Secondary Resources (Grade 9-12)
Secondary teachers of all levels and
subjects will
find something of interest on this site. If you teach grades 10-12,
be
sure to check out the Webquest. Teachers of all grades should check out
the Curriculum-Linked
Activities and Introduction to the
Catalogues.
Webquest
A Webquest is an inquiry-based student activity in which small groups
of
students take on roles and perform a given task by doing research on the
Web.
The Let's Go Shopping 1948! Secondary Webquest is a unique
simulation activity
that challenges students to place a catalogue order for one of five 1948
families;
the families and their characters are based on real-life Canadians from
five
regions of Canada.
Curriculum-linked
Activities
Select your subject or a classroom-ready activity to find
curriculum-linked
activities that make use of the on-line catalogue pages.
Activity Suggestions by
Subject
Art, Applied Arts, Fine Arts
Ask students to compare the design of covers and catalogue pages in
various years.
Discuss the similarities and differences. Have students design a cover or
page
from a year of their choice.
Drama
Select several objects from a catalogue. Challenge your students to
perform a
skit that make use of these objects.
English
Assign different catalogues to the students. How does the language change
over
time? What words and phrases are used to sell the products in various
years?
Ask students to write catalogue text for an item that they own.
Find vocabulary that is no longer used or is unfamiliar. Ask students to
define
the words and use them in writing of their own.
English as a Second Language
Print out pages from a catalogue according to a specific theme (for
example,
clothing, appliances or tools), using the How to Print guidelines in Introduction
to the Catalogues. Show the images and text to students. Cut up the
pages,
separating the text from the images, and ask students to match the correct
text
with the image.
French
The P.T.
Legaré catalogue contains text in English and French for each
object.
Print out catalogue pages, and use this catalogue as a resource to help
students
learn French vocabulary. Use other French catalogues and current French
catalogues
that your students bring in for various activities that use both the
images and
text.
French Immersion
The French catalogue pages on this site can be used for many activities
that
require text and images. For example, print off pages from the 1975
Eaton Noël catalogue. Challenge your students to place an order
from
a page as if they were doing it over the telephone. Ask them to fill out
an order
form (forms are included in most of the catalogues).
Information Technology
Use this site to develop your students' skills in using the Internet
to
perform research.
Social Studies: Geography
Compare the items offered in catalogues from different regions.
P.
T. Legaré and Dupuis Frères served the Quebec market. The
Eaton's
Fall and Winter 1918-19 and the Army and Navy catalogues served the
Western
Canadian market, while the Eaton's Spring and Summer 1926 catalogue
served
Atlantic Canada.
Social Studies: History (Canadian,
Business, Women's)
Use the historic catalogues to compare items such as clothing,
technology, and furniture that were available in different years. Assign students the
papers that relate to items in mail-order catalogues, such as phonographs,
gramophones, and radios, writing
instruments, houses,
women's
fashion, and bicycles.
Look at catalogues produced during the First and Second World Wars and
the Depression. How are these events reflected in the catalogues? Look at the
items offered and the images and wording that were used. The catalogues are
useful primary resources for other historical themes such as the settlement of
the West, changing women's roles and women's rights, urbanization,
expanding consumer goods, technological development, and globalization.
Use the catalogues, papers, and timeline as resources for Canadian
Business
History. Assign students the papers related to the history of Eaton's,
Simpson's, Paquet
and Dupuis-Frères, labour
in the mail-order industry, unionization,
reaction
from retail merchants, the role of the postal
service,
and the timeline of mail-order catalogues from
1870 to
2000.
Classroom-ready
Activities
Click on a title to link to the activity.
Catalogues Yesterday and Today:
Changing Goods,
Changing Lives
Students compare items available in historical and current catalogues and
discuss
impacts of changes on people's lifestyles, health, and
environment.
Catalogues and Consumerism Yesterday
and Today
Students look at the growth of consumerism and materialism by comparing
the design
and content of historical and modern catalogues.
Prices Yesterday and
Today
Students convert an order from an old catalogue into a present-day order.
Using
a price conversion table, they convert the prices into today's
dollars
and compare the prices. They conclude with a discussion about inflation
and why
prices change.
Shopping through Time
Students select ten modern items and try to place an order for them from
the
historical catalogues.
Getting the Goods Out
Students read a paper that describes the steps involved in filling a mail
order
in the 1920s and then dramatize the process of placing an order, sending
in the
order, filling the order, and delivering it.
Women in the Catalogues
Students read two papers about the portrayal of women in historical
catalogues,
research examples of how women are portrayed in the historical catalogues,
and
engage in a class discussion about how the presentation of women has
changed.
Families Past and
Present
Students research their own families in the past and compare their
experiences
to other families and to their lives today.
Furnish a Mail-order
House
Students read a paper about mail-order houses, use an actual floor plan to
build
a model of a 1929 Eaton's house, and furnish the house with items
printed
out from one of the catalogues.
Catalogue Lingo Past and
Present
Students write catalogue text in the style of a historical catalogue.
Make a Quiz
Students challenge their classmates to match catalogue descriptions to
their
images.
Create a Math Problem
Students create math problems based on flooring, fabric, shingles, and
other
items in the historical catalogues.
What Is It?
Students examine a photograph of an item from a historical catalogue.
Using the
on-line catalogues and indexes, they must find out about the item.
Sports
Equipment
Students research the evolution of sports equipment in the historical
catalogues.
Shop 'Til You
Drop
Students are provided with a budget, a year, and a room of a house, and
they
must prepare an appropriate order.
Show and Tell
Students research a catalogue item by using sources such as the historical
mail-order
catalogues and papers on this site, other web sites, and family members,
and
then they make a presentation to the class.
An Immigrant's Shopping
List
Students must furnish the house of a recent arrival to the Prairies in
1920.
What do they buy?
Fashion: What's Hot, What's
Not?
Students select a clothing item or accessory from the list provided and
research
it by consulting the catalogues. They present a collage and timeline of
the item
to the class.
Canada and the World in the
Catalogues
Students identify countries of origin of items in historical and modern
catalogues,
create a map comparing the places of origin, and engage in a discussion
about
globalization.
Mail-order Mix-up
(On-screen
Game)
Match the items with the people who ordered them.
Fashion Craze
(On-screen
Game)
Find the correct colours and patterns for clothing from 1918 to 1967.
What Is It? (Activity
Sheet)
Match unusual objects to their descriptions.
Don't Be Fooled by the Prices
(Activity
Sheet)
Using a price conversion table, calculate the prices of items in
today's
dollars.
Roch Carrier and The Hockey
Sweater
Listen to Roch Carrier's classic story, The Hockey Sweater, hear an
interview
with the author, and see Maurice Richard's hockey sweater and other
related
images.
Mail-order Memories
Listen to memories of mail-order catalogues and see related images.
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