The Canadian Encyclopedia is not intended as an ESL resource, or a citizenship resource; however, it is an interesting, up-to-date and comprehensive compendium that can be used by students and educators for research or personal interest. It is written at a level that is accessible to Stage 2 learners.
The Encyclopedia is provided in both English and French, and contains 14,000 articles in each language. The topics include Canadian history, politics, popular culture, science, the arts and sports. Audio and video features are embedded in the online documents, and include the well-known Heritage Minutes. The closed captioning feature can be used for accurate English subtitles of the Heritage videos. There is an extensive list of interactive resources in an alphabetical list, organized as collections, exhibits, timelines and teaching resources.
The teaching resources include several study guides and short quizzes, which cover issues such as Black History, the War of 1812, Critical Thinking and Compiling a Bibliography. The website also provides a link to the Canadian Citizenship Challenge, an online quiz that simulates the citizenship test. It references the Discover Canada citizenship resource. The quiz can be completed by a student individually or teachers can register their students to complete the challenge as a team.
