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Curriculum

Primary Social Studies

Welcome to the primary Social Studies curriculum. This information page includes an overview of the curriculum and important information about the program structure, assessment and materials available.


1. Curriculum Overview

The program focuses on Inuit Culture in Nunavik and seeks to establish a baseline for creating responsible and active citizens. It also contains suggested Evaluation Situations that support students as they acquire knowledge and develop competencies. Additional resources and material are available on different KI platforms which can be used to create an inquiry-based learning environment. This program provides a general overview of the learning that students will need to do, but requires teachers to do their own research, as well as to customize the program to best suit student needs and ensure their success. Suggested activities are available to assist the teacher, but are not mandatory. It is important for every teacher to make this program accessible to every student. 

This program encourages students to think critically, to question themselves and their surroundings. During the Social Studies periods, students read, listen, speak and write. It is important to observe these language components or skills on multiple occasions during the day, even outside the time allocated to language. For these reasons, teachers may choose to evaluate students’ language skills, even when social studies concepts are at the forefront of the lesson.  

Additionally, each program theme is accompanied by activities related to other subjects, such as Mathematics and Science.  These activities are optional, but make the Social Studies program cross-curricular, which in turn helps students better understand the role of Social Studies in everyday life and can also help them in subjects with which they have more difficulty. 

The four themes listed above contain a variety of units.  Each unit is organized identically regardless which program PDF is being used. Each PDF identifies how much time is required to complete the unit, along with its objectives, assessment criteria, and culminating task; it also provides a lesson overview and cross-curricular connections to the unit.  You can view the following video to have a better understanding of how each unit is built. 

2. Assessment

Assessment in this program should be ongoing and reflect the subjects covered in the course.  Formative assessments should be the focal point for teachers and students. These assessments should provide students with useful feedback about their work and allow them to track their progress.   

Throughout the program, teachers will have opportunities to follow suggested Evaluation Situations that align with the topics covered throughout the unit. These Evaluation Situations are meant to be informative, and allow students to demonstrate their learning in an appropriate manner.   

3. Pedagogy

Multidisciplinarity

Multidisciplinarity aims to integrate several subjects to contextualize learning and increase relevance for the learner. Using the same vocabulary in multiple subjects helps with language acquisition. Students must use a word more than 15-20 times before they can remember it. So using vocabulary in multiple contexts is the best way to acquire it.

A elders-centered approach: 

Elders have a very important role in Inuit culture as knowledge holders. The integration of their knowledge in different school subjects is conducive to learning. The competencies of the social studies program can easily be worked on with the knowledge and participation of the Nunavimmiut elders. Building learning and assessment sequences around texts, interviews and short films featuring elders will have a positive impact on your students. View a variety of interviews with some of Nunavik’s elders.


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4. Resources

Many resources are available in the classroom or online to support learning in Social Studies.  Our team constantly updates the Nunavik-IcE platform to provide you with Inuit-centered Education resources. 

5. Communication

Contact your education consultant by email or by phone.

Melanie Schaffer

Nunavimmiut

ᓄᓇᕕᒻᒥᐅᑦ

Nunavik inhabitants

For questions or comments, contact us.

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