Canada During COVID-19: Junior Education Guide

PART 1: To have students become familiar with the concept of primary sources and how they can be used, ask students to find a primary source item in their house that was created before they were born. This could be a household cookbook or recipe, a photo album, or a piece of clothing. Ask them to describe the item using the 5Ws (who, what, where, when, and why). What does this primary source tell them about a time before they were alive? How does it help them better understand what life was like in the past? PART 2: Have students make a list of seven to ten things they have seen over the last day or two related to COVID-19. This could be a poster they saw on a store window, a commercial on TV about washing your hands, or a song someone wrote. Then, have students pick three to five primary sources from their list that they would recommend to future historians as the most useful for helping explain this time period. Have them explain why they think these items best represent the time we are living in. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Why is it important to look at both intentional (e.g., a diary entry) and unintentional (e.g., an advertisement) primary sources when studying the past? What can intentional sources tell us about the past that unintentional sources cannot, and vice versa?

Student Prompt If you were to travel to the future, a hundred years from now, what items would you bring to teach people in the future about life during COVID-19? Think about which primary sources from the COVID-19 pandemic would be the most helpful clues to historians trying to understand this time.

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