Step 5: Stop Motion

Once the Idle No More movement died down and Chief Spence’s hunger strike was over, we decided that we needed more context for what we had learned about present-day issues.  We were unclear about how we got from the signing of the Treaties to Idle No More.  We decided to look at the following issues to bridge this gap:

1. The Indian Act.  (1876) For help broaching this topic, we brought in Vivian Gauvin, First Nations, Inuit and Metis Consultant for our School board.  We also had Dr. Patrick Lewis and Dr. Ken Montgomery from the University of Regina come to our classroom to play a Monopoly-style game that demonstrated to students how what looked to be a good deal with the treaties ended up not working out so well for the First Nations.

2.  Residential Schools.  (1890-1990) We used The Hundred Years of Loss Edu-Kit from the Legacy of Hope foundation and the children’s book As Long As The River Flows by Oskiniko Larry Loyie.  We also referred to the Canadian Genocide webpage to discuss whether or not we thought the residential school system was an act of deliberate cultural genocide.  We also discussed the “Sixties Scoop.”

3.  Oka Crisis. (1990) Upon the recommendation of Dr. Jennifer Tupper, we watched the NFB film, My Name is Kahentiiosta.

4.  The Canadian Charter or Rights and Freedoms. (1982)

5.  Creation of Nunavut (1999)

6.  Stephen Harper’s Residential School Apology (2008)

We decided that we wanted to show our understanding of these chapters of Canadian history using Stop Motion Animation.  We used the Pixstop app on the iPads.

First students watched all the introductory movies on the app in order to teach themselves the basics.  Then they experimented by making a variety of short, silent films:

Then we practiced adding sound by exporting the Stop Motion projects into iMovie and adding sound there.

Once we had the craft of Stop Motion figured out, students picked episodes from the history we had been studying to create short films.

The Signing of Treaty Four

Residential Schools

The Oka Crisis

Step 1: Video      →      Step 2: Puppet Show      →      Step 3: Podcast      Step 4: Idle No More    →    Step 5: Stop Motion    →   Step 6: Final Project

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