Heritage Fairs

Yellowknife 2011 (photo credit: Tessa Macintosh)

Two of my students decided to do medicines from the land. Neither of these two are usually the leaders in their class in academics. In fact, one had missed the first three weeks of school and when she returned was paired with another because it was too late to get her own project. These two surprised themselves and me as they were the first to be finished. First they read some materials that the Aboriginal language teacher had given them so they had some knowledge. They then used a tape recorder and went and spoke with both of their grandparents about the plant medicines. They collected some medicines and made a display that included recipes on how to prepare medicines and what they were used for. They feel very proud of their accomplishment.

~ Grade 7-8 Teacher

I’ve never seen the students so focused (and I mean really focused) for that long on anything! I also appreciated the offer for us to call him back in a month or two, we’ll definitely be taking him up on that. Today was the highlight of the year for them, what an addition to their project!!

~ Grade 8 Teacher

We get to have fun and be independent – I like to be original. I like game shows so I wanted my project to be a game show and I don’t think my teacher would have taught it that way.

~ Grade 5 Student

Yellowknife 2011 (photo credit: Tessa Macintosh)

One of the main goals of a Heritage Fair is to bridge the gap between family and the school community. For many reasons, not all parents feel comfortable in the school setting. Heritage Fairs can create an opportunity to work on this relationship between family and school.

I’ve been doing Heritage Fairs for several years now. At first the parents didn’t help out too much but as we worked more and more together they started to understand their role and I also got better at helping students pick projects that required their families input. When we have a Fair now our gym is full of parents. Last year the parents loved the kids’ work so much they wanted to take them home to keep them. To me, it’s worth all the extra work.

~ Teacher

I was really proud of our daughter and how hard she worked. I enjoyed listening to the story she wrote to go along with her project.

~ Pam Lafferty, Behchokǫ̀

It’s much more fun to do a Heritage Fair project than what we do in class because we get to discover things on our own rather than the teacher talking and doing it for us.

~ Kyra, Grade 5

Behchokǫ̀ 2010 (photo credit: Tessa Macintosh)

We’ve always had Elders coming into the schools, but this time it was different. When different Elders came in as experts on each particular topic the students were prepared ahead of time with questions. They had a reason to be listening to the Elders and had some prior knowledge. They were very interested in what the Elders were saying and so the Elders got more into it too. It was very rewarding to have the Elders share their knowledge for Heritage Fairs.

~ Program Support Teacher

I loved listening to my grandfather tell me stories about the old days. I learned lots of medicines from him.

~ Lisa, Grade 7

I emailed my grandfather who lives in England about what he did during WWII. It was really neat to learn about the war from him.

~ Sam, Grade 5

My grade 3-4-5 class went on a community walking tour with the language instructor at our school. It was amazing because she remembered the days when there were only wall tents here. She showed the children the first two log homes built in town and told stories about who lived there and when. One of the children in my class was the great -grand son. We took digital pictures of all the buildings and made postcards with descriptions of each location.

~ Grade 4-6 Teacher

Dr. Peter Seixas from the Centre For the Study of Historical Consciousness at the University of British Columbia discusses the importance of ‘historical thinking’ to ensure students are not just memorizing historical facts, but that students are able to make meaningful connections between what they are learning and their own lives (Seixas, Peter. (2006) Benchmarks of Historical Thinking: A Framework for Assessment in Canada. Centre for the Study of Historical Consciousness: UBC.). As such, they can be very useful tools for teachers to be aware of as they are encouraging students to pursue quality research.

The six Benchmarks of historical thinking that are useful in this process are:

1. Establish historical significance
2. Use primary source evidence
3. Identify continuity and change
4. Analyze cause and consequence
5. Take historical perspectives, and
6. Understand the moral dimension of historical interpretations.

The following are illustrative examples of each of the ‘Benchmarks’ being met by NWT students through Heritage Fair projects:

1. Establish historical significance (why should we care about certain events today).

Two of my students chose residential schools and had an incredible interview with a survivor which they recorded and made into a movie. They were able to talk about the impact residential schools had on their families and on their lives today.

~ Grade 9 Teacher

I learned about how Aboriginal women were discriminated against by the Federal Government when they lost their status when they married white men. Although that was a long time ago it affects people today because some people have different rights than their other family members.

~ Grade 8 Student

Dene Hand games are an important cultural activity in many communities. One of the boys’ projects included having experienced players teaching the boys the rules and sharing stories of playing in the old days as well as playing in tournaments today.

~ Grade 8 Teacher

My kindergarten class interviewed the Elders at the senior home about how they stayed warm when they were young. I photographed each student in their snow pants when we were sliding. Their project consisted of three panels; one with their own photo in which they labelled their clothes in English and this panel was labelled ‘now’. The second panel was a photo the student took of the particular Elder they interviewed and the third panel was a drawing of the Elder wearing the clothes they described to the student. This one we labelled ‘then’ and written in South Slavey.

~ Kindergarten Teacher

We did our project on the bushman and there is hardly anything written about them. They are pretty interesting but scary. Richard VanCamp is a famous Tlicho author. He’s written a lot of books and he also wrote a really great story about the bushman. I interviewed him asked him how he got so good. He thinks he’s a good author because he grew up around great story tellers.

~ Grade 8 Student

The Firth sisters are my heroes. I’m a skier so I know how hard they must have worked to accomplish what they did. I read their book, Guts and Glory and it must have been so hard back then to train in the dark and away from their families but because they’d been raised on the land they really knew how to work really, really hard. They are both still so active in sport and set an example for young people like me.

One student discussed how the decline of the caribou and the ban imposed by the Government of the Northwest Territories is causing conflict in the communities. He attended meetings and made a movie. He was able to describe the different perspectives of different people.

In a project-based setting, teachers act more as facilitators than lecturers. The teacher’s job is to help frame worthwhile questions, to assist in where and how to find answers to their students’ questions, to provide clear guidelines and to assess. Teachers do not need to know, and in fact often don’t know, the content the students are learning. When students have the opportunity to meet and learn directly from the talented people in their community, it can help them gain a sense of pride.

I liked learning about Yamoozha and how his stories connect us as Dene. I liked painting our Dene Nation logo and learning what all the symbols mean.

~ Student

~ Student

Yellowknife 2010 (photo credit: Tessa Macintosh)

Heritage Fairs provide a relevant purpose for their work. We all invest our energies more when we understand and value the purpose in what we are doing. In Teaching Essentials by Regie Routman, she says that students too often see writing as a ‘school thing’ and typical writing examples from Grade four look like second-grade work (Routman, Regie. (2008). Teaching Essentials. Expecting the Most and Getting the Best from Every Learner, K-8. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.). However, they are much more likely to take it seriously and to put in their best effort when they have an authentic audience. The power of having an authentic audience is a concept much explored in ELA curricula in the NWT.

I want it to look good because other people are going to see it.

~ Grade 8 Student

~ Grade 4 Student

Yellowknife 2011 (photo credit: Tessa Macintosh)

Presentation skills are important learning objectives in English Language Arts, Social Studies and other curricula. Throughout the research many teachers stated that ‘my students don’t talk that much’ or ‘my students don’t answer questions’, or, ‘my students are too shy to speak to the judges’. Through practice students gain skills that will help them in many other areas of their life.

I’ve been pulling my teeth out over the last two years with my students to get them to improve their presentation skills and although little by little they’ve been getting better they took a big leap when preparing for the Heritage Fair. I want them to be proficient speakers and through all the work I’ve given them this [Heritage Fair] was probably the biggest boost to my crusade and what they learned here will definitely pay off in other subjects.

~ Grade 9 Teacher

Heritage Fairs provide the space for ‘project-based learning’. This type of learning is better because it’s hands on engagement and more self directed. I know it takes more time for the teachers but the students seem to be having success. In schools where they’ve been doing it for a couple of years, you see the students and the teachers get really good at it, and you’ll see a variety of mediums including models students have built, taped interviews, dances, PowerPoint presentations and even edited videos.

~ Program Support Teacher

Heritage Fairs provide an opportunity for this type of exchange between communities. A lot of our kids from the smaller communities haven’t been to the larger centres and the kids from the larger centres have not been to the smaller ones. The cultural exchange that happens within the North is very important for all of us to understand each other. We have 11 official languages so we’re a diverse place. Getting together and learning each other’s traditions, dances, food, community amenities…it is such an eye-opener… a way of developing children’s empathy towards the local stuff.

~ Heritage Fair Society Member

The organizing committee in Behchoko asked a Grade 11 student to write an article for the local newspaper. When she came into the gymnasium to interview the participating students and visiting family members she said,

Sometimes I feel like our culture is dying, but when I came in here I got excited because it’s just like our culture is alive.

~ Grade 11 student, Behchoko