The Bank of Canada is ready to show people what its new plastic (or “polymer”) $5 and $10 bills will look like, but according to a report some people say the new bills look too “cartoonish” or outdated.
The report was obtained by a news service called Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act (which lets people—in this case journalists—request and have access to documents).
The report says that the Bank asked focus groups (groups of people who are asked for their opinions before a new product or design is released) what they thought about the look of newly designed $5 and $10 bills.
The people in the focus groups said they thought the space images on the bill looked too childish.
They also said they didn’t understand who, or what, “Dextre” was. Dextre is “a Canadian robotic handyman on board the International Space Station,” Canadian Press reported. Dextre is featured on the new $5 bills.
The image of the Space Station, too, was also confusing to people; some people didn’t recognize it or know what it was.
The new $10 bill includes images of a train. The report said that people in the focus group immediately understood the significance of the train in the development of Canada’s history. However, they thought the image was not very inspirational because it evokes a way of travelling that is “outdated or cost prohibitive,” CP reported.
The new $5 and $10 bills are to be put into circulation later this year.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
The images on a nation’s money is very significant to some. To others, the images on the bills carry very little importance. What do you think? Why do you think so? How might you try to convince someone who held a different view?
Reading Prompt: Extending Understanding
What images do you feel should be on the new Canadian $5 and $10 bills? Using the information in today’s article, draw your own design for the new bills and be sure to include images that you think would get a strong approval from focus groups. Write a short explanation that tells why you chose the images.
Primary
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge and experience, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Junior
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Intermediate
Extend understanding of texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Grammar Feature: Quotation Marks ( ” )
Quotation marks are punctuation marks that can be used in many different ways. Most often they are used to show direct speech. However, quotation marks can also be used to show that a word is being used in an uncommon way, to show a name or title, to show a nickname, and that something is ironic.
Reread today’s article and place a label beside each set of quotation marks in order to indicate whether they are being used to show direct speech, uncommon usage, a name or title, a nickname, or irony.
What other punctuation marks can be used in more than one way?
