Pilot+Feedback


 * Berger Inquiry Unit Feedback**

This page will provide pilot teachers with a place to give their reactions to, suggestions for and examples of their experiences with students during the pilot unit activities. They are organized by Activity.

This is a protected wiki site. Only the pilot teachers and Teacher Advisory Committee members can access it, and we hope, therefore, that you'll feel free to provide frank feedback in a timely way that will benefit both those of us responsible for modifying the unit, and other pilot teachers who may be a lesson behind you to to anticipate what might happen or come out of a lesson, and how they can profit from your experiences and troubleshoot any challenges.

It is important that you teach all of the lessons in the order they are presented. As a pilot, we can only make changes if you teach the lessons and resources provided. If you see obvious and exciting ways to improve the lessons, please add those to the comments after teaching the lessons as written.

Thanks in advance for your contributions !!!

[To input your comments, touch 'edit' button, then click your cursor within the cell beside your name and type your comments. If you have a digital photo, work document, pdf etc to attach, use 'file' button above.]

with Ray/John || =‍= || The The Berger Inquiry: Teacher Backgrounder The Backgrounder was designed to offer the teacher some context for the Berger Inquiry. The mapping activity in the Backgrounder will ultimately be part of the Identity unit and will not be part of the Berger Inquiry unit.
 * ~ Teacher Feedback ||~  ||~   ||
 * || Time/Date for first contact
 * Joanne McHugh ||  ||   ||
 * Scott Willoughby ||  || Go to ||
 * ||  || Contact ||
 * Frank Isherwood ||  || Info ||
 * Laura MacKinnon ||  || Teleconf ||


 * ~ Your Feedback on the Backgrounder. What was useful? What would you add? What might you change or drop? ||
 * || Add your comments here. Use 'edit' button. Make sure to 'save' regularly, and before you logout ! ||
 * **Joanne** ||  ||
 * **Scott** ||  ||
 * **Frank** || I felt that the backgrounder was very helpful and well done. ||
 * **Laura** ||  ||

**Activity "0" - The Map of the NWT**
//Hopefully you'll have a change to use the map again, and they'll get better with it - that's why we've included the actual map with the kit... J// ||  ||
 * || How did the mapping activity go? || Any issues with the materials/ 'props' ||
 * Frank || Activity 0: Finding your Place, was well received by my students. We had a lot of fun and it was interesting to note that many of my high school students did have difficulty with placement, direction, and scale while using the map. It is a great teaching tool. I did not have the time to do the team competition but would be a possible activity at some other point.
 * Scott || Finally, I got a chance to put in some feedback. Activity 0, the mapping activity went really well. The students had an impossible time with it but that is not a surprise with my class. I only have about two students whose parents were born in the north, about five who were born in the north themselves and about 20 that were born outside of the north. Very few have ever been to a community outside of Yellowknife and this was reflected in the activity. Despite this, they had a great time and we all has some good conversations. In Yellowknife we could also use the whole map of Canada. ||  ||
 * Laura || Students really enjoyed trying to figure out the map. With some guidance, and eventually looking at a map of the Territories, they were successful. The class then divided into two teams and we had a competition to see who could name the most communities and place them in the correct area. As a class they only missed two communities. We ended the class with a family feud style game where I used many of the "team competition" questions to test their knowledge of the NWT. Everyone agreed it was a really fun afternoon! ||  ||
 * Joanne || really great activity, my students always enjoy it. It was surprising to them how little they knew about our geography. It's great to get out of our seats and do something interactive. ||  ||

**Activity One: What's Up with Berger**
(what was your teaching experience with this activity?) || **Technology** || "What's up with Berger?", went smoothly. Students were good to involve themselves in the investigation of the 10 photographs. Their skills at analyzing a photo are weak so the opportunity to practice is a good thing.This unit certainly opened many doors that will lead to more discussion as we proceed through the unit.The students did enjoy the "What's up with Berger" activity. I think that having the names of the organization for each symbol would be useful. A few have just the logo with no mention of the organization it represents. I found that the 10 photos fit perfectly on one of the standard display boards that we see used during science and heritage fairs. That allows we to move them to any area of the room easily. My plan is to put the other images on another board after we finish using then in the section. ||  ||
 * **Pilot**
 * Teacher** || **Experience**
 * **Scott** ||  ||   ||
 * **Frank** || Activity 1:
 * **Joanne** || It took me about 30 minutes - the students had quite a bit of prior knowledge due to our museum trip, and speaking with Justice Berger over Skype as well. I liked the cut/paste - again, something a little different than what we normally do. I had them write down one key word on the board under each picture, or put a check mark if they repeated another student's comment when they brought up their stickies. ||  ||
 * **Laura** || This activity went quite well. The students did a great job analyzing the photographs, and always enjoy a hands on activity where they can cut and glue! ||  ||

**Activity Two: Worth a Thousand Words**
(what was your teaching experience with this activity?) || **Technology** || I had difficulty following the plan starting on #12 - the remaining 9 images I assumed were from lesson 1? The questions in #12 of the lesson could be it's own assignment sheet.#10 of the lesson plan ended up being a discussion as a class. I would have enjoyed having a little write up about each industry as a jumping off point. We didn't have a lot of time left for the online Timeline, but viewed the parts about diamonds, fox fur. Excellent idea to have a little write up on each industry to start conversation and give some background information - that could be included in the next version! Thanks, Ray || laminating was peeling, the photos might not stand the test of time. || I did not feel that the Prince of Whales timeline was of any great benefit to the investigation of each industry. I ended up having a discussion about 3 of the industries using the questions to guide us along. A good section to get them thinking about the key economic engines of the north both past and present. I felt that for all that had to be done 75 min. was too short of a time frame. ||  ||
 * **Pilot**
 * Teacher** || **Experience**
 * **Joanne** || Had a good discussion about "objective" and "subjective" vocabulary, as well as inference - did an example, and the students enjoyed viewing the images and matching them to the descriptors.
 * **Scott** || The photo/image activity went well. I did it a bit differently. The class broke into groups of two then analyzed a photo each. They then presented back to the class, what was in the photo, what is the perspective on develoment and why is the photo significant. I went around and helped out the analysis with some of the groups but the presentations went really well and led to some great conversations. The photos seem to be relevant, well chosen and show multiple perspectives. This took the whole class. ||  ||
 * **Frank** || I found that most of this section went well. Some students worked well in groups but others preferred to do it on their own. Most completed 2 to 3 images. They did not have much trouble matching up the descriptors with the proper image.
 * **Laura** || This activity took longer than 75 min - the website took up quite a bit of our time. There could have been more direction in regards to which part of the timeline (online) they should be looking at. The students really enjoyed browsing through the website. I was glad they were interested and learning, but once again it ate up a lot of our time. ||

**Activity Three: Getting to Know the Players**
(what was your teaching experience with this activity?) || **Technology** || The second station was good. The students came up with very good criteria for a good speaker but I'm not sure from reading excerpts they can best judge a good speaker. I think a few audio clips, if they are available, would be best to allow students to assess a strong speech. I didn't feel I had the time to work with the floor map even though I do feel it would be a good activity. ||  || Station 2 was a little slow going. Steps 1 -3 went well, but when it came to actually analyze the individual quotes, the students struggled. Although the quotes are short it took a long time for students to get through all eleven. The students found it was difficult to judge the quotes on our chosen criteria. They felt they needed more information on these individuals. Floor activity was a little less exciting for them the second time through (could have been because they were tired and a little frustrated from station 2), but they enjoyed connecting the photographs to their locations. Ended up being a very nice visual to see all the photos laid out across the NWT. ||
 * **Pilot**
 * Teacher** || **Experience**
 * **Joanne** || I have the same sentiments as Frank - the T-chart part of the lesson was not that clear. The strong speaker criteria was a good discussion. One of my classes is larger, so it was a bit challenging to set up only 2 stations - for the audio clip I set up 2 computers on opposite sides of the classroom. || easy to access the CBC website ||
 * **Scott** || I loved the Berger audio. I remember hearing this on CBC quite a few years ago when I was driving and I had to pull over so I could hear the end. The part about writing a deal out on the back of an envelop and sending it to Chretien is great, the part about Berger talking to all sorts of people in the valley is great and I especially liked the part about Trudeau going up to the delta with his family and seeing caribou before he made a decision on the inquiry. I was really hoping this audio would be included. ||  ||
 * **Frank** || I had an issue with the directions given for the Berger audio file. It says as they listen to the file they should fill in the t-chart,with audio and image as titles. What was expected to be filled in? I decided to have them listen and told them to write out any information they thought was interesting/important they gathered from the interview keeping in mind the images from activity 1.
 * **Laura** || We did stations one and two together as a class. The audio file took a while to load - would have been nice to have it already downloaded on a disk. The activity went very well and students participated. I ended up stopping the radio clip quite a few times to help explain what was being asked and to provide examples.

**Activity Four: Tweet a Response**
(what was your teaching experience with this activity?) || **Technology** || It would be a good place to make a connection with the powerful speaker lesson after listening to Frank's speech. I couldn't find the Oil Companies Make their Pitch - we discussed their point of view instead, looked at CBC articles. || It was difficult to figure out the clips on the green disc - none were named. Lately, at our school, viral videos don't work - they just won't load. I think it has something to do with the gov't server, but I can't rely on cbc videos or youtube clips, they just don't work. It would help to have any audio or video clips referenced on a disc || On another note, we had number of authors at our school to talk about the importance of stories. One of the authors was James Bartleman who wrote As Long as the River Flows which was in our residential school book review section. I was talking to him later and he was surprised that the students were asking him questions about the current state of the world but nobody asked a question on aboriginal/non-aboriginal relations. He asked me why that is but I really don't have an answer. ||  || //Laura - try the following weblink// //[]// //I will also send you an email with the link - Ray// The students really enjoyed the first video and found Frank to be a very powerful speaker. They actually wanted me to play the video a second time. The tweeting was a fun activity and nice way to summarize. Students were able to compare Frank's speech to other powerful speeches they knew of. It would be nice to perhaps complete this activity before the second station in activity three to help students better understand, or at least provide an example of, a great speech. Figured out that the DVD "Your Land, Your Future" is only compatible with a PC making finding the videos on a Mac quite difficult. Skipped Find a Berger Memory activity. Hoping to have someone come into the classroom later this week though to share their memories of the Berger Inquiry in Fort Providence. ||
 * **Pilot**
 * Teacher** || **Experience**
 * **Joanne** || I liked this idea, responding via tweet. Not many of my students use twitter, so they didn't post, but they did respond on the sheet - one suggestion would be to add a # hashtag at the top of each box to give further guidance on what the students should write about, instead of 2 blank boxes.
 * **Scott** || I am running out of time so I will probably start skipping a few of the lessons but I have a quick story to relate. I was in the staff room the other day talking to some of the other northern study teachers -we have four at our school this semester. We were talking about a common exam and looking for topics that we all taught. I suggested an essay on the Residential school isuue but one of the teachers said he hadn't taught that topic. Some of his students were asking him about it but he said he didn't see any relevance to residential schools in the north so skipped the topic. The point of this story is that developing a new curriculum that is comprehensive and a little bit prescriptive is nessesary and critical, at least at our school.
 * **Frank** || I've skipped over this activity. If time I will complete it with the class at a later date. I was able to get this one completed but with very limited number of students. The students and I both thought the T'Selihye speech was powerful. I was like Laura and could not find the "The Oil Companies Make Their Pitch" video but did find it with the link that John provided to Laura.We watched it and discussed the difference between the two plans. I think adding a short written backgrounder on the two business plans would have helped with this part of the unit. I didn't think the video was that informative. ||  ||
 * **Laura** || I'm having difficulty finding the second video - "The Oil Companies Make their Pitch"

**Activity Five: Victors and Victims**
(what was your teaching experience with this activity?) || **Technology** || A teacher's guide/answer key would be beneficial for the Victors/Victims sheet - to use as a guide. ||  || I also was uncertain about what was expected to be done in step 7 "Vote with your Feet". To me it wasn't manageable. To me steps 8,9,10, is where it's best to spend the time. Discussion in those areas were important and interesting. To me I'd replace a lot of this activity with an assignment that would be presented here. My thought is they could be given a scenario, for example, where a diamond discovery has been located and the people of the area must make a decision on what's best. They can be given the task of debating the two sides of a situation like this. I'm thinking of an actual debate. ||  || Students enjoyed the vote with your feet activity, but I found it ended up being "follow the leader". One student would state their position, and everyone else would automatically agree. We didn't use the names from the videos, but instead decided on various victims and victors as a class. ||
 * **Pilot**
 * Teacher** || **Experience**
 * **Joanne** || * can anyone provide a working link for the Berger audio clip? I'd really like to do this lesson/assignment
 * **Scott** ||  ||   ||
 * **Frank** || A few issues with this activity. I could not find the audio clip but did find a video clip with respect to "Berger Report is Released". The Victor and Victims worksheet didn't seem to work. To me trying to record names? wasn't possible. One group felt they were victors and the another victims. I feel writing out why each group felt as they did is all that is necessary and having a class discussion concerning the reasons would work best.
 * **Laura** || I also could not find the audio clip, but found one similar (I think!). The Victors and Victims video was interesting, but it was difficult to determine names of the victims.

**Activity Six: Where to Develop? What to Protect?**
(what was your teaching experience with this activity?) || **Technology** || All in all I did struggle with this section mainly because of the missing supports. ||  ||
 * **Pilot**
 * Teacher** || **Experience**
 * **Joanne** ||  ||   ||
 * **Scott** ||  ||   ||
 * **Frank** || I'm just getting this activity under way and I have had some problems. I could not find the NWT Development map or the 10 Protected Areas photos in my kit. Also only 3 PAS maps were included so 3 or 4 students have to try to share this small map. I went online to secure the development map but they will need a magnifying glass to search around it. Without the 10 PA photos I was not able to do some of the suggested activities. We did have some discussion based on activity 12 which was good. Having then to begin the process of debating "Where to develop? vs. What to protect?" is a good thing.
 * **Laura** || Could not find the development in the NWT maps in my kit, but managed to find one from an experiential science class. The rest of the activity went smoothly. Students really enjoyed the maps. We didn't have time to do the floor activity at the end. ||

**Activity Seven: Looking Back, Looking Forward**
(what was your teaching experience with this activity?) || **Technology** || We listened to Jim Antoine speak today and again I felt it was excellent. It generated discussion concerning the pressure of the global economy on all regions of the world. We also were able to talk about youth and young adults getting involved in politics. The question sheet was good but for me the speakers generate so much discussion that no question sheet is really necessary. Getting a band council or other community political speaker to visit the class is a very good idea and I would have if time had allowed but unfortunately not able to this year. //Thank you for the feedback Frank - I am trying to get a copy of Jim Antoine's speech at the Berger Inquiry to play along side the current video - I also appreciate the notion that there does not have to be a worksheet with every activity and that we can build in space for discussion. Ray// ||  ||
 * **Pilot**
 * Teacher** || **Experience**
 * **Joanne** ||  ||   ||
 * **Scott** ||  ||   ||
 * **Frank** || I have begun activity 7. The video of Kakfwi speaking to the students was excellent and it generated a lot of discussion from, "criteria of a quality speaker" to "are some of the leaders of today selling the people short"? Very interesting.
 * **Laura** ||  ||


 * Activity Eight: The Dilemma**

(what was your teaching experience with this activity?) || **Technology** ||
 * **Pilot**
 * Teacher** || **Experience**
 * **Joanne** ||  ||   ||
 * **Scott** || I have completly run out of time. Between track and field, awards days and final exams, we're pretty much done. I didn't really do the pilot project justice but that is the nature of schools. I had to pick one thing that I thought would get the development vs. environment isuue across so we watched the video One River Two Shores. I love that video - it is local, gives different perspectives, and is totally relevant. I hope it stays in the final version of the resource. ||  ||
 * **Frank** || Note that the disc has the title One River, Two Shores. You have all your material labeled Two Rivers, One Shore, which seems to be improper. Alestine Andre's section of the video was well received. The students wrote up their answer to the question but did not yet have time to read the answers. ||  ||
 * **Laura** ||  ||

**Activity Nine: Connecting to Your Community**
(what was your teaching experience with this activity?) || **Technology** ||
 * **Pilot**
 * Teacher** || **Experience**
 * **Joanne** ||  ||   ||
 * **Scott** ||  ||   ||
 * **Frank** || Did not have the time to enter into this activity. ||  ||
 * **Laura** ||  ||

**Activity Ten: What Does it Mean to Be Wealthy?**
(what was your teaching experience with this activity?) || **Technology** ||
 * **Pilot**
 * Teacher** || **Experience**
 * **Joanne** ||  ||   ||
 * **Scott** ||  ||   ||
 * **Frank** || I felt the students enjoyed the discussion that this unit brought about as to what "wealthy" means and how it can vary from person to person. I good positive way to end the unit. ||  ||
 * **Laura** ||  ||

**Summative Comments**

 * **Pilot**
 * Teacher** || **Comments on the Unit - What worked? What didn't? What changes can you see being successful?** ||
 * **Joanne** ||  ||
 * **Scott** ||  ||
 * **Frank** || Any suggestions I had I included them in the response to that particular activity. I did feel that this unit had more complications to it compared with the Res. School unit. I believe there are more things to tidy up before it's implemented. ||
 * **Laura** ||  ||