Today's Itinerary and Activities
Today we headed to Juno Beach for a detailed study of June 6, 1944. We considered the Allied Operation OVERLORD plan and especially Canada’s role in it, and visited Beny-sur-Mer Canadian cemetery. Our seminar question for today was: Should D-Day stand out from other important Canadian events?
In these studies of battle and memorial sites we weave together content and pedagogical questions. One that was raised for us is:
Does a student in 2016 need to know about D-Day? Why? What should they learn?
We then break these questions down into various components: What significance does this topic have in the classroom and beyond? What is most important to know about it? How do we assess for understand of this topic?
One of the major arguments for teaching about D-Day was that because it's so well known, students will be left out of a major cultural conversation if we don't teach about it. Another point was that the community connections to regiments have home front implications - each Canadian community has a different perspective on the war based on what they experienced at that time. Another argument is that D-Day is a crucial part of the story - we've been at war for nearly 5 years by the time D-Day arrives, which is significant for Canada in terms of losses.
We see D-Day as a turning point - are we investing too much in the day itself?
Why do we isolate D-Day from other campaigns?
We discuss starting with the powerful questions and big ideas that help us contextualize the topic. The powerful question that drives us today supports perspective-taking as well as significance: What do the French/Germans/Canadians/British need to achieve here?
One of the major arguments for teaching about D-Day was that because it's so well known, students will be left out of a major cultural conversation if we don't teach about it. Another point was that the community connections to regiments have home front implications - each Canadian community has a different perspective on the war based on what they experienced at that time. Another argument is that D-Day is a crucial part of the story - we've been at war for nearly 5 years by the time D-Day arrives, which is significant for Canada in terms of losses.
We see D-Day as a turning point - are we investing too much in the day itself?
Why do we isolate D-Day from other campaigns?
We discuss starting with the powerful questions and big ideas that help us contextualize the topic. The powerful question that drives us today supports perspective-taking as well as significance: What do the French/Germans/Canadians/British need to achieve here?
Assessment - prior knowledge
An example of how we workshop these questions is this assessment discussion, which we delved into to get a sense of the group's areas of interest, questions, and prior knowledge, much as we would do with our students, before considering where to find the sources that will help them get at these ideas and questions. We considered:
What do you have to think about before coming ashore?
What do you have to think about before coming ashore?
Canadian/Allied perspective
Landscape/terrain
Supplies Preserving heritage Civilians Sanitation Collaboration/coordination Enemy preparedness Language barriers Transportation |
French perspective
Will they stay?
Scared What we can do to enable success Concerns re. disrupting daily life (keeping in mind that life under German rule is preferable for some) Concerns re. collaboration Who fills the void if Germans leave |
German perspective
How do we keep this territory?
Sense of ethnic superiority drives determination **Are there multiple perspectives within the same group? Difference between German and Nazi. Are they the same? Can they be used interchangeably? Why, or why not?** |
We also discuss issues such as language use when they arise. For example, we considered the use of the term brainwashed when discussing German troops. The term brainwashed takes away agency - how would the conversation be different if we used one of these words?
- Educated
- Conditioned
- Indoctrinated
- Raised
Where we are |
Contact Us |
Working with maps
Giving students the freedom to choose the maps they want to work with allows them to explore these questions in their work:
- What map effectively looks at what you want to explore?
- How does the map convey information?
- How does a map influence or change the story?
Photo Gallery
The Juno Beach Centre"Meet someone where they are in order to take them somewhere new." - Dr. Alan Sears
Garth Webb, the founder of the Juno Beach Centre, stated that the Centre was not a D-Day museum. On our visit to the Centre we discussed the need to use major events such as D-Day, something people know something about to lead them to events they don't know much about. The challenge here is that if a students knows about it already, they like already have a narrative about it, which teachers need to uncover and either disrupting or complicate. |
Classroom questions
Does a student in 2016 need to know about D-Day?
Why do civilians not tear down bunkers and other structures that leave a physical reminder of their experience? Why didn't they then, and why haven't they since?
Is D-Day more significant than the other 77 days of the Normandy campaign? Why?
Why do civilians not tear down bunkers and other structures that leave a physical reminder of their experience? Why didn't they then, and why haven't they since?
Is D-Day more significant than the other 77 days of the Normandy campaign? Why?