Subject Guides: Residential Schools: Teacher Resources

Teaching Indigenous History & Culture (FNMI) / Indigenizing Instruction

Alberta Education and others are providing teachers with lesson plans to help bring First Nations, Métis and Inuit history and contributions to life in classrooms across the province.

Sample Lesson Plans from Learn Alberta
Includes samples for ELA, Art, Science and Social
Education for Reconciliation
FNMI Education - Alberta Education
Understanding and Finding Our Way – Decolonizing Canadian Education All Canadians are responsible for reconciliation. Teachers have a unique opportunity to contribute by advocating for change to eliminate inequity and racism. Understanding and Finding Our Way – Decolonizing Canadian Education is a powerful film that exposes education inequities within public education in Canada. It challenges viewers to help decolonize education so that all students can succeed. The film was produced by Dr. Verna St. Denis, an internationally renowned scholar in anti-racist education. It was directed by award-winning filmmaker Alison Duke following appropriate protocols and under the guidance of Elder Mary Lee. The 32-minute film is divided into three parts.
Secret Path Lesson Plans
From The Manitoba Teachers' Society.
Guiding Voices: A Curriculum Development Tool for Inclusion of First Nation, Métis and Inuit Perspectives Throughout Curriculum
Association of Canadian Deans of Education Accord on Indigenous Education
Empowering the Spirit: Classroom Supports
Lesson Plans - Rupertsland Institute
RLI’s Education Team has developed engaging lesson plans based on the Five Foundational Knowledge Themes.

Lesson Planning

LearnAlberta.ca This link opens in a new window
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Search the database for "residential schools" for videos and other content. Mostly for Social Studies.
This resource is freely available to teachers, pre-service teachers, and students in the Province of Alberta only

Untold history: understanding the impact of Indian Residential School on Canada's aboriginal peoples : a teacher's resource for grade 7 by Weiss, Ilona
Call Number: E 96.5 W454 2012
A Broken Flute by Doris Seale; Beverly Slapin (Editor)
Call Number: E 77.4 B76 2005
ISBN: 0759107785
An annotated bibliography of the Native experience in children's books.

Digital Stories - First Nations Women Explore the Legacy of Residential Schools
Indian Residential Schools and Reconciliation Resources
First Nations Education Steering Committee resources for classrooms. Focus is on British Columbia.
For Teachers - CBC Digital Archives
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A Lost Heritage: Canada’s Residential Schools.
Where are the Children
A virtual exhibition of photos, with a timeline and bibliography that lists books for children and adults.
First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada: Bring reconciliation into the classroom Website developed to support educators to engage children and youth in peaceful and respectful processes of reconciliation.
Indian Horse Film & Novel Study Guide

Films & Documentaries

100 years of loss: the residential school system in Canada
Call Number: E 96.5 A15 2011
This educational kit is for educators in helping to raise awareness and teaching about the history and legacy of residential schools in Canada.
Muffins for granny: a documentary by McLaren, Nadia
Indian elders Roy Thomas, Garnet Agneconeb, Ralph Johnson, Alice Littledeer, Eulalia Michano and Delaney Sharpe recount their experiences in residential schools.
Second stories: Nos histoires
Features the short documentaries of three First Nations filmmakers whose award-winning short films were previously featured in "First stories".

4 Seasons of Reconciliation This link opens in a new window
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Also known as | Four Seasons of Reconciliation. Is a multi-media teaching unit that promotes a renewed relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canadians, through transformative multi-media learning. This educational initiative, developed for post-secondary, incorporates teacher guides, slideshows, videos and films along with engaging online portals.
Includes access to a 10th grade module in French / Français.

Books About Residential Schools for Kids

When searching the library catalogue for books try the terms:

Residential schools AND Juvenile fiction
Children’s and young adult books about residential schools
This list is a starting point to discovering resources on the topic of residential schools for children and young adults.

Sugar Falls by David A. Robertson; Scott B. Henderson (Illustrator); Donovan Yaciuk (Illustrator); Murray Sinclair (Foreword by); Betty Ross (Afterword by)
Call Number: PZ 7.7 R6347 Sug 2021
ISBN: 9781553799757
Inspired by true events, this story of strength, family, and culture shares the awe-inspiring resilience of Elder Betty Ross. Abandoned as a young child, Betsy is adopted into a loving family. A few short years later, at the age of 8, everything changes. Betsy is taken away to a residential school.
As Long As the Rivers Flow by Larry Loyie; Constance Brissenden; Heather D. Holmlund (Illustrator)
Call Number: E 99 C88 L39 2002
Not My Girl by Christy Jordan-Fenton; Margaret Pokiak-Fenton; Gabrielle Grimard (Illustrator)
Call Number: E 96.5 J65153 2014
Margaret's years at school have changed her. Now ten years old, she has forgotten her language and the skills to hunt and fish. She can't even stomach her mother's food. Her only comfort is in the books she learned to read at school. Gradually, Margaret relearns the words and ways of her people.
A Stranger at Home by Christy Jordan-Fenton; Margaret Pokiak-Fenton; Liz Amini-Holmes (Illustrator)
Call Number: E 96.5 J652 2011
The powerful memoir of an Inuvialuit girl searching for her true self when she returns from residential school.
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
ISBN: 9781553659709
Saul Indian Horse is dying. Tucked away in a hospice high above the clash and clang of a big city, he embarks on a marvellous journey of imagination back through the life he led as a northern Ojibway, with all its sorrows and joys.