Activity: Making an Impact

Teacher Notes

Students use activity sheets to make a "player card" featuring
a famous Canadian.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• About 45 minutes of class time and some homework time
• Student copies of Sheet 3: High-Impact Players
• Card examples: hockey cards, baseball cards, other collector cards
• Internet access

WHAT TO DO
Photocopy Sheet 3: High-Impact Players for your class. Have the sheets ready before you start.

Review with your students what a "celebrity" is, especially if you haven't done the Seeing Stars activity from this resource. Ask your students if there is a difference between a "celebrity" and an "important person". You can use two different examples, such as a singer and a well-known politician. What sorts of things do your students know about these people (e.g., information such as age, marital status, most famous songs/speeches/legislation, etc.)?

Discuss the term "impact". What does it mean? Do important people have an impact on students? Do celebrities? See if your students can come up with a verbal list of people who have an impact on their daily lives (teachers, parents, coaches, etc). Can people you don't know have an impact on your life?

Distribute the sample cards you have collected. Ask students what sorts of cards they've received (this works especially well if you have a variety of card types). What is the purpose of these cards (trading, learning information about a player or character, etc.). What kind of information is found on the card? Put students' answers up on the board in bullet form. Introduce the term "impact", and try to find some examples from the cards (a hockey player who was crucial to winning a particular tournament, for example).

Tell students that they are going to design a card for a famous Canadian, highlighting this individual's impact on Canada and Canadians.

Distribute Sheet 3: High-Impact Players. Assign one Canadian featured in Face to Face: The Canadian Personalities Hall to each student. Alternative: if you have done the Seeing Stars activity, students could also use one of the Canadians they identified in that activity.