Page 106 - THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | Canadian and World Studies

Historical Significance
This concept requires students to determine the importance of something (e .g ., an issue, event, development, person, place, interaction, etc .) in the past . Historical importance is determined generally by the impact
of something on a group of people and whether its effects are long lasting . Students develop their understanding that something that is historically significant for one group may not be significant for another . Significance may also be determined by the relevance of something from the past and how it connects to a current issue or event .
Related Questions*
− Why was the Battle of Saint-Eustache significant to French Canadians? (Grade 7, B3 .1)
− How did the colonialist policies of the new Canadian government have an impact on First Nations,
Métis, and Inuit individuals and communities? (Grade 8, Overview)
− Why do you think that certain people or events become national symbols? (CHC2P, D3 .1)
− What criteria would you use to assess the significance of wartime legislation? Who felt the greatest
impact from such legislation? (CHC2D, B1 .4)
Cause and Consequence
This concept requires students to determine the factors that affected or led to something (e .g ., an event, situation, action, interaction, etc .) and its impact/effects . Students develop an understanding of the complexity of causes and consequences, learning that something may be caused by more than one factor and may have many consequences, both intended and unintended .
Related Questions
− Who were the parties to the Treaty of Niagara or the 1760 Treaty of Peace and Friendship? What were the key short-term and long-term consequences of the selected treaty for the different parties? (Grade 7, A3 .2)
− What order of importance would you assign to the various factors that led to Confederation? What criteria would you use to determine the ranking of these factors? (Grade 8, A1 .1)
− What impact did medical advances such as the development of penicillin and improvements in blood transfusions have on Canadian forces during World War II? (CHC2P, C1 .2)
− What impact did Canada’s responses to the Second Gulf War and the military mission in Afghanistan have on our relationship with the United States? (CHC2D, E3 .4)
Continuity and Change
This concept requires students to determine what has stayed the same and what has changed over a period of time . Continuity and change can be explored with reference to ways of life, political policies, economic practices, relationship with the environment, social values and beliefs, and so on . Students make judgements about continuity and change by making comparisons between some point in the past and the present, or between two points in the past .
Related Questions
− What can we learn from the ways in which people met challenges in the past? (Grade 7, Overview)
− What challenges would Ukrainian immigrants have faced on the Prairies at the end of the nineteenth
century? ... What do these climate and landform maps tell you about the environmental challenges Prairie settlers faced at the beginning of the twentieth century? Do similar challenges still exist today? (Grade 8, B1 .2)
− What was new about the teen subcultures that developed after World War II? In what ways were the lives of youth in the 1950s and 1960s different from those who lived in the 1920s? (CHC2P D1 .1)
− To what extent do First Nation, Inuit, and Métis individuals and communities have a say in the development of resources within their home territories and/or communities? Is their involvement a change in or continuation of their historical role in resource development on their territory and/or community? (CHC2D, E2 .2)
THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | Canadian and World Studies
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(continued) * These “related questions” are drawn directly from the overview charts that precede the history courses and from the
sample questions that accompany many specific expectations. To highlight the continuity between the history courses in
Grade 10 and those in Grades 7 and 8, and to show possible progression in the use of the concepts of historical thinking
over those grades, the chart includes some questions from the elementary history curriculum as well.