Due to the nature of the operation, the Allies often censored letters written by deployed soldiers to their loved ones. In this activity, students participate in a letter writing exercise that explores censorship. First, they write an original letter putting themselves in the shoes of someone deployed in Europe. Then, a classmate reads the letter and censors any elements they deem compromising. A general discussion is then led by the teacher. This activity can accompany our exhibition or be used independently for another project.
This activity was first designed to accompany our exhibition When Daylight Comes: the Canadians on D-Day. The exhibition is also available for free to your school by completing our reservation form.
Activity content
With the student guide, students will first choose a person who participated in the Normandy landings, taken from our list, and do a short research project on them. Then, they will write an original letter putting themselves in that person’s shoes. After writing the letter, they will pass it to a classmate who will be reading it and censoring any elements that he or she considers compromising to the success of the landings! Finally, we encourage the class to discuss the results of the activity.
The teacher’s guide describes the educational objectives of the activity and provides the necessary corrections.
Activity objectives
The goal of these activities is to allow secondary cycle two students to have a greater understanding of World War II and Canada’s role in the Normandy landings. Students will also learn to appreciate the contributions of Canadian Armed Forces personnel from Quebec.
These activities were created as educational tools to complement the Quebec Education Program of secondary 4 History and secondary 5 History of the 20th and Contemporary World courses. In addition, these activities can also be used as language tools in the following courses: Francais langue maternelle (in secondary 3, 4 and 5), Français, secondary language, English, secondary language (in secondary 3, 4 and 5) and English Language Arts.
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