Off to Salty Waters: Learning Strategies
Tools to prepare for a visit to the virtual exhibition
- Who is the audience for the Off to Salty Waters exhibition?
This exhibition is intended for young people 14–16 years of age, roughly corresponding to students in their third and fourth year of secondary school in Quebec, or in Grades 9 and 10 in other provinces. Through immersion in an appealing subject (summer holidays), the students are introduced to Quebec and Canadian history, and more specifically to the development of transportation (roads, maritime routes, railways), the emergence of an English Canadian economic elite and of Canadian nationalism, the influence of British culture in the Victorian era, the beginning of the tourist industry in Quebec and the social changes of the post-WWII era.
- How to prepare the students for their exhibition visit
Ten to fifteen minutes of preparation will stimulate interest in the subject. Questions to ask in class before the exhibition visit might include:
- Does the expression “time off” necessarily mean a vacation?
- What is “tourism”?
- In which era did tourism begin in Canada? Where and how did it start?
In an unsupervised visit to the exhibition (of approximately one hour), students will be able to read the main documents, view the image galleries, listen to the audio clips and do the interactive activities. In a playful setting, students will better understand a social reality (summer holiday living) and a specific context (eastern Quebec) from a diachronic perspective. They will do so using a variety of authentic documents (analyses, archival photographs, old newspapers, maps, witness accounts, etc.).
- Review of the visit (knowledge reinforcement and evaluation)
Playing the interactive quiz games gives students a first opportunity to integrate the exhibition content. Two complementary activities (in the left-hand column) will help teachers assess their students’ learning more explicitly. These tools can be adapted to students’ objectives (synchronic or diachronic approach, comparison between eastern Quebec and other parts of the country, etc.).
To guide teachers and their most curious students, a bibliography lists the principal works on summer holidaying in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada.