Today's Itinerary and Activities
Our home for the next week is Le Moulin Morin which is just west of Bayeux in Calvados, Normandy. This property, a reconstructed mill, consists of numerous apartments each with bedrooms, kitchens and living areas. There is a large common room we use as a classroom. Our first full day at the Moulin Morin began in the classroom, where Blake Seward led a final seminar on teaching the First World War in high school classrooms, and Carla Peck facilitated a workshop on the Historical Thinking concepts. In the afternoon we introduced the Second World War in 1943 from the cliffs along the Normandy coastline.
Today we spent the morning in a professional learning session from our home base, the Moulin Morin. Based on our Historical Thinking workshop, our groups had to come up with significance criteria for one of the following four battles, engaging in the work that textbook authors and history departments do, and that we are encouraged to do in schools with our colleagues at the beginning of the year:
Each group must argue for why their choice is the most significant, and over the course of the week must develop a plan for a memorial to this battle. Several of our teachers pointed out that they would like to have students do this in class over a couple of days, using stations around the classroom with primary sources to help them make their arguments. One of our participants pointed out that requiring students to make the argument gives them a reason to learn it, and that this approach to giving them the question to get to the content, rather than giving them the content to get to the question is one that can change the way students feel about history class. If what you are doing In the classroom students can look up on Google in ten seconds, you are replaceable. Our job is to help them make sense of all of this information they have access to. The disagreements and negotiation involved in this project also mimic real life where different stakeholders and donors must work together. |
Historical Thinking in the classroom |
What big ideas are we trying to get at when we teach these battles,
and what content can we use to convey the big ideas?
Where we are |
Contact Us |
We also spent some time today considering the strategic concept behind D-Day, which is much broader than we typically think of it when teaching. We should teach D-Day as beginning from a naval and air force perspective, as we must first win the battle at sea, or we will not succeed in Normandy. We need to kill German u-boats, and we also need to deal with their air force, which is stronger than ours. The bombing of German cities and factories in the bomber campaign means they send more air support - D-Day would not have worked without this bomber offensive.
There are also multiple fronts to consider. We need to keep Russia in the fight so that we can build our force while they are keeping the Germans occupied. The plan is to create a southern front in Italy - if we can get Italy on our side, 2 million Italian soldiers will no longer be guarding the south coast of France. This will force Germany to send at least 1 million soldiers to fill in where the Italians were. We need to teach much broader context of D-Day, considering this one day as a piece of the puzzle rather than the big picture. |
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Photo Gallery
The memories of Roqancourt
In the evening we visited the town of Roquancourt, who graciously held a reception to welcome us to the region. The memories of the war experience are strong here, with many of the townspeople sharing with us their family experiences of the war, including one woman who was here during the August 8 bombing of the town. This 70th anniversary memorial medallion was given to towns that were more than 90% destroyed during the war.
The mayor of Roquancourt, Denis, shared with us that his grandfather was in the French resistance, and warned the townspeople about the bombing that was coming. His mother was 14 at the time, and lived underground for 2 weeks with the rest of town during the bombing. This was a difficult piece that many of us struggled with - as this bombing was an Allied bombing, not German. Yet this town, and so many like it, hold so much love and respect for Canadians despite the extreme destruction, and suffering afterwards, that we wrought in order to liberate. After the war the town flag incorporated the maple leaf as a way to remember and honour Canada. Denis told us: "People here in Roquancourt feel very close to the Canadian people... You are part of our family." Do we teach about the French experience of the war in a way that is deserving of this regard for us? Do we teach about it at all? |
Classroom questions
Should memorials and sites for education be in the same place?
Memorials are not outside of time; they represent a particular time. What do we do when they become archaic?
Memorials are not outside of time; they represent a particular time. What do we do when they become archaic?