The Confederation Chronicles

Synopsis

In this unit of seven lessons of various lengths, students will investigate the reasons for and against Confederation and the reaction of people, primarily politicians, in the colonies/provinces prior to Confederation. Students will obtain most of their information from primary-source documents available on the “EvidenceWeb” portion of the Learning Centre website, created by Library and Archives Canada. As a culminating activity, students will research, create, and present their work in newspaper format.  

For an overview of Confederation, please see the “EvidenceWeb” Confederation theme description.

Overall Expectations

By the end of this unit students will:
•	demonstrate an understanding of the factors that contributed to Canada’s Confederation; 
•	demonstrate an understanding of the diverse groups and individuals that contributed to the formation and growth of Canada; 
•	use appropriate vocabulary (e.g., Confederation, conference, political deadlock, reciprocity, corn laws, Fenians, manifest destiny) to describe their inquiries and observations;
•	formulate questions to facilitate research on issues and problems (e.g., the contrasting points of view of various individuals and groups regarding Confederation); 
•	locate relevant information about the regional interests of each colony, using a variety of sources;
•	analyze, synthesize, and evaluate historical information about Confederation;
•	analyze and describe conflicting points of view about Confederation; 
•	construct a timeline and use organizers to interpret information; 
•	communicate the results of their inquiries for specific purposes and audiences, using a newspaper format, oral presentations, written notes and descriptions.