Activity overview

Primary HTC concept(s)
explored in this activity

Historiography guidepost 3
Members of the historical community of inquiry contest virtually all aspects of the historical enterprise including topics investigated, sources used, methods of analysis,
and accounts produced.

Historiography guidepost 4
Historiography is itself socially located and historical. In other words the conventions and accounts generally agreed to by the community of inquiry are shaped by social and culture contexts and vary across contexts and over time.

Secondary HTC concept(s)
explored in this activity

Significance guidepost 3
Historical significance is constructed. Events, people, and developments meet the criteria for significance only when they are shown to occupy a meaningful place in a narrative.

Significance guidepost 4
Historical significance varies over time and from group to group.

Using the sources consulted in Activity #1, students will create posters to illustrate the different perspectives on the role of D-Day in the Normandy Campaign. Students will focus on how D-Day represents the Canadian experience according the sources they have consulted.
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As a second step in this activity, students can make judgements about what events/shifts in ideology that are informing historians’ interpretations. Why might the Normandy narrative have changed over time? What events may have changed the way we thought about war, and the Second World War in particular?

In this activity, students should be able to demonstrate understanding that historians have disagreed over the interpretations of the Normandy Campaign, particularly the significance of D-Day, and that these interpretations are shaped by social and cultural contexts.

​Please see The Big Six Historical Thinking Concepts (2012) by Peter Seixas and Tom Morton, as well as the Historical Thinking Project website for further ideas for student assessment or to adapt these activities.

Questions posed to students in this activity

​Research question: How do historians treat D-Day at different points in time? Do they refer to events in the Normandy Campaign other than D-Day?​

​Inquiry question(s):  Is D-Day the best  example of the Canadian experience of the Normandy Campaign? ​

Considerations for teachers to introduce in student inquiry

Additional guiding questions for students: How can we make judgements about history when the historians disagree? How do histories influence how we make sense of current events?