All teachers can attest to the utter joy of receiving teacher and student resources that are ready-to-use in the classroom and are relevant to the curricular outcomes they are teaching! While attending the Nova Scotia Social Studies Association Conference in Halifax, NS, in October, I witnessed that joy first-hand in a room of teachers attending a session I facilitated about the Korean War. This resource, called Canada’s Participation in the Korean War, is available through the Social Studies Educators’ Network of Canada (SSENC). A large number of partners, including The Korean War Legacy Foundation, The Korean War Veterans of Canada Association, and C3 Teachers, collaborated with SSENC to create five detailed lesson plans for use in elementary, middle, and high school classes. These lesson plans, developed by teachers for teachers, contain primary and secondary sources, and are available in French and English.
During the session, teachers sampled one of the lesson plans entitled “Was Canada’s Participation in the Korean War Successful?” and engaged in activities that included primary source readings and analysis. Teachers completed charts and discussed essential questions as part of the inquiry process to attempt to answer the above question. Teachers left the session ready to incorporate this resource into their lessons.
I can understand their enthusiasm. As a high school teacher, I have used two of the lesson plans and will incorporate them every time I teach the courses. The first lesson plan, “Is Peace Possible in Korea?” was an excellent resource in my Political Science class as we studied non-democracies. Students listened to Imagine and analyzed various documents to define peace. Students examined photographs of Kim Jung Un, Moon Jae-In, and Donald Trump as they considered political relationships. Finally, students read accounts from Korean War veterans and politicians from to speculate on the future of peace in Korea. The second lesson plan, “Was Canada’s Participation in the Korean War Successful?” complemented my lessons about the Cold War in Modern History class. A number of primary sources from politicians and Canadian veterans provide a personal lens on decisions made regarding Canada’s involvement in the Korean War. This resource is worth checking out on SSENC’s website (www.ssencressc.ca) or go to this link: Canada’s Participation in the Korean War – SSENC (ssencressc.ca).