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1972 Summit Series
1972 Summit Series
Canada
Big Idea/Essential Question:
Understanding the Historical Significance thinking concept using the 1972 Summit
Series
Lesson Objectives:
This lesson will have students practice the historical significance thinking concept.
Students will learn about what makes an event historically significant and how
significance can be different for everyone. To practice this skill, they will be using the
1972 Summit Series as an example. Students will first think of events in Canadian
History, rank them by their significance, and explain what makes each of them
significant. This thinking will then be applied to the 1972 Summit Series to determine
its historical significance. While learning about the historical significance thinking
concept, students will also be learning about Cold War politics and Canada’s
relationship with the Soviet Union.
In this lesson, students will be challenged to think about what makes an event
historically significant and apply that thinking to the 1972 Summit Series.
Historical significance is the best historical thinking concept for this lesson as the
1972 Summit Series at the time engulfed the mind of all Canadians. This was also the
first instance of a true Team Canada to compete in hockey internationally. Before this
series, Canada fielded teams of amateur athletes to compete at International
competitions. Historical significance is engaged through the lesson by asking students
questions about what makes an event historically significant. Instead of telling them it
is important, students decide how significant they believe the event to be. This
thinking then gets applied to the 1972 Summit Series and students decide how
significant they believe it to be.
Lesson context:
This lesson works to introduce the Historical Significance Thinking Concept. This lesson could
be done at the beginning of the year to introduce the idea of Historical Significance to
students. This lesson could be one 6 lessons to introduce all the Historical Thinking Concepts
before getting into the course content. Since Historical Significance may be one of the easier
thinking concepts to grasp, this could be one of the first lessons.
To answer how it is
remembered/commem-
orated they might need to
do extra research which
they can use their phones
or class laptops to do.
Special considerations (ways this may need to be adapted for particular learners)
Most of this lesson is accessible for all students, but there could be some
adjustments. For students who need special learning assists, the video question
sheet can be modified to be in a skeleton notes design. This way they just need to
follow along and write down the key words. All the answers to the questions during
the lesson will also be written on the board so all students can follow along easier.
Assessment considerations: these can just be ideas at this point, and do not need to
be fully developed or include student criteria sheets.
What was the significance of this moment? What was the significance of the entire event?
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2. How was the Soviet Union trying to show its political power?
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7. How important was this series in Canada?
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Historical Significance
Historical Event: ___________________________________________
How Important was the event at the time? 1 2 3 4 5
Evidence:
What were the consequences of the event and are they still having an impact today?
1 2 3 4 5
Evidence:
Evidence:
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