A Love Letter to Canada Part Four

This is Part Three of a four part series about the use of The Amazing Race Canada in a Grade 4 classroom. In Part One, I discuss the genesis of the project and the changes I made in the first few years I screened it with students at a school with a high English Second Language (ESL) population. Part Two catalogues the transition of the program for use with multiple classrooms using Google Tools & Flipgrid to communicate their experiences with each other. In Part Three, I touch on a couple of the great mapping activities and our own version of an Amazing Race Challenge.

I thought I would finish off with a few suggestions about other curriculum connections that can be made.

Math

• Using Google Tools, distances between locations can be determined. The difference between "as the crow flies" and "conventional travel" can be explored and values can be rounded.
• A Google Form can be used after Episode 5 to generate data for charts and graphs. "Which team is your favourite?" Which team has the best chance to win?" & "Which Amazing Race location would you most like to visit?" 
• Specifically, the Grade 4 curriculum asks students to be able to "read, interpret, and draw conclusions from primary data presented in charts, tables, and graphs (including stem-and-leaf plots and double bar graphs)".  Double bar graphs can easily be created if two of the classes share their data.

Media Literacy

• The Grade 4 curriculum tackles the idea of "overt" and "implied" messaging. Throughout The Amazing Race Canada a variety of products are promoted - Chevrolet, Interac, Air Canada, Cadbury - to name a few. Students can be prompted with the following questions...
• Is mentioning "Air Canada" regularly on the program the same as a commercial?
• Who is the target audience for these products? Do you think that lines up with the people who watch the show?
• What is the "implied message" when Jon mentions the product... "Brand new Chevy Equinox", "First Class flight, courtesy of Air Canada".

Health & Physical Education

• There are plenty opportunities to talk about great choices for physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle. Students see the common (running, dancing, football) to the less common (scuba-diving, rappelling, speed-skating). During the first year I presented the unit, we recreated the football challenge for a Phys. Ed. period.

• Sportsmanship - There are multiple opportunities for rich discussion around decisions that participants make on the show. Specifically...
• When Tim & Tim are assessed a penalty at the Pit Stop, Vanessa & Celina (who have already checked in) are heard to say "Suckers!".
• Conversely, when Treena and Tenille are assessed the same penalty, the Cowboys (who benefit directly from their elimination) are immediately apologetic and supportive.
• An agreement is made between teams regarding the Express Pass - this promise is later broken. Can this be dismissed as simply "game play"?
• A team hides maps of Calgary in the airport convenience store. Again - game play?
• A team makes a honest mistake when signing up for the later flight. The next team capitalizes on this mistake and are later asked to "switch back". They decline - does this fall within the rules of the game?

Research & Writing

• The poetry of Robert Service is terrific for a read aloud
• Writing and research prompts present themselves regularly. I have been keen on developing a Hyperdoc that would lend itself to some Project Based Learning. These could be presented as Interactive Google Slideshow, Stop Motion with Google Slides, A Scratch Presentation,A Minecraft Journey, A Google Site, a pamphlet or a presentation. Examples of topics include... 
• How would you spend a day in Kelowna, Calgary, Quebec City or Halifax?
• What is the legend of the Ogopogo?
• "There's a desert in Yellowknife?" How is that possible?
• How do you make a crepe?

I could go on. There are so many curriculum connections to be made. Today, I was lucky enough to visit one of the classrooms as they finished the final episode. As the winning team crossed the finish line, the students roared with excitement. The listened intently as the three final teams talked about what the experience had taught them. The teacher paused and highlighted some of the things they said. Overcoming obstacles, bonding as family, persevering and collaborating. However, one team made a comment very similar to the one I made when I began this series of posts.

I guess I most wanted to introduce my students to the beauty of this magnificent country. I wanted them to make connections from places on the map to real places that the teams visited. I wanted them to learn about all the incredible diversity in landscape, recreation, tradition and history that we have captured between three great oceans.

or, as Season 1 participant Dave Schram put it:

When we were selected, the producers told all of us that... they "wanted the show to be a love letter to Canada."