News From the Nest- Spotlight on Learning-What is the History of Snaug?
Spotlight on Learning:
What is the history of Snauq (False Creek) and its importance to First Nations communities? How did the change of Snauq affect First Nations people?
Presented by: Rachel Coan
Subject: English First Peoples 12 (Connect)
TEACHER DESCRIPTION:
In a recent assignment for our short story unit in English First Peoples 12, we focused on False Creek as a setting for one of our stories. Students were tasked with conducting their own research of the False Creek area and finding out the significance of this place to First Nations peoples. This assignment served as a precursor to reading the short story “Goodbye, Snauq” by Lee Maracle. Students explored various sources to gather information, and once the information was recorded, students decided how they wanted to share this information. Some of the ways students did this was through a podcast, poem, drawing/painting, one pager, etc. I was very impressed to see some of the many creative ways students displayed their learning! The result of this project was a diverse range of presentations. This project also helped students really understand the meaning behind the title of the short story. After this project and reading the short story, we spent time as a class reflecting on Lee Maracle’s choice of titling it “Goodbye, Snauq” which resulted in a powerful discussion with my 12’s.
STUDENT REFLECTION:
I chose to create a one-pager for this short story project. Before researching about Snauq (False Creek), I did not know much about the history of this place even though I have visited it before. It was eye-opening learning about the way this place was taken from First Nations people and changed into what we see today. I am proud of the one-pager I created because I think it reflects my learning well. I also enjoy drawing, and I am glad we got to have choice with how we wanted to express our findings. Overall, I found this project to be interesting and I learned so much from it before even reading the short story. It also made the story much more meaningful because I already knew about the history of False Creek before.