and a sad lesson, but it made the experience feel more real. They had never thought about the community left behind. The multigenerational impacts of residential schools.
My kids are in grade five. My kids got it.
Follow-Up Activities
Positive Cultural Books: I have a bin of picture books written in the last five years that teach about different cultures. Several of the books are written in English and a second language. I want my students to see the perseverance of culture and how it is being rebuilt.
When I was 8 Lesson (next week): I will follow-up on this lesson on Wednesday with a reading activity around the book When I was 8. There are so many great books that you can use.
Great Read Aloud: The Journey Forward: A Novella on Reconciliation was published a few years ago. It has TWO powerful novellas in it. The story When We Play Our Drums specifically talks about the communities left behind and intergenerational trauma. Both stories are thoughtful and can be a great follow-up to this lesson or an entry point to hard discussions.
Final Thoughts
Teaching kids about residential schools, intergenerational trauma, and Canada’s history or racism is not easy, but it is necessary. There can be no reconciliation without truth. We as educators have an obligation to have hard conversations so that we as a country can do better. If my lesson helps inspire you to try something new or gives you the confidence to have a hard conversation, I have done my job. This lesson was hard-but powerful. I challenge you to trust your students and have the hard conversations.
“It is precisely because education was the primary tool of oppression of Aboriginal people, and miseducation of all Canadians that we have concluded that education holds the key to reconciliation.”