Let's Go Shopping 1948! Secondary Webquest
Information for Teachers
Materials Required
Objectives | Duration | Outcomes
Curriculum Links
This Webquest will guide your students through a fun and thought
provoking
interdisciplinary activity that simulates a family selecting and
purchasing articles
from the Eaton's
Fall and Winter 1948-49 catalogue. It will also challenge your
students
to use two other mail-order catalogues to travel back to 1936 and forward
to
1956 to determine what items families might order in those years. It is
designed
for use by groups of four or five students over the course of several
days.
When students are finished their tasks each day, or at the end of the
entire
Webquest, they can undertake one or more of the activities on the For
Students Page. These activities make use of the mail-order
catalogues
on this site and are designed for students to do independently with
minimal teacher
involvement.
Materials Required
Just about everything your students need to do this Webquest is
provided on
this site.
You will also need:
- a large map of Canada on a wall or
projected
onto a screen;
- paper, scissors, and glue for making collages;
- student access to a printer if possible. If students are unable to use
a
printer, print out:
- one copy per group of Worksheets 1 and
2
- one copy per student of Worksheets 3,
4,
and 5
- one copy per student and per group of the catalogue's
order form and one copy per group of the order forms in the 1936
and 1956 catalogues;
- grading rubric.
Objectives
Students will:
- learn and reinforce concepts related to Technology, Social Studies,
Canadian
and World History and Geography, Art, and English Language Arts;
- develop skills in the areas of primary-source research,
communications,
technology, teamwork, presentation, problem-solving, decision-making,
critical
thinking.
Duration
This activity is designed to be flexible and can accommodate any
classroom
schedule. If it is done in 40 minutes periods, it will be completed in 4
or 5
days.
The Webquest can be shortened by eliminating some of the tasks. It can
also
be expanded by adding the teacher-led activities outlined in Supplementary
Activities.
Outcomes
In groups, students will:
- assume the identity of a 1948 family living in one of five regions of
Canada;
- locate the family on a map of Canada; and
- determine the route used by Eaton's to deliver their order to
their
family.
Independently, students will:
- assume the role of a member of their family;
- research their character's name, age, gender, ethnic
background, occupation,
and income, and determine what they want and need to buy;
- find and look at relevant on-line pages of the Eaton's Fall and
Winter
1948-49 catalogue;
- print out the illustration and description of the items they want to
buy
(optional); and
- fill out an order form and add up the cost of all items.
As a group, students will:
- discuss what each family member wishes to purchase and compile the
overall
cost;
- after balancing desires and needs with a family's budget,
determine
a final list with items for all family members;
- fill out a single order form;
- print out and assemble a collage of all items each member ordered
(optional);
- fill out an equivalent order in 1936 and 1956, and determine the
affordability
of the orders by a similar family in those years;
- make a presentation to the class describing the family circumstances
in
1948, each member of the family, what they wanted to buy and what they
finally
bought, with an explanation of how they went from their wants to their
needs;
- display on the wall of the classroom their collages and order form;
and
- present the items they would order in relation to the incomes of
families
similar to theirs in 1936 and 1956.
As a class, students will:
- discuss regional variations in family, income, occupation, and items
ordered;
- discuss other reasons each family ordered different items;
- discuss changes over time; and
- discuss the link between mail-order catalogues and the development of
consumerism
in Canada.
Curriculum Links
This interdisciplinary activity links to the following subjects in
Grades
10, 11, and 12: Social Studies, History, Geography, Economics, Art, and
English
Language Arts. Click on your province to see the specific links to your
provincial
curriculum.
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