January 19 to 23

After Rembrandt

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 too ill to work while away, be sure to attach a note from home to any overdue work when you hand it in and I will most likely waive any late deduction.

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 Education's United Streaming video collection. Students may download or stream videos from the collection by going to http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm . 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.

My tutorial times are officially 2:55-3:15 every Monday and Friday. However, I am available most days before school, at noon and after school. Drop by or make an appointment if you need guaranteed time.

Social Studies 11

We are working through the Geography portion of this course and are using our in-house textbook, The 21st Century World. This book is available online at http://www.design4effect.com/soc11 . It is a number of years since this was created, so I offer apologies in advance for dead links. Until a 36 hour day is available, I am unable to update it all unless I am offered significant help doing so.

You should be preparing for the final examination. Read my Tips for Writing the Social Studies 11 Provincial 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. I am running an exam preparation session from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 21 in room C306 - the big multimedia room on the Science floor. We will look at how to write the Social Studies 11 Provincial examination. Mr. Benoy must know ahead of time if you plan to attend, to ensure enough packages of material are run off. Click here for the PowerPoint presentation that begins this session.

• Monday, January 19 - 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 20 - 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 21 - 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. Don't forget exam prep evening between 4-6 p.m. in room D306 today.
• Thursday, January 22 - Take up homework. Chapter 5 PowerPoint. If time, we will discuss essay-writing on final exams. Read pp. 116-129. Do #1, p. 118, #1-3, p. 120, #1-5, p. 123, #1-3, p. 129.
• Friday, January 23 - Intruduction: Worldmapper animation. 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. Remaining class time will be given over to exam preparation. 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. Friday. Your Light of Experience package is due by 4:30 p.m. on Friday as well.

I hope to be able to post final marks for you by Monday, January 28 - probably on the bulletin board outside my room or on the glass window between the class and the hallway.

• Monday, January 19 - New package, The Light of Experience, introduced (Note: this is a very short package) - due Friday by 4:30 p.m. Filmstrip from the Clark series. Frans Hals and the minor Dutch masters. Watch some episodes from Sister Wendy. Work on package.
• Tuesday, January 20 - Vermeer and Rembrandt. Work on Packages. If you get the opportunity, the feature film The Girl With a Pearl Earing, is a nice evening's viewing. Regretfully, the Simon Schama documentary The Power of Art: Rembrandt is no longer available online -- if you can find a copy and watch it, it is well worth the effort.
• Wednesday, January 21 - Christopher Wren. Work on Package. Watch the hour-long documentary Wren; the Man Who Built Britain - if you can find the time.
• Thursday, January 22 - Day 1 of the final examination.
• Friday, January 23 - Day 2 of the final examination.

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 outside the test room.

• Monday, January 19 - 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).
• Tuesday, January 20 - 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.
• Wednesday, January 21 - 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. ...and in response, a revival of Boer nostalgia from when the Boers once fought against all odds in the Boer war - Delarey.
• Thursday, January 22 - Finish anything that we were unable to complete earlier and work on exam preparation. Click here for the PowerPoint Presentation that starts the review material.
• Friday, January 23 - Exam preparation.