SCHOOLS PROGRAM

Work on the curriculum and video was made possible by grants from the Hamber Foundation, the Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation and the Chris Spencer Foundation. The Vancouver School Board provided personnel and expertise. Members of the Architects in Schools Program (AIBC) and the Roedde House Preservation Society generously gave of their time.

REV: Mon, Sep 6, 2004

Schools Program

Leaded Glass Window

The Roedde House curriculum

Making history come alive

The Roedde House curriculum project started with the challenge of making history come alive for elementary students. The second challenge was to make better use of the excellent resources that Roedde House and Barclay Heritage Square offered.

The Roedde House curriculum was developed by exploring the idea of living history through four areas: personal history, local history, artifacts and architecture. The package was designed to extend and enrich the social studies and language arts curriculum for elementary schools, aiming particularly at the Grade 5 focus on Canada: Past, Present and Future. It includes learning outcomes, activities, lesson and resource materials, historic information, bibliographies, photographs, maps and artifacts for in-class examination.

Convenient, Imaginative Resources

A teacher must first capture students' imaginations, so the curriculum includes a travelling kit filled with period clothing and games, artifacts, copies of historic photographs, resource books, and even a 20-minute video created especially for the project, in which Gwen Varcoe and Kay Haugh recall their memories of living in Roedde House.

Flexibility For Teachers

The curriculum was designed to be flexible and open-ended, enabling teachers to adapt and expand the activities, emphasizing those aspects most suited to their class, school and experience. As in any honest historical exploration, issues such as racism, gender equity and change will come up, and because they arise in the context of the curriculum, they can be meaningfully dealt with as students make connections with their own lives and experiences.

While the educational materials focus on Roedde House, the ideas, strategies and many of the resource materials adapt easily to historic buildings in other locations throughout the city and province.

School Tours

Since the completion of the curriculum, school tours of Roedde House have been fully booked. These on-site visits include three different phases: a tour of the house, a walkabout exploration of Barclay Square and a sketching session that teaches architectural observation and vocabulary. An excellent group of well-informed docents ensure that students get the most out of their tour.

Roedde House's curriculum was a City of Vancouver Heritage Award recipient in 1997.

To sign up for a tour or get more information, please call Roedde House at 684-7040, Wednesday and Friday 1-6pm, Thursday 9-6.