CBC Archives

Have students write down what they consider to be the significant events or milestones that have occurred in their lives. Working in small groups, have students share and discuss the milestones they chose. Have students reach an agreement on how they would define a milestone in a person’s life. As a whole group, share their ideas and reach general agreement on what events might constitute a milestone in a person’s life.

Assessment Tip
You may want to assess some students by having them complete the concept-understanding organizer on the download sheet Milestones.

Direct students to the topic Uncle Louis and Canada’s Golden Age on the CBC Radio and Television Archives Web site. In their groups, have students browse Clips #1, 2, 3, and 10 and read the main text for Clips #4 through #9. Point out that the CBC Archives provides links to other sites that contain biographies of Louis St. Laurent. Have students decide on the events that were milestones in St. Laurent’s life and record the significant events in his childhood, school years, years as a lawyer, early political career, years as prime minister, and later years.

Each group will create a poster-size visual sequence chart that records the milestones they found. Groups can discuss how to best represent each milestone and can draw or find visuals to place beside each milestone on their poster.

Have students display and discuss their milestone posters. Discuss the similarities and differences in the posters.

Students can select another prime minister of Canada and research the milestones in that person’s life. Create a compare and contrast chart of the milestones in the lives of the two prime ministers.