Grade 8 History:
The concept of change is identified in Subtask 1: change in school structure, change in technology,
change in population, natural disaster, political change, etc.
a. What happens to people when a significant change
occurs? How do people feel? How do some people behave when things are changing around them? What can
happen to people's workplaces? homes? thinking?
b. You are going to consider one significant invention (i.e., the steam engine) and the
effects of that invention on society.
c. BLM 2.1 (Change Agent: the invention of the steam engine). You are to read the outline of the
history of that invention. Key questions to check your comprehension and application of concepts (e.g., If you
were living in a city at the time of the invention of the steam engine, how might your life have changed? How
would your life have changed if you lived on a farm? On what kinds of occupations might the effects of the steam
engine have been minimal?).
d. Industrial Revolution. Discuss the fact that the steam engine
was just one of the many inventions which affected the lives of Canadians in the decades immediately following
Confederation. Change occurred in all facets of Canadian life.
e. BLM 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5: four significant areas of change in Canada:
agriculture, transportation, communication, and manufacturing. (These four topics are addressed in BLMs).
f. In small groups, you are to read and discuss ONE of the topics identified. Your discussion should centre on the
key question: "In what ways would the lives of ordinary people change as a result of inventions or
advancements?" You are to prepare your information and you are to serve as "experts" for other students in the class who are reading about a
different topic.
g. When individual groups have completed their discussion of a single, selected topic, you are to ("jigsaw") so that the new groups include at least one student "expert" for each of the four topics discussed. In each
new group, at least one student will have discussed the consequences of changes in agriculture, one will have
discussed the changes in manufacturing, and so on.
h. Peer-Teaching Activity: The new groups will provide a framework for peer-teaching. Each member of the new
group is now an "expert" on one of the four topics selected. He or she is now responsible for teaching the
members of the new group information and reflections of the previous topic's discussion.
By the end of this activity, students should be ready to summarize in their notebooks all four topics of discussion.
A BLM is provided for this purpose (BLM 2.6).
i. Suggested Journal Response Assignment: "Of the four areas of change you read about, which one
was the most challenging for people to adjust? Explain your thinking."
Note: Organizers or Notes from the information provided during the peer-teaching activity can be handed in for a
check "complete" or for marking.
