Saturday, January 01, 2011

January 4-7

















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

Things that are static -- not requiring regular change -- can be found at my website:http://sites.google.com/site/kbenoy/However, I'm afraid I do not update this regularly. I spend most of my time keeping the blog up to date.

This blogsite will have all of the changing material -- lesson plans and links to assignments. I will try to ensure that all assignments are posted here.If you see something underlined, it means that you can click on the item to have it appear. I will do this for all pdf documents, PowerPoints, videos, and even some music.

Sutherland has renewed its license with Discovery Education Streaming services and all of the Discovery videos and video clips are available for student use. If you established an account in previous years, you can access it using your existing login name and password. If you do not yet have an account, get the code from the poster at the front of my classroom (sorry, I cannot post this online) and enroll. Use is free and students have copywright privileges; you can use chunks within your presentations legally.

My tutorial times are officially 3:10 to 3:30 on Mondays and Fridays, however I am available most days before school, at noon and after school. Drop by or make an appointment if you need guaranteed time. I will respond to e-mails within a day at worst.

Social Studies 8

Block 3 students - be sure to get DPA (Daily Physical Activity) sheets in! Copies of the monthly forms are available here in Word and PDF formats.

We will quiz the Renaissance and Reformation on Thursday. This will be a shortish quiz that will not take the whole class. Expect 25 multiple choice questions (worth 1 mark each) and two paragraph question (worth 6 marks). The quiz is, therefore, out of 37 marks. Flash cards are valued at 3 marks on this unit.

Social Studies 11

There is a major research assignment due by the end of this week, the Family History - Immigration Assignment (With additional options for International and First Nations students. Click here to get a sample pedigree sheet. ) The due date for this work is not until right after the Christmas holidays, to allow plenty of time for research and discussion with family members.

The Geography textbook 21st Century World is available online. Just click on the title to access the table of contents.

With so little time left, there will be only two unit tests in the Geography unit. The first will cover chapters 1-3 and will probably be toward the end of next week. Expect it to have 65 multiple choice questions and two from a choice of 10 long answer questions - valued at 6 marks each. The total is, therefore, out of 77 marks. 30 properly done flash cards will earn 5 bonus marks.

You should be studying for the final exam at this time. Next week I will run an exam preparation class outside of school time. Expect it to run for about an hour to an hour and a half. We will look for an appropriate time slot this week.

It is essential that you are currently preparing to write the Provincial Final Exam. This is not a test that you can cram for with one or two days to go. You must become familiar with what to expect on the final exam and comfortable with the format of the test. Go to the ministry sites ( Frequently asked questions page, table of specifications, key verb list, &scoring criteria) to see how the exam is put together and look at past exams -- in fact you should write the sample test and look at the posted key to see how you do. To see how to approach the essay questions, look at this documentprovided to train markers of the exam. Link from my web page on writing the SS11 final, and also see myPowerPoint on how to approach the test.


  • Tuesday, January 4 - Course Planning -- grade 12 options in Social Studies. Complete chapter 1 PowerPoint. Begin watching An Inconvenient Truth. Your job while watching this film is to: 1) Identify Gore's thesis in this film. 2) List the evidence he cites to prove his thesis. 3) Explain why Gore convinced you or did not convince you that we must take immediate action to deal with climate change. they will be evaluated out of 10 marks for content (parts 1 & 2) and thoughtfulness (part 3) - this will be due on Friday. Read pp. 12-16. Do #1-9, p. 16 & #1-4, pp. 16-17.
  • Wednesday, January 5 - Take up homework. Continue watching An Inconvenient Truth and work on the assignment. Read pp. 17-20. Do #1-2, p. 17 & #1-4, p. 21.
  • Thursday, January 6 - Take up homework. Complete watching An Inconvenient Truth and ensure that the assignment is completed for next day. If we do not finish watching it in class, you are to do so on your own by watching it online. Begin Ch. 2 PowerPoint. Read pp. 29-31. Do both #1-3 on p. 31.
  • Friday, January 7 - Take up homework. Continue Ch. 2 PowerPoint - Population & Demographics. Go to Statistics Canada's website and read The Population Pyramid; What it is and How it Works. Use the data found at Statistics Canada's 2006 Data Table to calculate Canada's dependency ratio, based on the most recent census. Read pp. 31-37. Do #1 on p. 37. Go to the US Census Bureau's International Database and download and print a projected population pyramid for Nigeria in 2010. Do the same for Japan. Compare the shapes of these population pyramids. Suggest reasons why they are so different from one another.
History 12

Questions for Topic #4.

Essay #3 - Due the last week of classes before Christmas.

Plan for Topics #5 & 6.

Questions for Topics #5 & 6.

There will not be a unit test on topics 5 & 6. However, expect significant weight on this material on the final exam. You will submit work to #62 of the questions in January. The I may collect some of the remainder in the final week -- we will determine this after the Christmas holidays. The problem I have is that all marks must be finalized by the last week of classes, so you know your mark going into the final exam.


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