WHO ARE WE?QUEBEC – ELEMENTARY

Who are we: What is the Composition of the Population?

Lesson Overview:

This lesson will help students discover the ethnic diversity of Quebec by looking into the origins of students at their school.

Grade Level:

Grades 3 and 4 (2nd cycle – elementary). The activity can be adapted for younger students, but would need to be treated on a smaller scale, meaning that the survey could be conducted in the classroom only rather than in the whole school.

Time Required:

Four periods of approximately one hour each. However, the activity may be shortened if the class decided to retrict the number of groups rather than survey every class in the school.

Curriculum Connection:

Domain of the Social Universe:

  • Competency 1: Understanding how a society is organized over a geographic area.
  • Elements of the competency: Being able to establish links between the features of the society and how it is structured. Establish continuity links with the present.
  • Competency 3: Become open to the diversity and geography of societies.
  • Elements of the competency: Being able to describe the causes and consequences of these differences.

Link to Canadian National Geographic Standards:

Essential Element #2: Places and Regions

  • Physical and human characteristics of places and regions within the province and Canada.

Essential Element #4: Human Systems

  • Patterns and processes of migration past and present.
  • Characteristics of the provinces and Canada’s population.
  • Cultural regions.

Geographic Skill #1: Asking Geographic Questions

  • Ask geographic questions.

Geographic Skill #2: Acquiring Geographic Information

  • Make and record observations about the human characteristics of places.

Geographic Skill #3: Organizing Geographic Information

  • Prepare graphs, tables and diagrams to present the geographic information.

Geographic Skill #4: Analyzing Geographic Information

  • Use tables and graphs to observe and interpret geographical trends and reports.
  • Use simple mathematical calculations to analyze geographic data.

Geographic Skill #5: Answering Geographic Questions

  • Use geographic research methods to gather geographic information, draw conclusions and make extrapolations.

Primary Reference:

The Statistics Canada document entitled “Learning Resources” describes an interesting way to conduct surveys at school. It can be viewed electronically at the following address:

Additional Resources, Materials and Equipment Required:

  • The site “Census at School” may be very useful to help prepare the survey.
  • The “E-STAT” site contains all kinds of information that can be accessed by teachers.

estat.statcan.ca

Main Objective:

To help students compare cultural diversity data in Quebec and the extent to which their school is representative of this society.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

  • Prepare a survey questionnaire
  • Compile survey results and present the results
  • Describe cultural diversity in their school
  • Compare this diversity to national diversity.

The Lesson:

Teacher Activity / Student Activity

Introduction

/ Ask students about how to conduct a survey. Attempt to bring out the steps involved in conducting a survey.
Ask the students to organize themselves into teams and assign tasks to each team. / Share your knowledge about how to prepare a survey.
Get together with students with whom you can work effectively.
Lesson Development / Present the various steps to be completed to make the survey as consistent as possible (refer to “Learning Resources”).
1. Develop the questionnaire
2. Distribute the questionnaires
3. Collect the completed questionnaires
4. Compile results
5. Present results.
Guide students in the preparation of the questionnaire. This means presenting different models or simply developing a list of questions that the whole group can use. More specifically, the questionnaire needs to be corrected and entered in electronic format (word processing); it should be brief, clear, anonymous and serious. The most interesting questionnaire should be selected and adopted by the group. A sample questionnaire is appended for information. / Contribute to the development of the team’s questionnaire while following the teacher’s instructions or requirements.
Conduct the survey by following the steps suggested by the teacher. Explain the purpose of the research and distribute the questionnaires to the school students. Collect the questionnaires and compile the results.
Present the survey results.
Conclusion / Suggest that the students compare the results obtained to the results for Quebec society by supplying statistics or showing the students where they can obtain them. (
Evaluate the quality of the work done by the students with due regard to the whole work process. / Compare the results of your survey to those for Quebec society. Analyze similarities and differences.
Draw conclusions and present them to the group.

Lesson Extension:

Now that the students have an overview of their school and of Quebec, they can take it a step further by mentioning what could be improved in the school to make it more representative of Quebec society. From another standpoint, the student or the team could find an innovative way of presenting the survey results using various media such as a school newspaper, posters showing tables and graphs, holding competitions for students at the school who are being asked to answer the questions in the survey, etc.

Assessment of Student Learning:

The teacher evaluates the student’s work individually, even though the tasks are performed co-operatively. The teacher may also prepare a questionnaire to summarize the survey results in addition to the conclusions drawn following the comparison of these results to those for Quebec society. In order to do so, the teacher may refer to the following assessment criteria:

Assessment Grid
Assessment Criteria / Rating
The student can prepare a survey questionnaire to obtain information about cultural diversity in the school. / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
The student can compile results and obtain an accurate picture of cultural diversity at the school. / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
The student establishes links between the characteristics of Quebec society and the characteristics of the school. / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
The student can present the results of the survey using various means. / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Anonymous Questionnaire

1. What is your parents’ nationality? (What country do they come from?)

Mother:______Father:______

2. What language do you speak at home?

(a)French

(b)English

(c)Spanish

(d)Arabic

(e)Chinese

(f)______

3. What is your religion at home?

(a)Christian

(b)Protestant

(c)Muslim

(d)Buddhist

(e)Hindu

(f)______

4. To which group do you belong?

(a)White

(b)Black

(c)Métis

(d)Asian

(e)Other

Canadian Council for Geographic Education (1

Statistics Canada (