January 21-25

This is the last week of classes.

All work must be submitted to ensure that it appears in student marks.

For those of you new to my blogsite, it is intended to work alongside my website at:

http://kbenoy.googlepages.com/

e-mail me at http://kbenoy@nvsd44.bc.ca/


Things that are static -- not requiring regular change -- will be posted on the website. This blogsite will have the changing material -- lesson plans and links to particular assignments. I will try to ensure that all assignments are made available on the Internet in this way. If something is underlined on the blog, it means that you can click on it to see a copy of the particular item -- this could be a pdf document, powerpoint, music or a video.

Use this blog to see what is coming up each week. I will usually post it on Saturdays for the following week. If you are away, you can check up on what you are missing. There really is no reason for you not to know what is happening. If you do not have an Internet connection, you certainly know someone who does.

If you can't read the PowerPoint material on your computer, download PowerPoint Viewer from Microsoft. It is free.Sutherland has a license to access Discovery Channel's United Streaming video collection. Students may download or stream videos from the collection by going to http://www.unitedstreaming.com/ . Use the passcode posted in the classroom to register. If you have lost it, see me, or e-mail me, for this information. Students are licensed to include this content within their own creations.Social Studies 11.

Social Studies 11

We had our last in-class test on Friday. Chapter & 5 material will be included on the Provincial final exam, so be sure to complete all work thoroughly.

It is important to prepare for your Provincial Final Exam. Go to the Ministry website and look at the exam table of specifications, familiarize yourself with key exam terms, access past exams and answer keys, and look at the essay scoring criteria to see how your essays will be marked. See how subjective questions are marked by looking at the Provincial Exam marker training papers. This is a big file and will take a little time to download. Example answers are given and then the marks that they received.

Your exam is on Tuesday, January 29 in rooms B202 and B203 -- the double Math room, between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm.

Your Geography textbook is also available online at http://www.design4effect.com/soc11/ . Though we will use some material from the other text, most will be from this e-text. Be aware that this text is now a few years old and many hyperlinks are broken. Rewriting is a massive job that I have not had time to take on yet.

I will collect Blue text-books and Geography textbooks on Friday. With three classes writing exams at the same time, it is impossible to collect books at the exams as historically a very large number of people forget to bring their books to the exam. We do not have a bookroom yet, so it will not be possible to check for misplaced books there. We cannot afford to be missing books heading into the new semester. Bills for lost texts will be handed out at the exam. If you do not have home access to the Internet, I will make an exception for you to hang on to the Geography text to complete homework. If you need this arrangement, you must see me individually.

This close to exam time, you should not be relying in text-book study in any case. Use flash cards, timelines, and point-form notes on concepts. Text-book reading is highly inefficient.

• Monday, January 21 - Take up pp. 83-86. Do #1-3, p. 84, #1-4, p. 85 & 1-2, p. 86. Begin Chapter 4 PowerPoint. Read pp. 86- 93. Do #1-3, p. 87, #1-4, p. 89, #1-5, p. 91 and #1-5, p. 93.


• Tuesday, January 22 - Take up homework. Video: History’s Harvest and do the viewing guide questions. If time we will look at more of the Chapter 4 PowerPoint. Read pp. 93-102. Do #1-6, p. 97 (but note "1997" in #3 should read "1973" and the typographical error in #5, where "grater" should read "greater"), #1-7, p. 102.


• Wednesday, January 23 - Take up homework. Video: Resources & Conservation and questions. If time we will look at more of the Chapter 4 PowerPoint. You must watch any unfinished Chapter 4 PowerPoint on your own time, for homework. Read pp. 102-106. Do #1-6, p. 105 and Further Thought #1-4, p. 108.


• Thursday, January 24 - Take up homework. Chapter 5 PowerPoint. If time, watch Doctor Hans Rosling's presentation Gapcast #5; Bangladesh Miracle. Read pp. 116-129. Do #1, p. 118, #1-3, p. 120, #1-5, p. 123, #1-3, p. 129.


• Friday, January 25 - Watch the amazing Dr. Hans Rosling's presentation at the 2006 TED Conference - The Seemingly Impossible is Possible. Be sure to watch as many of his video Gapcasts as you have time for. We will look at those that block time allows for. Read pp. 129-132. Do #1-3, p. 130, #1-2, p. 131, and #1-4, p. 132.
  

Comparative Civilizations 12

The final examination in this course will be held on the last two days of class, instead of during exam week. This test is worth 15% of your course mark. Only the first part of the test is closed book. You may refer to your notebooks in answering all other material.

Final Exam, Day 1: Slide Identification (closed book). Expect 50 items. You are to identify the work, the artist and the period (100 marks - since not all items have all three parts, we will give bonus marks for any third part identified). The remaining part of day 1 is an essay question - choose 1 from among 4 options (24 marks - 6 for composition and 18 for content -- marked according to the provincial examinations English & History rubrics).

Final Exam, Day 2: 15 matching items (1 mark each), 10 identifying styles from written descriptions (10 marks), 80 multiple choice (80 marks), and two from 5 long answer questions (20 marks - 10 each).

The final examination is, therefore, out of 249 marks -- but this is scaled to 15% of your final course mark.

Your Grandeur & Obedience Package is due by 4:30 p.m. Monday. Your Light of Experience package is due by 4:30 p.m. on Friday.

I hope to be able to post final marks for you by Monday, January 28 - probably on the bulletin board outside my room.

• Monday, January 21 - Frans Hals and the minor Dutch masters. Watch some episodes from Sister Wendy. Work on package. Hand in Grandeur & Obedience package by 4:30 p.m.


• Tuesday, January 22 - Vermeer and Rembrandt. Work on Package. If you get the opportunity, the feature film The Girl With a Pearl Earing, is a nice evening's viewing. Watch Simon Schama's excellent documentary on Rembrandt.


• Wednesday, January 23 - Christopher Wren. Work on Package. Watch the hour-long documentary Wren; the Man Who Built Britain.


• Thursday, January 24 - Day 1 of the Final Exam.


• Friday, January 25 - Day 2 of the Final Exam. Hand in the Light of Experience package by 4:30 p.m.
  

History 12

This unit is global in scope -- far more than previous units. I will tend to focus on one region or issue at a time, which will mean that we will jump around more in time order. We did a bit of this in the last unit, but expect far more from now on. It is, therefore, essential that you find a way to make sure that you get the chronology right. I strongly suggest that you create a time line, with years on one axis and a series of columns, labelled Europe, Asia, North America, and South America on the other axis. Put major events on this timeline in the appropriate location and time. This will help you see events graphically -- recognizing how they might influence other events, elsewhere in the world, in the Cold War era.

You must begin to prepare for the final examination, which is worth 40% of your over-all mark. Go to the Ministry of Education's History 12 website and access the following material: The exam table of specifications, the description of key verbs used on the exam, a description of the scoring criteria used in marking the exam, and, of course, familiarize yourself with the look of the exam itself -- the response booklet, sample and released examinations and answer keys. The best way to prepare for this exam is to actually write a previous exam

Even though you are not handing in the final group of questions for marking, it is essential that you complete them thoroughly. They are the best preparation I can give you for getting ready for this content on the final exam.

If you are not using your textbooks to study from, and I strongly suggest that you are beyond this by the end of this week (you should be using flashcards, timelines and point-form notes on concepts by this time), please hand them back to me on Friday. I will allow students to hang on to books until the test if absolutely necessary, and will collect books at the test room.

• Monday, January 21 - Maoist and post-Maoist China (base notes). At home, watch the History Channel video Mao Declassified, which deals with the Cultural Revolution. A nice summary of Chinese 20th Century History can be seen in PBS' China; A Century of Revolution - available in pieces on Youtube - I link to segment 1. Music videos give an interesting insight into Maoist culture. Watch The East is Red (I link to the first part), and Song of Dragon River (again linking to the first part).


• Tuesday, January 22 - The Middle East Since 1956 (base notes). If you have the time, watch the History Channel's Battlefield Detectives; Israel's Six Day War and also Modern Warfare: Yom Kippur War (1973). If you are interested in Israel's Weapons of Mass Destruction, watch the BBC's Correspondence: Israel's Secret Weapon. See the situation from the Palestinian perspective in the BBC's Clash of the Worlds; Palestine . Look at modern attitudes in the region through music videos with the following: Yallah ya Nasrallah (an anti-Arab Jewish song with English subtitles, , Moon Erhabo (Anti-Israeli Rap), and watch this short documentary on Palestinian Hip Hop -- oddly popular with Israeli youth, Hadag Nahash -- the Sticker Song (with English subtitles).
  
• Wednesday, January 23 - The Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism (base notes). A fascinating BBC documentary that compares the rise of radical islamists and American neo-conservatives is The Power of Nightmares. The Irish documentary Whose Afraid of Islam is an interesting look at cultural struggles. Watch and listen to the songs of the Iranian Revolution: Example 1 - Tribute to Imam Khomeini (with English subtitles), Example 2, Example 3 - Khamenei is Our Leader (With a speech by the Iranian cleric at the start), Example 4 - Iranian song supporting Palestinians against Israel.
  
• Thursday, January 24 - Southern Africa and the Fall of Apartheid (base notes). Watch Charlie Rose's interview with F.W. De Klerk, the Afrikaaner who brought an end to apartheid. How can white and black reconcile in South Africa? Watch Spear Cleansing (23 minutes, about Letlapa Mphalele, who ordered the killing of whites, and Ginn Fourie, who's daughter was killed on the order of Mphalele. Both are now friends and colleagues. A good historical treatment of the lives of human rights leaders Gandhi and Mandela is Together We Lit Up the Sky. Music was a powerful weapon in the anti-apartheid movement. Johnny Clegg, a white student of Zulu music and dance, wrote hugely popular music, often with a strongly propolitical bent. Watch and listen to: Scatterlings of Africa, African Rain, Siyayilanda, Asibonanga, One Man, One Vote, Great Heart, I Call Your Name, and Dela. Clegg continues to sing in support of human rights and I also link to The Revolution Will Eat Its Children, a song against Black dictator Robert Mugabe, of Zimbabwe. For something a little different, try Nwampfundla.
  
• Friday, January 25 - Complete any unfinished material and final exam preparation.