Unit Plan
Learning from Labour
12
Lesson Overview
Lesson #Lesson title/Description
1
The Rights and Responsibilities of Workers and Employers
This lesson examines the rights/responsibilities of workers and employers in Canada. Students will make predictions of
how these have changed throughout history.
2
Every Day is Labour Day!
Students will select and explore one of three aspects of ‘Labour’ which positively impact our society yet are taken for
granted: Labour Day and the labour movement, current Employment Standards and Health and Safety Regulations
in Ontario and Organized Labour. Students will make connections as to how unions have impacted past and present
society.
3
The Labour Day Critical Design Challenge
Students will be challenged to design a revitalized Labour Day celebration, making specific reference to the history and
efforts of workers and the labour movement.
4
Child Labour
Students will formulate questions from encounters with images of Canadian child labour at the turn of the 20th
century and identify the factors that were due to the rise of the Industrial Revolution.
5
Human Rights as Workers Rights
Students will study the relationship between human rights and workers’ rights by analyzing the events of the 1872
Toronto Printers Strike and comparing contemporary standards of human rights to the rights of working people in the
19
th
century.
6
Immigration and the Racialization of Work
Students will examine ways in which the prevailing societalracist view of immigrants from non-British backgrounds
affected both their living and working conditions during the pre- and post-Confederation era.
7
Immigration and Ruralization: Urban vs. Rural
Students will develop an understanding of the importance of labour and immigration in urban settings vs.. rural
settings at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century in Canada. This lesson examines the human
geography of Canada and how and where resources are used (i.e., the cyclical nature of urban/rural work).
8
Women and Labour
Students will examine a variety of historical texts in order to dramatize the experiences, struggles and triumphs of
Canadian women workers.
9
What’s next for the Labour Movement?:
Examining Union Websites to Determine Next Steps
Students will review their learning from the unit and make connections to the labour movement today. Students
will also make predictions about which rights the next labour movement will fight for.