B.C. Gold Rushes
Transparent Teaching - "Text/Tweet It"
The Journey to Gold
This drama-based activity is provided by BC's Ministry of Education in the resource package titled "The Rush to BC". This lesson lets students have autonomy and engages students through role-play, group discussions, and individual reflection. Students get to develop a background story of someone from England in 1858. Then, teacher-in-role announces that gold has been discovered on the west coast of North America. Students, in-role, must decide if they want to travel and join the gold rush, and then justify their answer. Next, the class explores the 4 major routes their character could have taken and the different modes of transportation used in that time period. Students have to decide what would have been best for their character and explain why. This activity also discusses gender roles, costs, partner talk, and a comparison extension.
Credit is due to Sarah Bonsor Kurki for designing this engaging activity. Students will closely read a teacher-chosen excerpt from any of the diary entries, letters, or stories provided in the resources section of this website. Then students will be given a role where they have to look at the situation from a different perspective (e.g. the letter writer, the letter receiver, the child of the gold miner, etc.). Students will write a short 140 character tweet/text describing their thoughts/feelings from their character's POV. The catch is, in their tweet/text students can't give away which person they're portraying. As a class, everyone will read the tweets/texts one-by-one and try to guess which character wrote it and why. This activity can be particularly engaging for students who are intrigued by social media and modern text slang.
With this activity, students can go on an adventure from Victoria, through multiple towns, to Barkerville. On their journey, students are provided with a ton of information about different aspects of the Gold Rush, such as transportation, gold miners' certificates, buying supplies, and historical figures involved. Along the way, students have to make choices to continue the game which keeps them involved and engaged. The text is easy-to-read and the visuals provide extra support and information.
This activity is in BC's Ministry of Education document titled "Far West: The Story of British Columbia" This lesson engages students by using a hook-worthy quote, brainstorming, flow charts, and archival photos. Here, students will focus on how the unexpected number of people who arrived for the Gold Rush in 1858 had an effect on Fort Victoria. Students brainstorm what was needed to accommodate the influx of people coming to town (e.g. food, transportation, tools, etc.), and which community members helped make those accommodations.
The Cariboo Gold Rush Adventure
Mad Rush to Gold
Activities to do with the students...
Below is a skeleton outline of activities for students to do when learning about B.C.'s Gold Rushes. Students should be provided a variety of ways to become immersed in a topic, therefore teachers should focus on UDL framework's multiple means of engagement and the theory of self-determination's aspect of relatedness in particular. Each of the four activities below come from different resource packages or sources so that I could provide a variety of choice and expose you to what's out there. It's important to note, however, that I've outlined only one activity in each, though some of the resources have multiple lessons and ideas on the gold rushes that are just as spectacular.
