The Champlain Society has launched an innovative new series of resources for educators. Teaching Resources from the Champlain Society: Primary Sources in Historical Context are written by experts in the fields of history and pedagogy, and are free of charge for all to use. Drawing on The Champlain Society’s vast catalogue of primary materials, the aim of the series is to provide teachers in elementary and secondary schools with new tools for teaching primary sources to engage students directly in understanding the past.
Editor: Mairi Cowan, Ph.D. (University of Toronto)
This short video introduces Teaching Resources from the Champlain Society: Primary Sources in Historical Context.
Mairi Cowan, historian at the University of Toronto Mississauga, presents a video on the first two packages in the Champlain Society’s series of educational resources: Building the Habitation (Grades 4-8), and Perspectives on the Habitation (Grades 11-12).
1. Building the Habitation: An Educational Resource for Teaching and Learning about Samuel de Champlain at Québec, 1608
Using a combination of primary and secondary sources, students will consider both French and Indigenous perspectives on this important historical event.
Grades 4–8 Guide: PDF
The Champlain Society is pleased to offer this educational resource about the French settlement at Québec in 1608. It is designed to help students in History and Social Studies classes from grades 4-8 learn about early European colonization in North America through the interpretation of textual and visual primary sources; the consideration of secondary sources; and the comparison of multiple perspectives, both French and Indigenous.Included in this package are:
- An Introduction to the St Lawrence Valley in the early seventeenth century
- A lesson plan suitable for Grade 4-8 courses on the history of Canada
- An excerpt from Samuel de Champlain’s account of the founding of Québec
- An excerpt from Innu oral history about the arrival of the French at Uepishtikueiau
- Images of the “habitation”
- Optional additional activities for a variety of subjects and grade levels
- Curriculum connections for all Canadian provinces and territories
2. Perspectives on the Habitation: An Educational Resource for Teaching and Learning about the Place of Québec in the Early Modern World
Using a combination of primary and secondary sources, students will consider both French and Indigenous perspectives on this important historical event.
Grades 11–12 Guide: PDF
The Champlain Society is pleased to offer this educational resource about the French settlement at Québec in 1608. It is designed to help students in senior History and Social Studies classes learn about the place of Samuel de Champlain’s settlement of Québec in the early modern world through the perspectives of textual and visual primary sources; good secondary sources; and, for those who wish, additional research on what Champlain learned from Indigenous peoples and his earlier travels, on what happened to the Habitation, and on how the history has been commemorated in public memorials from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.Included in this package are:
- An Introduction to the St Lawrence Valley in the early seventeenth century
- A lesson plan suitable for Grade 11-12 courses on the history of Canada or world history
- An excerpt from Samuel de Champlain’s account of the founding of Québec
- An excerpt from Innu oral history about the arrival of the French at Uepishtikueiau
- Recommended secondary sources
- An image of the “habitation”
- Optional additional activities for a variety of subjects and grade levels
- Curriculum connections
These resources were created by Dr. Mairi Cowan, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Historical Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga.
We would like to thank the teachers who provided feedback on earlier drafts: Christina Ganev, Rita Gluskin, Jen Hum, Greg Johnsen, Scott Pollock, Stuart Snyder, and Peter Thompson.
Latest Volume
“Your most Obedient and Affectionate Son”: James Wolfe’s Letters to his Parents, 1740–1759
Edited by: Lawrence Ostola