PART 2 THE SQUARE MILE: A NEIGHBOURHOOD TO DISCOVER ACTIVITIES Document for the teachers and the students. Acknowledgements Nancy Dunton, scientific validation Mireille Pilotto, translation We are grateful to the volunteers who contributed to the project: Julie Etheridge, design of activities Chantal Gagné, design of activities Tania Mignacca, graphic designer SQUARE MILE, A NEIGHBOURHOOD TO DISCOVER! TABLE OF CONTENTS OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES 4 INSTRUCTIONS FOR TEACHERS Activity 1: Looking and Discussion: Past and Present 8 Activity 2: Understanding a Neighbourhood /Your Neighbourhood 14 Activity 3: What can we do with a heritage building? 17 Activity 4: Creating a Short Film for a News Report 20 STUDENT WORKSHEETS Activity 2: Understanding a Neighbourhood /Your Neighbourhood 22 Activity 3: What can we do with a heritage building? 24 Activity 4: Creating a Short Film for a News Report (Planning sheet) 26 3 SQUARE MILE, A NEIGHBOURHOOD TO DISCOVER! OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES Objective These activities will allow students to discover Montreal’s rich heritage. The goal is to raise their awareness of urban heritage, its important role in collective memory, and how it is sometimes vulnerable. The students will be invited to reflect on and discuss the importance of protecting urban heritage, of conserving these testaments to the history of Montreal, and preserving the memories they embody. This teaching resource is aimed to help students develop an awareness for the need to preserve Montreal’s unique and diverse architectural buildings and landscapes, at the level of the neighbourhood. The Oxford Dictionary defines neighbourhood as: “A district or community within a town or city; the area surrounding a particular place, person, or object; neighbourly feeling or conduct.” While a particular neigbourhood may be defined by its geography, it is also true that a neighbourhood can be defined by a sense of belonging by the people who live there. How do buildings, streets, parks and trees make a place a neighbourhood? Sometimes the built environment is distinctive – when walking down a street the architecture of the buildings is unmistakably specific to that part of the city. Sometimes it is how the buildings sit on the street – tight together with front doors giving onto the sidewalk, for example; sometimes it is because of a building or public space that is the focal point of a neighbourhood – a church, a dépanneur, a small park with a fountain in the middle. The Square Mile was a neighbourhood made up mostly of opulent houses at the turn of the 20th century; it is still a neighbourhood but of a different character now as most of those houses serve another purpose. Other types of building have been built around and beside the original houses. How we care for this neighbourhood is one focus of this pedagogical module. The students will also be asked to conceive of an imaginary neighbourhood and what comprises it. At the same time, they will be asked to think about the presence of buildings or spaces in their own neighbourhoods that they consider part of their heritage. Students will have the chance to assume the role of architects intervening on a Square Mile house or as journalists creating a news report on a heritage site. These exercises should allow the students to grasp the full importance of safeguarding our heritage, and introduce them to the influence of organizations that protect it, like Heritage Montreal, and the vital role that public opinion can play. The guide contains background information, hands-on activities and questions for looking and discussion to engage students across a wide range of disciplines. This guide is aligned with the standards set out by the Quebec Ministry of Education. The units that comprise this guide may be used sequentially or as independent lessons. The activities in each of the lessons encourage students to synthesize what they have learned and to apply it to broader areas of the curriculum or relate it to skills that they are practicing within the classroom. 4 SQUARE MILE, A NEIGHBOURHOOD TO DISCOVER! OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES Subject areas Languages Social Sciences Art Education Cross-curricular competencies Solves problems Exercises Critical Judgment Uses creativity Uses information Communicates appropriately Broad areas of learning Citizenship and Community Life Media Literacy Environmental Awareness Duration Activity #1 90 minutes Activity #2 120 minutes Activity #3 120 minutes Activity #4 240 minutes Educational and pedagogical aims To guide the students to develop a dynamic relationship with their environment, while maintaining a critical distance with respect to consumerism and exploitation of their environment To engage in dialogue in the form of a discussion on heritage. To make connections with reference points established in other disciplines. Required material Teacher: Copy of the students’ documents IWB or computer and digital projector Access to the Internet Student: Computer and access to the Internet 5 SQUARE MILE, A NEIGHBOURHOOD TO DISCOVER! Overview of proposed activities 1. Students look at two images of the same section of a street taken more than 80 years apart, describe what they see and observe and what the changes are. 2. Students first conceive an imaginary neighbourhood on their own and then, in small groups, think about the neighbourhood around their school and discuss what buildings are significant. 3. Discussion about what we can do with a heritage building using three Square Mile houses; students become architects to draw and describe a project for one of the houses. 4. Create a short film for a news report about a heritage site 6 SQUARE MILE, A NEIGHBOURHOOD TO DISCOVER! OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES A WORD ABOUT HERItaGE MONTREAL Since 1975, Heritage Montreal has worked to promote and to protect the architectural, historic, natural and cultural heritage of Greater Montreal, its neighbourhoods and communities. This private non-profit organization is at the heart of an extensive network of partners, working through education and representation to celebrate, develop and preserve Montreal’s identity and uniqueness. Heritage Montreal pursues its role as an informed, non-partisan and independent actor. WHAT DO WE DO? Heritage Montreal works through education and representation, with both the general public and the actors who are directly and indirectly responsible for protecting and enhancing heritage— including institutions, public agencies, owners and property managers. Advocacy Influencing the decisions of the various responsible agencies on the basis of the authority the organization enjoys due to its expertise in heritage issues. Acting as a catalyst within the milieu to encourage coherent interventions and to maximize the possibility of tangible and sustainable results. Education Sensitizing and educating residents to increase their sense of responsibility and to improve the quality of their actions. To develop a dynamic discussion about heritage, teachers are invited to consult Heritage, let’s talk about it! of Heritage Montreal’s school activities. This document is designed to give teachers more information on what is heritage, what is a heritage site and how we decide if a building is a heritage building. We encourage teachers to consult The Square Mile: A neighbourhood to discover, a complementary document for teachers, to familiarise themselves with the concept of neighbourhood and to learn more about the Square Mile. For more details on the organization, you can also visit our website: www.heritagemontreal.org There are five facets to Montreal’s built heritage of concern to the organization: Sites of commemorative interest (places or buildings associated with historical people or events, place names) Sites of archeological interest (sites or vestiges, buried or not, related to stages in Montreal’s history) Sites of architectural interest (buildings that are exceptional in some way or typical of periods, works of civil engineering, public works of art, landscape architecture) Sites of landscape interest (urban views and landmarks, the river, the mountain, topography, street trees, major parks, the canal, architectural characteristics of the neighbourhoods) Sites of ecological interest (sites identified in terms of natural science, hydrology (water), geological evidence, forest ecosystems, migratory stopovers) 7 SQUARE MILE, A NEIGHBOURHOOD TO DISCOVER! INSTRUCTIONS FOR TEACHERS ACTIVITY 1: LOOKING AND DISCUSSION: Past AND PRESENT COMMUNICATION, GEOGRAPHY Introduction The goal of this first activity is to define what a neighbourhood is and to have students discover the Square Mile, a neighbourhood that played an important role in the history of Montreal, Quebec and Canada. Students will understand the evolution of this part of the city over the last 85 years and will discuss how conservation is concerned with managing change and that our collective values change over time. Students will understand the importance of community life and their role as citizens. Students will examine and compare two photographs from Montreal’s Square Mile and complete a hands-on activity exploring a site in their own neighbourhood. STEP 1 As a class, have students look at the street scene photograph of Montreal from 1920. Ask the students the following questions: 1) Look at the photograph and describe what you see in the image. In what year was this photograph taken? What information helped you to select the year? 2) Describe what the buildings look like in terms of their size and what materials they appear to be made of. 3) If you were standing on the street corner, what sounds and smells would you experience? 4) Explain who you think would be walking on this street. What activities would have taken place? Teachers are encouraged to consult The Square Mile: A neighbourhood to discover for the history of the Square Mile and some of its builders/inhabitants. 394 Sherbrooke St. W., looking West., circa 1920 © Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec Link to download image 8 SQUARE MILE, A NEIGHBOURHOOD TO DISCOVER! STEP 2 After the students have had time to explore the image of Montreal from 1920, show the students the second street image of Montreal from 2018.