CBC Archives

Discuss with students the features of a diary. Identify that it is a personal record of an individual’s experiences, and includes a brief summary of facts or events and personal responses (reactions, feelings, questions, and opinions) to the events. A diary can include everyday events and does not always need to focus on painful memories.

Discuss with students the difficult nature of the residential school experience for many students. Clearly note the range of abuse that students encountered. This topic is disturbing and may not be suitable for all students.

Direct students to the topic A Lost Heritage: Canada’s Residential Schools on the CBC Radio and Television Archives Web site. Have students review between three and five clips from the site. After viewing, students will write a series of three to five diary entries from the point of view of an aboriginal student. Each entry should be correctly dated and be at least half a page in length. Explain that the goal is to understand what the students experienced and how it might have affected them. The entries should reveal the student’s state of mind and explore his or her feelings and fears.

Ask volunteers to share their work. Encourage the other students to offer positive or constructive feedback, and to reflect on the way that writing from another person’s point of view can affect the way you understand that person’s story. Guide this discussion carefully and focus on coping strategies for someone living in such a difficult environment.

Students can create an artwork of their choice to represent the ideas they shared in the journal entries they wrote.