Lectures and Whole Group Discussion

As the literacy group explores different sources, people may come up with questions that are not answered in the material you’ve collected. Write these questions on lip chart paper as they come up. Although the literacy group members will take responsibility for most of the research, it may be your role as literacy facilitator to do some research in order to ill in the gaps and answer the group’s questions. You may want to invite a guest speaker. Or you could give mini-lectures, followed by a discussion among all the literacy group members. The large group discussion serves as a model for the discussions in the History Talk Groups. You may want to hand out a one-page chronology showing the dates and events in the time period you are discussing. Whenever you have a few spare moments, focus on discussing the questions collected on the lip chart paper.

The Writing Assignment and Its Process

The assignment could be to write a piece of biographical or historical fiction about the time period you are studying. This type of writing is called historical fiction because the writers will have to invent some aspects of the story – they won’t know exact details about their characters’ activities or day-to-day life. But the writers will try to use as many historical facts as they know and to create a setting that is as realistic as possible.

• Talk about the differences between fiction and nonfiction, between narrative and expository writing. Fiction is stories about imaginary people and events; other writing is nonfiction. Narrative writing is ‘storytelling’ expository writing involves ‘explaining’ something.
• Ask literacy group members to choose a fictional character from the place and time you have been studying. It could be an adult, a child, an In uk, a Qallunaq, an ancestor, a government worker, a priest, a Hudson’s Bay manager, an RCMP, a captain or sailor on a ship... anyone who would have lived in that place and time. Or it could be an actual character from oral or written stories.
• Give people some time to think about their characters while the group continues to explore source material. What type of character will he or she be? What personal traits will she or he have? What perspective will the character bring to the story? Will they write in first person “I” or in third person “she” or “he”?
• Ask people to think about the other elements of a story-setting, problem or dilemma, rising tension and resolution of the problem.
• Read other historical fiction to gain an understanding of the elements and style of this type of writing.
• Encourage people to think about the information they learned about that period in history and include as many details as possible in their story.
• You could use a visualization technique to inspire drawings or writing about the setting of their story. (See Historical Fiction or Faction in the Writing Projects section.)
• Teach mini-lessons on the writing process, grammar, spelling, punctuation, syllabic keyboarding and any other topics as they come up during the Make available dictionaries, thesauruses and other reference guides, as well as northern magazines, books and resources. (See the Useful Resources section.) progress of the writing.
• Use peer consultation and editing so people can get feedback during the writing process.
• Learners can type up their stories on the computer and use them for reading material in your literacy group and in future literacy groups.
• Consider adding a title page and illustrations.