Shipwrecks on the Magdalen Islands

Shipwrecks on the Magdalen Islands

Dorothy Taker

Fall 2012

Throughout the history of the Magdalen Islands there were many shipwrecks and Ms. Dorothy Taker’s  Elementary Cycle 2  class was curious about where the passengers originated from, and how the survivors contributed to the little communities on the Magdalen Islands.  

Nancy Clarke, CLC coordinator saw the research project to answer questions about shipwrecks as an opportunity to engage fathers in the school.  Engagement of fathers is an area that had previously been identified as a need in the community, since most volunteers have typically been female.  

The CLC ordered 4 model ships and arranged for male family members to come in and participate in the assembly.  According to teacher Dorothy Taker, the project was a great success and the ìstudents enjoyed having their fathers/uncles/grandfathers come into their class and help them with a projectî.

The community organization CAMI (Council for Anglophone Magdalen Islanders) provided support in researching the different shipwrecks and the project featured strong links to the curriculum including:

• 

• Social Studies - historical events in own community)
• Broad Areas of Learning - Citizenship and Community Life, Media Literacy 
• Language Arts (reads information based texts, writes information based texts, researches and uses language to communicate and learn) 
• Cross Curricular Competencies - uses information, exercises critical judgment, uses creativity, works well with others

The project culminated with the class reading their information booklets they wrote on different survivors to other students in our school.

To read more about the project, click here.