Durham Memorial Project

Summary:

‘Our school purchased a month long membership to www.ancestry.ca (access is free in most local libraries) and students were surprised how difficult it was to find information. Many were disappointed that photographs could not be found and many found little beyond the attestation paper and a death notice. It was a worthwhile exercise into primary sources and the difficulty in finding accurate information. We, as teachers were taken aback by the difficulty students had in reading handwriting and then were pleasantly surprised at the tributes each student created. The empathy shown by students, from walking to the memorial wall to visiting the address where their soldier lived, made this project memorable for all of us. Remembrance Day Activities this year were framed around the Oshawa soldiers and sharing the information they learned with the rest of the student body.’


General tasks:

Part 1: Students are introduced to the letters of a private soldier of WWI during class lessons, and must fill their ‘portrait’ and write what they learned.

Part 2: They were assigned another soldier from Oshawa and did the same exercise, for which they decided how much work they needed to do (basic activities + optional activities), with the marks upscaling with the amount. The highest grade is reached by actively participating in the Remembrance Day Assembly. 


Evaluation Criteria:

Deepness of research and shown knowledge; historical thinking; degree of application in visual presentation; quality of the communication.

Durham Memorial Project

Flora Fung

10

Oshawa, Ontario

‘Students then shared their knowledge with each other in the form of a “Soldier Share” and by presenting their research on a display board.’

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