QUEBEC AND THE MIGRATION OF PEOPLESQUEBEC – MIDDLE SCHOOL

Quebec and the Migration of Peoples:

Quebec Yesterday and Today

Lesson Overview:

Help the students to understand the characteristics of the population at the beginning of the last century and the characteristics today. Interpret cultural trends.

Grade Level:

Grade 6 (3rd cycle – elementary level), Grades 7 and 8 (1st cycle – secondary level). Also called Grades 6 to 8.

Time Required:

Approximately three hours. The lesson may be spread over several periods or carried out in a single half day of classroom time.

Curriculum Connection:

Domain of the Social Universe:

  • Competency 1: Understand the geographic organization of a society.
  • Elements of the competency: Establish continuity links with the present.
  • Competency 2: Interpret changes in a society and in its geographic distribution.
  • Elements of the competency: Identify the major changes that have occurred in a society’s geographic and social organization. Trace these changes. Position a society in space and time at two different periods.

Link to Canadian National Geographic Standards:

Essential Element #2: Places and Regions

  • Changes in places and regions over time
  • How does culture affect places and regions?

Essential Element #4: Human Systems

  • A country’s demographic transition
  • Human migratory trends
  • Cultural trends in Canada and the world.

Geographic Skill #1: Asking Geographic Questions

  • Plan how to answer geographic questions.

Geographic Skill #2: Acquiring Geographic Information

  • Use various skills to find and collect geographic data.

Geographic Skill #3: Organizing Geographic Information

  • Prepare various types of diagrams, tables and graphs to organize geographic information.

Geographic Skill #4: Analyzing Geographic Information

  • Use statistics and other quantitative techniques to evaluate geographic information
  • Interpret the information gathered from various sources.

Geographic Skill #5: Answering Geographic Questions

  • Develop and present combinations of geographic information to answer geographic questions.

Primary Reference:

The Statistics Canada site ( where all the data needed to teach this lesson may be found.

Additional Resources, Materials and Equipment Required:

In order to give further details about how to conduct the research, the teacher and student can consult the 2001 Census of Canada at the following address:

Main Objective:

To help students describe the cultural features of Quebec’s population (society) at two specific moments in its history.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

  • Identify changes in social organization
  • Identify observable traces of these changes today
  • Describe the society at two specific moments in its history
  • Give a picture of today’s population in Quebec.

The Lesson:

Teacher Activity / Student Activity
Introduction / Ask the students questions about the ethnic communities found in Quebec. e.g.
- What communities cohabit in Quebec?
- Where do these communities come from? Etc.
Incorporate the concept of time in this topic as you ask the students questions. e.g.
- Have the communities identified always been in Quebec?
- Which have appeared?
- Which have disappeared? / Contribute to answering the teacher’s questions based on what you know.
Try to represent the communities who were present at the beginning of the last century and those that are there today.
Lesson Development / Suggest that the students prepare a hypothetical overview of the communities in Quebec through the use of representative percentages.
Make some suggested changes to their hypothetical overview. Among other things, suggest the Statistics Canada Internet site.
Ask the students to compare the makeup of the population at the beginning of the last century (1900) to the population today (2006).
Suggest that the students might do this by using an overview like the one that was just prepared, but for two different time periods. / Prepare your own overview of the composition of Quebec’s population.
Make changes to your overview on the basis of information found at the Internet site.
Prepare the final overview.
Draw conclusions.
Conclusion / Ask the students to highlight societal similarities and differences at these two different periods.
Correct the students’ overview. Not the hypothetical one, but the one based on the statistics gathered from the Internet. / Take part in the group discussion to present your research results.

Lesson Extension:

The teacher may decide to continue this lesson by including media artwork designed to inform the students in the other classes about what the students learned through this lesson. On another front, similar projects focussing on cities, other provinces or other countries could be suggested.

Assessment of Student Learning:

The teacher assesses the quality of the students’ work. Apart from the general work done by the student, the assessment should focus mainly on the thinking that the students have done about their discoveries. This portion should be presented as part of the students’ conclusions about their work, in addition to their extrapolations. The teacher may use the following assessment grid, which, generally speaking, includes all of the concepts covered in the assignments.

Assessment Grid
Assessment Criteria / Rating
The student was able to prepare a hypothetical overview of Quebec’s population. / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
The student is able to recognize Quebec’s cultural plurality. / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
The student is able to describe Quebec’s society at two distinct periods of its history. / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
The students can draw conclusions about Quebec’s cultural diversity. / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
The student can use statistics in the context of a learning assignment. / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Canadian Council for Geographic Education (1

Statistics Canada (