February 6-10

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/.

Notice to Parents: Because of the current labour dispute, only grade 12 marks are supposed to be provided on report cards. Written comments are proscribed. This does not mean that we are not reporting marks to students and parents regularly.

If you want an update regarding marks or other information you need only e-mail me at the address above. I am happy to give a full account that goes well beyond what a report card provides.

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.

Course outlines are posted in the material for the first class this semester - go to the Monday, January 30 posting.

Social Studies 8

We will begin with a Geography unit. Expect a unit test at the end of this, worth around 75 marks. This will be in roughly 3 weeks. It will be based on map reading and the use of Canadian Oxford World Atlas (7th edition). We will also have a number of quizzes worth from 5-30 marks throughout the unit. You will not always be warned ahead of time about quizzes -- so it is important to keep up.

If you are struggling, be sure to see me outside of class for extra help!

You will need the following material for the Geography unit: a ruler, pens, pencils, and coloured pencils, erasers, whiteout, a portable computer storage device (USB key, with at least 1 GB of space on it -- which you can use in all of your other classes too), and lined paper.

Keep all of your material in order in either a section of a bigger binder, with work from other courses, or a smaller Social Studies binder. The choice is yours. You should also have section dividers to separate units. Keep all work to study from for the final exam at the end of the course. After unit tests, you can take this work out and leave it safe at home if you do not want to keep carrying it around -- just don't lose it.

National Geographic has some nice overview PowerPoints for this unit. See Map Elements and Map Skills.

• Monday, February 6 - Take up Direction & Scale Worksheet (I may or may not do a homework check - worth 3 marks for completion). Animaniacs countries song. Introduction to map symbols. Video clip on map symbols - colour. Symbols worksheet - complete for homework. For a really simple (elementary school level) explanation of map symbols, see this National Geographic site. Rather more advanced and rather cheesy is this 1967 US Department of Defense educational video dealing with map symbols.
• Tuesday, February 7 - Take up homework -- Symbols Worksheet. Naming countries contest. More symbols review - Symbols Worksheet 2 - complete for homework. Also complete the assignment: Continents and Major Water Bodies map - 10 marks. Due next class. Completely unrelated to learning map skills, but entertaining, is this video clip - MacGyver; How to Use a Map.
• Wednesday, February 8 - Hand in the map assignment. Take up homework. Quiz - Scale & Directions. Introduction to grids. Geographical Essentials, pp. 15-19. Activity 9 #1-3, Complete #4 and Activity 10 for homework. ( Please note the following change. We did not get to this map assignment. We will insert it again later in the unit. Map Assignment - School to Home (valued at 10 marks).
• Thursday, February 9 - Take up Activity 9 #1-4 and Activity 10 work. Introduction to military grid. Military Grid Worksheet. Complete the Letter/Number Grid Worksheet for homework.
• Friday, February 10 - Take up any problems with military grid. Take up the Letter/Number Grid Worksheet. Latitude introduction. Geographical Essentials, pp. 32-35. Key lines of latitude and why we have seasons -- see the video Geography Seasons for this. Introduction video to Latitude and Longitude - with questions. Note: you need to login to Discovery Education's streaming video site to do this. Mr. Benoy posts the access code in the classroom. Complete the Latitude #1 worksheet for homework.

Social Studies 11

We will begin with the Government unit and start with the old red text to deal with ideologies. You will get the Counterpoints text, which we will use for most of the semester, once we get past ideologies -- which Counterpoints does not deal with well.

Expect your first unit test on Ideologies/Parties/Elections to be on Wednesday, February 15 -- or thereabout. The mark breakdown is most likely to be as follows: 30 multiple choice question (1 mark each); 4 items to label on a diagram (1 mark each); 5 definitions - you write a sentence or two about each term or name (2 marks each); 2 long answer questions from a choice of 4 options (6 marks each). The test should, therefore, be out of about 66 marks.

• Monday, February 6 - Sign out Counterpoints text. Take up homework. Lecture/discussion – from ideologies to political parties – national parties in Canada. Read Counterpoints pp. 255-258. Do #3 & 4, p. 258. For homework over the last weekend, you took an online quiz to identify your political viewpoint. To see which Canadian political party comes closest to your views (2011 comparison - according to this organization. Take a look at US national politics while you are here), link here and see if this is what you expected. Interested in pursuing this further? Try some more tests -- mostly American -- to see where you stand.
• Tuesday, February 7 - Take up homework. Placing parties on the political spectrum. PowerPoint. BC & Canadian political parties. Read Counterpoints pp. 249-258. Do #1-5, p. 253, & sidebar #1-3, p. 257.
• Wednesday, February 8 - Take up #1-5, p. 253, #4, p. 258 & sidebar #1-3, p. 257. Review of party positions on the political spectrum, what parties currently stand for, and names of party leaders. Introduction to political party organizations. As part of your homework, you must go to Elections Canada's pages entitled I Can Vote, with information for young and first time voters. Answer these questions. Read pages 109-115 in the red Government text and answer questions #1-3 & 5, p. 115. Optional: Click here to go to a list of all of the political parties, with links to their web-pages.
• Thursday, February 9 - Take up I Can Vote and #1-3 & 5, p. 115. Elections handout. Elections in Canada – The first-by-the-post system. (If time; proportional representation too). Read Government pp. 88-97. Do #4, p. 97. Research Canadian federal political parties. Which party would you support in the next federal election? Why? About a half page or so of writing is needed to adequately answer this question. Value: 10 marks, due Tuesday (next class). Find political party information at Elections Canada's registered political parties page.
• Friday, February 10 - Take up #1-3, p. 257 & #4, p. 97. Elections lesson – day 2. Various voting systems. BCSTV animation. Assignment: What electoral system do you feel is best? Why? (due Monday. About 1 page).