Students become 'junior historians' for a hands-on approach to Remembrance Day learning

In Katy Whitfield's class, the Toronto teacher might take students through a densely plotted online map of their neighbourhood showing where soldiers from the First and Second World Wars once lived.

Other times, her high school students might shrug on a historic jacket, don an aviator cap or pick up a regimental badge — artifacts that make stories from the past more tangible.

"One of the responsibilities that we have as teachers is to provide students with authentic source material to be able to pull out [different] voices. I don't often teach with textbooks because I think that they often give ... a very narrow point of view. But when we access primary source materials, it gives students the opportunity to explore multiple sides," Whitfield said.

Educators like Whitfield are finding new ways to pique student interest in Remembrance Day as the First and Second World Wars grow more distant every year and family connections to veterans are no longer a guarantee given the diversity of our population. 

One of those ways is to engage students as junior historians and inspire them to make connections between events from the past and the world today.

Most students think learning history is important, but many aren't enjoying their classes, says Carla Peck, a professor of social studies education at the University of Alberta who led researchers in a national survey of more than 2,000 students aged 10 to 18 on learning history.

"While 75 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that learning about the past is important, only 55 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that they like or enjoy learning history in school," Peck said.

Learning history by doing it

Respondents largely said classes are traditional — for example, lectures or assigned reading and answering questions from a textbook.

However, students whose lessons followed an active "historical research" approach were more likely to report higher engagement, Peck said. This can include reviewing and analyzing archival materials or primary sources like newspaper clippings, images and personal letters, then weighing different information before offering an interpretation.

Peck said active history teaching is akin to well-remembered, hands-on science lessons — like primary students planting beans and measuring growth daily, or middle-schoolers peeling onions to view cells under a microscope.

"It is commonly understood that in order to understand science, we have to 'do' science ... In order to understand history, I would argue we need to 'do' history," she said.

Another bonus of this approach? The analyzing, comparing and contrasting of historical sources uses the same critical thinking and media literacy skills that students need to build to navigate "this age of disinformation, misinformation and being completely saturated in news, fake news and all kinds of different places to get information." 

Personal stories

In the Westmount, Que., classroom of Chantal Clabrough, combining research with personal stories — "ordinary Canadians who really did extraordinary things" —  is helping make history resonate for her students.  

For one long-running project, she's led her Grade 9 and 10 students to research and create mini biographies of former alumni who went to war.

WATCH | Teacher recounts project commemorating school alumni who served in WWII: 

Another resource she taps into is military history modules from public education broadcaster TVO and Canada Company, a charity supporting Canadian Armed Forces members. These modules incorporate the contributions of women and Black, Indigenous and people of colour who faced challenges when seeking to serve Canada during times of conflict.

"Sometimes in the history books, we just see the big stories, the big names, but it's the efforts of many men and women who together brought change and made Canada what it is today," said Clabrough.

"When they look at these stories ... it certainly inspires students to say 'What can I do? What do I believe in?' And 'What do we need to remember?'"

Back in Toronto, where some of Whitfield's students meet with her weekly for history club, the teens say the historical detective work they've done inspires empathy and understanding.

"[These soldiers] might not be in our family, but they lived in our area. They walked along the streets that we walk on when we go to school ... it's just incredible to know that I am where they were," said Grade 11 student Alice Buckley. 

Buckley travelled to France and Italy for the anniversary of D-Day this past spring and helped leave poppies on the graves of soldiers from her west Toronto neighbourhood.

"History explains everything: it explains why we got here, who we are," said Grade 10 student Joelle Kassir, adding that learning about the soldiers, nurses and more from their community has been fascinating.

"Every year it becomes more valuable because there's more to talk about and more to explain for a better future."