APRIL 23, 2018

FINAL UNIT REFLECTION

LOUIS RIEL AND THE RED RIVER REBELLION

VICKY SANDBERG
UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE
Faculty of Education
Most Successful Lesson

LESSON PLAN
Subject: Humanities Grade: 7 Date: April 9, 2018
Critical Inquiry Question: Should Louis Riel be considered a Father of Confederation?

Lesson: Red River Uprisings Time: 90 min

SLOs:
• 7.2.4.1 What factors led to Louis Riel’s emergence as the leader of the Métis?
• 7.2.4.2 What similarities and differences exist between the causes of the Red River
Resistance in 
 1869 and the causes of the second Métis uprising in 1885?
• 7.2.4.3 How did the Government of Canada’s response to the Red River Resistance and the
second Métis uprising solidify Canada’s control of the West? 

• 7.2.4.4 To what extent were the Red River Resistance and the second Métis uprising means
to counter assimilation? 


Instructional Objectives:
By the end of this lesson students will be able to
Knowledge:
Compare and contrast the two Metis uprisings

Key Questions:
What led to each of the Metis uprisings? How did the Metis respond? How did the Canadian
Government respond?
How did the Government’s response to the Metis uprisings strengthen Canada’s control of the
West?
How did the Metis attempt to avoid assimilation through their uprisings?

Materials:
Textbooks for each pair
Visual sketchbook for each pair

Preparation:
Grouping of students – groups of 2 or 3 only, enough for 12 events
Print and cut timeline info for each group
One assignment sheet per person

Adaptations:
Try to work with each group a little
Keep students on task as this is quick experience for them
Lesson Procedure:

Intro (5 min):
 Activate prior learning by discussing the Metis and their culture
 Ask students to think back to that lesson and
o Who are the Metis?
o Why was their culture and identity important to them?

Development (80 min):

 Students will form pairs or groups of 3 to work on one aspect of the timeline
 On the board write: “read, poster, prepare, present” and explain the following
o Read their short section in the textbook and create a poster that they can teach
their peers about their event
o Each group will create a poster to be posted around the room for a presentation
style gallery walk
o Give students about 30 min to read their section and create poster, this time will
happen before and after the period break
 Have students put up posters in chronological order and present their topic to each other
o 2 min presentations to share information on their event
o Students should use their assignment sheet to take notes during their peers
presentations
Closure (5 min):
 Introduce students to individual timeline assignment to begin next day, assignment info
is found on other side of note taking sheet

Assessment:

Gallery walk, student presentations, ability to work in partners

Lesson Reflection:
In both classes students worked well together. First class was really disruptive during
presentations and could not get through them all. Second class had longer and was able to get
all posters and presentations done. Students seemed to work well when choosing their own
partners. For the most part everyone stayed on task and was fine with presenting to their peers.
It felt very successful.
 Gallery Walk Presentations

With your partner or group, you will need to read about the following event in your textbook:
Selkirk settlement and the Pemmican Proclamation (pg. 177)
After you have gained an understanding of the event, prepare a poster with important
information including the following components:
o Title of event
o Date(s) of event
o An illustration that symbolizes the event
o A description that briefly explains the event

*Please be prepared to share a 2 min summary of your event during our gallery walk.

Gallery Walk Presentations

With your partner or group, you will need to read about the following event in your textbook:
Battle of Seven Oaks (pg. 178)
After you have gained an understanding of the event, prepare a poster with important
information including the following components:
o Title of event
o Date(s) of event
o An illustration that symbolizes the event
o A description that briefly explains the event

*Please be prepared to share a 2 min summary of your event during our gallery walk.

Gallery Walk Presentations

With your partner or group, you will need to read about the following event in your textbook:
Purchase of Rupert’s Land (pg. 182)
After you have gained an understanding of the event, prepare a poster with important
information including the following components:
o Title of event
o Date(s) of event
o An illustration that symbolizes the event
o A description that briefly explains the event

*Please be prepared to share a 2 min summary of your event during our gallery walk.
 Gallery Walk Presentations

With your partner or group, you will need to read about the following event in your textbook:
Surveyors meet Louis Riel (pg. 183)
After you have gained an understanding of the event, prepare a poster with important
information including the following components:
o Title of event
o Date(s) of event
o An illustration that symbolizes the event
o A description that briefly explains the event

*Please be prepared to share a 2 min summary of your event during our gallery walk.

Gallery Walk Presentations

With your partner or group, you will need to read about the following event in your textbook:
Provisional Government and Métis Bill of Rights (pg. 183)
After you have gained an understanding of the event, prepare a poster with important
information including the following components:
o Title of event
o Date(s) of event
o An illustration that symbolizes the event
o A description that briefly explains the event

*Please be prepared to share a 2 min summary of your event during our gallery walk.

Gallery Walk Presentations

With your partner or group, you will need to read about the following event in your textbook:
Execution of Thomas Scott (pg. 184)
After you have gained an understanding of the event, prepare a poster with important
information including the following components:
o Title of event
o Date(s) of event
o An illustration that symbolizes the event
o A description that briefly explains the event

*Please be prepared to share a 2 min summary of your event during our gallery walk.
 Gallery Walk Presentations

With your partner or group, you will need to read about the following event in your textbook:
Passing of the Manitoba Act (pg. 185)
After you have gained an understanding of the event, prepare a poster with important
information including the following components:
o Title of event
o Date(s) of event
o An illustration that symbolizes the event
o A description that briefly explains the event

*Please be prepared to share a 2 min summary of your event during our gallery walk.

Gallery Walk Presentations

With your partner or group, you will need to read about the following event in your textbook:
Louis Riel’s banishment (pg. 186)
After you have gained an understanding of the event, prepare a poster with important
information including the following components:
o Title of event
o Date(s) of event
o An illustration that symbolizes the event
o A description that briefly explains the event

*Please be prepared to share a 2 min summary of your event during our gallery walk.

Gallery Walk Presentations

With your partner or group, you will need to read about the following event in your textbook:
Scrip and Métis concerns ignored (pg. 187)
After you have gained an understanding of the event, prepare a poster with important
information including the following components:
o Title of event
o Date(s) of event
o An illustration that symbolizes the event
o A description that briefly explains the event

*Please be prepared to share a 2 min summary of your event during our gallery walk.
 Gallery Walk Presentations

With your partner or group, you will need to read about the following event in your textbook:
Louis Riel returns (pg. 188-189)
After you have gained an understanding of the event, prepare a poster with important
information including the following components:
o Title of event
o Date(s) of event
o An illustration that symbolizes the event
o A description that briefly explains the event

*Please be prepared to share a 2 min summary of your event during our gallery walk.

Gallery Walk Presentations

With your partner or group, you will need to read about the following event in your textbook:
Duck/Frog Lake incidents and government reaction (pg. 189)
After you have gained an understanding of the event, prepare a poster with important
information including the following components:
o Title of event
o Date(s) of event
o An illustration that symbolizes the event
o A description that briefly explains the event

*Please be prepared to share a 2 min summary of your event during our gallery walk.

Gallery Walk Presentations

With your partner or group, you will need to read about the following event in your textbook:
The trial/fate of Louis Riel (pg. 191)
After you have gained an understanding of the event, prepare a poster with important
information including the following components:
o Title of event
o Date(s) of event
o An illustration that symbolizes the event
o A description that briefly explains the event

*Please be prepared to share a 2 min summary of your event during our gallery walk.
(I want to add the Timeline Assignment sheet to this, but it is a different size than this
document so the formatting is not working nicely. I can email it to you if you would like to
see it)

Reflection

In this lesson students were able to choose a partner or group of 3 to work with. Each
groups was given a specific event of Red River and invited to read a small section of
text book to make a poster and present their findings. Each group had about 30 min to
prepare their poster and then they had the opportunity to present their findings to the
class. There was some upset from students at having to split up groups of friends, but
at least two students in each class took a really big chance to leave their friends and
work with someone who is not in their social circle. I had the opportunity to approach
each of these groups and talk to both of the partners about how brave they were in
leaving their friends and volunteering to work together. Both of these groups ended
working together so well! Every single group took the assignment seriously and put in
the effort to get the work done in the allotted time. Out of 24 total groups, 22 groups
presented their posters to the class, with me presenting the other 2 for students who
would rather do anything but present in front of the class. One of the greatest
challenges for this lesson with one of the classes was being respectful listeners to their
peers presentations. After several of the presentations we had a natural break in the
class where I sent the students out for a 2 min break. During this break I took the
opportunity to explain to my TA that the class was being too wild for a situation where
their peers were presenting, and she coached me in telling the students what I saw
happening and basically calling them out for their unexpected behavior. When the
students came back in from their break I took the opportunity to tell them the
unexpected behaviors I had seen happening earlier in the class and hearing of my
disappointment the class as a whole chose to move forward by behaving and choosing
to be respectful of each other. After that it went very well and was smooth sailing for the
rest of class. The second class that I did this lesson with went well from start to finish.
They all seemed to have learned a lot about their event that they were assigned and we
were in a much better position to move forward with our learning after that point. Some
of the benefits of this lesson were that it helped contribute positively to the classroom
culture and that students were given the opportunity to take a chance and work outside
of their comfort zone for a portion of the lesson. I had been trying to teach my classes
through the six weeks I have been with them, you learn more if you step outside of your
comfort zone sometimes, and for the most part everyone took on this challenge and
grew in a big way.
Least Successful Lesson

LESSON PLAN
Subject: Social Studies Grade: 7 Date: March 21, 2018
Critical Inquiry Question: Should Louis Riel be considered a Father of Confederation?
Lesson: Who is Louis Riel? Time: 65 min
SLOs:
Social Studies
• 7.2.2 recognize the positive and negative consequences of political decisions
• 7.2.4.1 What factors led to Louis Riel’s emergence as the leader of the Métis?
ELA
• 1.1.7 extend understanding of ideas and information by finding and exploring oral, print and other
media texts on related topics and themes
• express personal understandings of ideas and information based on prior knowledge, experiences with
others and a variety of oral, print and other media texts
• 1.2.7 use talk, writing and representing to examine, clarify and assess understanding of ideas,
information and experiences
• talk with others to elaborate ideas, and ask specific questions to seek helpful feedback

Instructional Objectives:
Students will
Knowledge:
Develop an understanding of the identity of Martin Luther King Jr., what he was fighting for and
what his motivations were for rebellion, and contrast that to what they have learned about Louis
Riel based through various media
Think about how political decisions, or climate, affect people’s choices and actions
Work collaboratively to come to a common understanding
Skill:
Compare and contrast different historical figures
Express their views in written form

Key Questions:
Who is Louis Riel?
Who is Martin Luther King Jr?
What is civil disobedience?
How could a person rebel responsibly?
Materials:
Kid President video, Dream speech video, tangled video
MLK Biography
Preparation:
Write agenda on the board
Print MLK biography x7
Prepare videos
  Kid President
 I Have a Dream Speech
 Tangles video
Put 5 hats on smart board
 Red - Reader  Yellow – motivation/cause
 Blue – Problem finder  Black – Consequences finder
 Green – Background checker

Adaptations:
 Prepare a sheet with all of the answers for several students who really struggle with
writing

Lesson Procedure:
Introduction (5 min):
 Recap past conversation briefly by re-introducing students to portrait they made of MLK and
ask what they know about him.
Development (40 min):
 Show video – Kid President
 Ask students what they remember about the 5 hat activity
 Use MLK biography with a 5 hats activity in small groups
o Give each table a copy of the biography
o Invite each person at each table set to pick a color
o Begin 5 hat activity with each student in each group having a role
 Have students discuss the following questions in their table groups
o Why would someone act out in rebellion?
o How could you act responsibly and respectfully while still standing up for what
you believe?
 Write questions on the board
Closure (20 min):
 Watch MLK I Have a Dream speech video
o watch clip from start to 1:40
 Watch I’ve got a dream from Tangled
 Introduce students to NEW 10 min. writing: I Have a Dream
o write for 10 min about your dream
o remind students that this will be independent writing
o have them try to anchor their thoughts on the question, but can free flow write if
they need to
 If any time remains, students will work on finishing news articles

Assessment:
Participation in six hats exercise, and class discussion. Sheets filled out with information.
Independent writing

Lesson Reflection:
It went ok, many students seemed to be off today and group work was frustrating to many.
Reflection

Choosing the least successful lesson was a really difficult decision because I didn’t feel
like any lessons weren’t successful. That said, I can see after the fact how many of my
lessons could have been improved. For the lesson in which students learned about
Martin Luther King Jr. I had some bigger picture questions that I was planning to have a
class discussion about to tie in previous learning. This discussion would begin to dissect
the ‘why’ of students doing biography work and learning about the particular individuals
we were studying, and why they mattered to us and to the world. I ended up skipping
those questions for discussion because of how each of the classes was progressing.
For both classes some issues came up when students were working in small groups to
study the biography of MLK Jr and in ensuring that each group was getting the work
done and getting along enough to work together in class, I skipped over what is
essentially the most important and valuable piece to learning about this person, which
was they bigger picture questions. While we did have those conversations a couple of
lessons later, I can see how it would have been beneficial to see them engage in that
thinking and understanding sooner rather and later. The bigger concepts are harder to
grasp fully for many students at this age and even at an older age, so the more
opportunity they have to engage in this type of dialogue, the more beneficial for them.
What was really good about this lesson was that students were able to write about
something meaningful to their lives that came about as a direct result of our lesson.
After watching a couple of videos about different kinds of hopes and dreams for the
future, each student wrote something that was their dream. I collected these writings;
some were silly and some were deep, but all students had the opportunity to reflect on
what they were learning and relate it to their lives, which is one of the main goals I had
for my students during this practicum. I wanted each student to understand the value in
their lives of everything they learn in school, and this type of activity really helped
solidify the relevance to their lives.
Student Work and Analyses

Summative assessment was to bring together everything that students had learned about,
thought about, and discussed during the social studies portion of the six weeks we had together.
The following is the assignment sheet I gave students:

The Life and Times of Louis Riel

Summative Performance Task

The Manitoba Government has hired you to research and present a case for the
exoneration of Louis Riel. In your argument you need to consider the following
big question:

What are the arguments that support Louis Riel being

considered a Father of Confederation?

Using what you have learned throughout this unit, plan a thoughtful argument
that covers the life and times of Louis Riel.

Checklist:
A strong argument will include responses to the following:
o Who was Louis Riel? What was his legacy to Canada?
o What factors led to the Metis uprisings? How did political decisions during the events
at Red River affect the Metis people?
o What are some of the perspectives of the Metis people around the exoneration of
Louis Riel?
o What major historical events occurred as a result of Riel’s leadership?
o Recommend one new idea for restitution

You will have the opportunity to present your case for exoneration in a variety of ways. Choose
from one of the following methods:
o written document (minimum 1 page typed)
 o speech performance in class (approx. 2 min)

All arguments are due on Wednesday April 18, 2018. Speeches will be performed during class
that day. Written documents and videos are to be handed in at the beginning of class time that
day.

Rubric for Summative Task Performance

Criteria 4 3 2 0 Total
Louis Riel’s A detailed A cursory A brief account No account of
Legacy account of account of of Louis Riel’s Louis Riel’s
Louis Riel’s Louis Riel’s life, life is evident
life, life, perspective, in presentation
perspective, perspective, and motivation
and motivation and motivation for action is
for action is for action is discussed
discussed discussed /4
Factors that led Presentation Presentation Presentation Presentation
to Metis incorporates at incorporates at incorporates at does not
uprisings least 5 events least 4 events least 2 events incorporate
that led to that led to that led to any events
uprisings uprisings uprisings that led to
uprisings /4
Creative idea Presentation Presentation Presentation No idea
for restitution includes a includes a includes an present for
creative and creative idea idea for restitution for
unique idea for for restitution restitution for Louis Riel and
restitution for for Louis Riel Louis Riel and perspectives
Louis Riel and and and of the Metis
perspectives perspectives perspectives people
of the Metis of the Metis of the Metis
people people people /4
Overall Student Student Student Student
Presentation of presents a presents an presents a presents an
argument compelling interesting straightforward ineffective
case for case for case for case for
exoneration exoneration exoneration exoneration /4
Total
/16

Comments:
Many students handed in their summative task and I couldn’t help but notice a big
problem. I read each of their assignment twice and decided I could not accept them.
Just about every student had just copied their information straight from the internet and
pasted it into a google doc and handed it in. I thought long and hard about what to do. I
had already talked to the class about plagiarism, as had my TA (many times). When the
summative assignment failed hard, I handed this out on my last day and this became
my new summative assignment:
Louis Riel and the Red River Resistance
Answer each question to the best of your ability:

1. What made Louis Riel a Metis leader?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

2. What events contributed to the conflict between the Metis and the Government?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

3. How did John A Macdonald attempt to come to a compromise for all people?

______________________________________________________________________

4. Do you think Louis Riel should be considered a Father of Confederation? Explain

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________
The following are three examples of student work for the new summative task:

Excellent –

Analyses –
This student showed a good understanding of the concepts we covered in class. He used
examples to explain his responses and gave explanations to justify his response. However, this
students second answer was very focused on the role of the Metis people and not the
governments actions. Overall, this is a great response.

Satisfactory –
Analyses –
This student has shown a good degree of knowledge about this topic. He was a little light on
the details and I can see that he learned from his independent study as well as the material we
covered in class. But, the last question which is essentially asking students to think critically
about everything we had learned and discussed over the six weeks. This student, and many
others, answered the question but without much deep and critical thinking. While I absolutely
accept this students answer, I would have liked to see him put some more thought and effort
and learning into his answer.

Less than satisfactory –

Analyses –
This was a really difficult one. This student has been having a hard time since coming to Jr.
High. He seems to be cognitively low but comes off as he doesn’t care about anything. You
can see on the first question that he tried to begin answering and then erased it. I have had
many conversations with this student during my six weeks in his classroom and have
discovered through talking to him that, “everything is really hard this year.” I asked him many
questions to discover that he cares a great deal about the information in school, but he has a
very difficult time connecting his thoughts to his voice and to paper through writing. I actually
worked one on one with this student to try to scribe for him during the testing time for this and
he couldn’t articulate to me anything about this subject. I tried supplying him prompting
questions, but he could not articulate anything other than, “I don’t know.” It was hard to leave
him after this experience, I would have appreciated being able to continue working with him and
trying to help him grow through this difficult experience he is having. This one is especially
difficult for me because I know he has some knowledge of this information through previous
conversations we have had and work he has done through the time I have been in his class.
What I will be doing to as far as assessing his work is to look more wholly at all of the work he
has handed in during this unit and base his mark on all of it as a whole rather than separate
pieces..
Final Unit Reflection
What changes did I make to my original unit plan? Pretty well all of them! But
seriously, getting into the classroom and seeing what grade 7 is, and what they do, and
how they work, and how they think, and how long everything takes made me reconsider
everything I had planned. I was still happy to have had a solid idea of what I wanted to
do and where I wanted to ultimately go with my unit, but as I got to a real classroom I
was overcome with the reality and had to tone down all of my expectations. As I got to
know my students in both classes, I was able to come up with ideas for teaching and
learning that I thought would suit them more intentionally. I also found that I came up
with more realistic ideas for the classroom and looking back at my original plan, it is
hard to say how I would have brought all of the concepts I was planning to life.
Specifically, I was planning a mock trial that would be slowly built up over the six weeks,
but in joining the classes I realized that would not work for a variety of reasons. It was
too complicated, for one. I didn’t know how I would go about actually bringing in all of
the concepts of the mock trial. Also, there was a program called Level Justice
happening with the Indigenous students and a groups of volunteer lawyers who came in
to the school once a week to work with the Indigenous students and have them
participate in a mock trial, and because that experience was so rich for those students
and so much more authentic, I immediately abandoned my plans to have a mock trial
because I was certainly no expert, which made me shift my focus on what I would teach
about Louis Riel and the incidents at Red River, which led to changes of my entire unit.
Also, time constraints were a major factor. The students were finishing a newspaper
article project that they had begun before I started my time with them, and that took a
great deal of unexpected time, which meant I had to cut a lot of my ideas out of the
plan. It all worked out really well though, and I was able to cover all of the really
important areas of the POS as well as the connections that I thought were most
important for their learning to be rich and full.

I would have to say that implementing the biographies as way to begin to discuss
the events at Red River was very strong. This portion of the unit spoke strongly to the
ideas of citizenship and social responsibility and how government influence can affect
how people in society act when their rights are taken away. These biographical studies
also began to open up students to the ideas of different perspectives which is very
helpful when discussing aboriginal perspective in Canadian history and Metis
perspective through this unit. Through a deep and rich conversation about questions
like, “who writes history?,” “can history change?,” “What are the different perspectives
we have studied about Louis Riel and his exoneration?” I felt as though most students
had a good grasp on the bigger questions that are essentially the most important reason
that we study social studies and history. One of my main goals going in to this
practicum experience was that students would understand value in everything I taught
them, and I think having conversations about these bigger questions was integral to
achieving this goal. Looking through the lens of 4 historical figures instead of just the
one in the POS was extremely helpful in achieving this goal.

The most challenging part for the students, very generally, was probably the buy
in. This was also a big challenge for me as the teacher. My goals going in to this
practicum was that I wanted to give students the knowledge and confidence that what
they were learning was important and relevant to their lives now. I think this is because
the world seems so different right now than it was in the earlier years. This is why I
wanted to pull in examples of injustice from years past so students could see that all
throughout time these types of injustices happen and all over the world. It takes a few
courageous people to stand up for each other and demand change. And that is the
point of learning about everything we learned about in this unit.

One thing I would change if I were to teach this unit again would be to begin the
biographies with a bigger concept discussion and drawn that out before jumping into the
details of each person. In talking to my teacher associate about the lessons, this idea
was born out of our discussion and I thought about all of the benefits of this approach,
and how they might have worked best for these lessons. And definitely ask better
questions that bring up the bigger ideas more frequently, as compared to what I did
which was just bring them up right before the first assessment. I was planning to bring
up more big connecting questions more often, but it just didn’t happen due to a variety
of reasons. In the end I felt somewhat rushed to get through enough information to lead
to my already very changed summative piece. But overall, I would say it went well, with
the knowledge that my TA would still be there to fill in the blanks after I had gone.

Another aspect of my unit I would change would be my delivery of the final

summative assignment. While I am confident it was a good assignment, I would
change the way I presented it to the students and allowed them to work on it. While I
explained to them many times as a whole class, in small groups and often as
individuals, students, as a majority, thought that they should use information found on
the internet to answer the questions posed in the assignment sheet. If I were to do this
again I would tell them from the start that they cannot use any information that was not
covered through class learning, but very nicely and not like I was trying to hide
information from them. I told them over and over that they didn’t need to, but all of them
did and what ended up happening was that most, if not all, just copied and pasted the
information from websites onto their page and handed it in. I was at a loss for this as
we had had a conversation about plagiarism during this assignment, as well as my
teacher associate had ensured me that they had covered this topic in several ways
previous to my time in their classroom.
 Overall I had an amazing experience and this practicum has solidified my
excitement to be getting into the teaching profession at this time in my life, as well as
this time in the world.