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Introduction
Welcome to Library and Archives Canada's Learning Centre -- bringing quality educational products and services to teachers and students.
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has a collection strong in history, literature and music. The Learning Centre allows us to open our vaults to all Canadians by making some of our treasures available online. Students gain access to material that will enrich their learning experience.
The Learning Centre should be considered as a work in progress. New material will be added as it is produced. We invite you to visit our site from time to time to see the latest developments.
Teachers and students will find websites, educational tools, and digitized primary sources (printed documents, diaries, maps, illustrations, paintings, manuscripts, and printed and recorded music) from LAC holdings. These resources stimulate students' imaginations and develop their critical thinking skills, as well as help teachers make Canadian history, literature and music come to life.
If you are an educator, be sure to have a look at "For Teachers." You'll find comprehensive teaching units and strategies, lesson plans, ideas and activities for the classroom, quizzes, games and guides on using primary sources, as well as workshops for professional development. Many of the tools found in the Learning Centre have been produced as a result of suggestions and comments from Canadian educators. If you want to suggest an idea, you can send it to us by clicking on the "Submit an Idea" button in the "For Teachers" section. "For Students" includes links to great websites, designed just for kids, as well as suggestions for great reading. If you are a university undergraduate or graduate student, check out Library and Archives Canada's exhaustive collection of Canadian theses and dissertations on the Theses Canada Portal. There you will have access to over 275,000 theses and dissertations, a number of which are available electronically. Students' learning skills can be improved using the Learning Centre's "Toolkit." Guides in the Toolkit cover a wide variety of topics and research skills such as how to use primary and secondary sources and develop Internet research skills. "The EvidenceWeb" offers teachers and students a valuable selection of original documents (photographs, letters, diary entries, art works, political cartoons, newspaper articles, and printed and recorded music) from the LAC collection. These materials are organized by theme to enrich student projects and supplement textbooks. Original documents bring Canadian history and culture directly to students, allowing them to examine evidence from the past and decide for themselves what really happened.
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Tales from the Vault! Canadian Pulp Fiction, 1940-1952
Our website Tales from the Vault! Canadian Pulp Fiction, 1940-1952 features a new unit of four lessons that plunges students from grades 7 to 12 into the sensational world of Canadian pulp fiction magazines of the 1940s. Using materials from Canadian magazine publications, students will be introduced to the thriving Canadian pulp fiction industry of the 1940s. The study of the stories themselves will broaden into an examination of specific aspects of contemporary writing and media, provide opportunities for students to explore and write stories on their own, and offer co-operative learning situations.
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Traces of the Past
The second phase of our immigration site, Traces of the Past, offers three new resources for students from grades 7 to 12. In addition to a series of traditional lesson plans and activities exploring genealogy in Canada, two new critical thinking challenges have been added, as well as a new "Toolkit" entitled Eleanora's Legacy: Focusing on a Girl's Diary from the 19th Century. The critical thinking challenges will enable students to develop sound judgment and the ability to think critically when answering questions, whereas the "Toolkit" will help them improve their research skills and their understanding of how to use primary sources.
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Life of a Rock Star
Our Life of a Rock Star website chronicles the voyages and work of the scientists of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). The associated educational resource provides classroom activities designed specifically for students in grades 7 and 8, on the topics of earth sciences, the exploration of Canada's resources and the development of the Geological Survey of Canada.
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Detecting the Truth: Fakes, Forgeries and Trickery
The Detecting the Truth: Fakes, Forgeries and Trickery website lets you discover why and how people have changed documents, paintings, maps, books, stamps and money throughout history. It also shows you the techniques and tools that experts such as conservators, archivists and librarians at Library and Archives Canada (LAC) use to spot a fake. The critical thinking challenge developed for this site invites students from grades 7 to 12 to decide which of various fake or forged documents held at LAC have sufficient historical value to be retained in the collection, and which should be purged to make room for new materials.
Census at School. - [Cited June 2, 2005]. - Access: www19.statcan.ca/
- An international Web-based classroom activity for students aged 8 to 18. Help your students develop computer literacy, critical thinking and technology skills. Raise their awareness of civic duty and the benefits of census-taking. Encourage positive attitudes to statistics. This is knowledge-based learning at its best!
The Canadian Encyclopedia online. -- [Cited Feb. 14,2005]. Access: www.canadianencyclopedia.ca
- Explore every conceivable subject on Canada including history, geography, culture, sports, politics, business, social issues, education, science, technology and current events at www.canadianencyclopedia.ca Search 40,000 articles, 6,000 photographs, interactive maps, videos, animations, quizzes and engaging multimedia games. Available in French and in English, free of charge.
Find also The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada.
Our Roots : Canada's Local Histories Online. -- [Cited Aug. 31,2004]. Access: http://www.ourroots.ca/e/
- These innovative educational modules provide Canadian youth with engaging ways to make Canadian history personally exciting and relevant by bringing local histories into the curriculum.
Ontario History Quest [online]. -- [Cited April 26, 2004]. -- Access: http://ohq.tpl.toronto.on.ca/home2.jsp
- New online tool for grades 7, 8, 10 and 12 History students with searchable databases using primary sources to discover Ontario's history.
Froese-Germain, Bernie. -- Virtual education, real educators : issues in online learning. -- Ottawa : Professional and Developmental Services, Canadian Teachers' Federation, 2003. -- 71 p. -- Also published in French under the title: Éducation virtuelle : éducatrices et éducateurs réels : enjeux de l'apprentissage en ligne
- A publication that helps teachers critically examine the implications of online education in the context of their own classrooms and profession.
Media Awareness Network [online]. -- [Cited March 9, 2004]. --
www.media-awareness.ca/english/index.cfm
- Offers resources and support for everyone interested in media and information literacy for young people.
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