Assignment #23: Canada and China

Hello R8A Geographers,

Starting tomorrow, we will have two new students in our class. Ziting (Sherry) and Ya-wen (Teresa). They are coming on an exchange from China and are here to learn about Canadian culture and to develop their English language skills. We are very excited to have them joining our class and look forward to warmly welcoming them tomorrow.

I don't know how much you know about China, and based on our Pop Quiz yesterday, we can all learn some more about Canada, so your assignment today will have you comparing the two countries.

Please visit the CIA World Factbook (I have a copy of a book with this information as well). Look up each of Canada and China. You'll see a list of tabs, select "People". Read through the facts and figures about the people of Canada and then read through the facts and figures about the people of China. You can read other categories as well and look at the photos if you wish.

Once you have done some reading, create a new post on your blog comparing and contrasting three pieces of information. For each one, you should list the information and then write one sentence: "say something". In your reflective sentence, write about what this means/why this was of interest to you/a question you have.

You can also add to your post, for bonus marks, by reading other information about these two countries and writing about what is similar and what is different.

Good luck and make sure to leave a comment on this post when you are done and ready for me to mark your work!

DigLitCirc Discussion #6 - the FINAL one - begins!

Hello Ottawa and Oshawa readers,

  You are expected to be done reading your novel by the first week back at school after March Break.

   Friday, March 25th is the last date for posting answers to the questions from section 6. My students will be posting those questions by the end of the day today and I will link to them here.

Jatinder is hosting the discussion for We All Fall Down.
Aaisha and Amrita are hosting the Branded discussion.
Tara is hosting the discussion for Shaken.
Mateen will be hosting the discussion for Wounded.
Thanks to Claire "Nancy Drew", I know that Walid will be hosting the discussion for Black and White. Wave's final discussion will be hosted by Zak.
Sara is hosting the final discussion for Sketches.

Assignment #22 - Faces of the World

Above - "average" faces of women around the world

Hello R8A bloggers,

It's time for your first official Geography blog assignment to begin!

You have already watched the two amazing National Geographic videos about "The Seven Billion". Now, I want you to start working with these ideas.

In the video about the Most Typical Human, National Geographic created the face of the current most typical human, but also mentioned that that face will be changing in your lifetime.

For this assignment, I want you to do some research and analysis about this idea of the changing human face. You are going to make one post to answer the questions below. There will be 5 parts to your post (A, B, C, D and E).

1. Post: Part A: First of all, I want you to look up the word "globalization". Once you've found a good definition, create a new post, link back to the definition(s) you found and then write a definition of globalization IN YOUR OWN WORDS, one that can be understood by your peers.

2. Next, check out "The Face of Tomorrow", an amazing art and geography project that addresses identity and globalization. In big cities around the world, migrants from many different countries gather and the average faces of those cities and countries tell a story. Visit the map page on this site and look at the average faces in different cities. You can click on different locations to see the average male and female faces, or go to the drop down menus at the bottom and compare average faces in up to four locations. Spend some time here playing around.

3. Post: Part B: Add to your post a description of how one would go about making these average faces (link back to any sources you used for information). In real life, how do facial identities change over generations?

4. Post: Part C: What did you notice while playing around with "The Face of Tomorrow"? Add to your post three points (written in full sentences) that you found interesting. (What does "the face of tomorrow" mean? Why do the differences in our faces give us a sense of identity? What surprised you? What did you expect?...)

5. Visit Face Research and play around with the dozens of faces there. You can select as many as you wish, and create an average of their faces. Play around until you create what you believe to be the "face of tomorrow". Once you've found it, save the image (right click and select "Save as", give it an appropriate title and save to your account).

6. Post: Part D: Add to your post the picture you created and write three reasons (in full sentences) why you think this average face best represents "the face of tomorrow". Make sure one of your sentences uses your new knowledge about the term "globalization". I want to see that new vocabulary word in this portion of your post.

Above - a face that I created on Face Research by combining three different women of different ethnic origins.

7. Post: Part E: Think about your own face and the faces of your family members and friends. Do you have a face that represents your nationality, your family and yourself? Write at least two reflective sentences thinking about your own identity that is shown to the world by your face.

8. Final step: leave a comment on this blog post to tell me when you're finished.

BONUS: On the Face Research website, you can even start a free account and upload photos of your face and average it with other faces. I haven't tried this yet, but if you do, please let me know!

The Great Geography Kick-Off!

Hello friends,

The History Fair marks the end (sob, sob) of our History program this year. That means, starting this week, we will begin with Geography!

This weekend, I discovered an amazing new series on National Geographic's website - 7 Billion!

To start off your Geography thinking, please watch this video. If you have headphones, you can listen to the audio, it is just music. If you have no headphones, please turn your volume off.

When you are done watching that video, check out: Are You Typical?

Assignment #21: History Fair Reflection

Hello my little historians,

You all did a remarkable job on Friday's History Fair, and as I looked down from the stage on all the magnificence below, I was a proud teacher.

I know that you all feel good about what you did, and we haven't really had a chance to discuss how the Fair went.

So...it's time for a 4321! You know you love it!

Please start a new post on your own blog, link back to this assignment and answer, in full sentences, the following questions (make sure to post the questions, too). As the title of your post write "History Fair Reflection" and in the beginning of your post, make sure to tell your readers the title of your project.

4 - The four most interesting things that you learned about your topic in your researching.

3 - Three things that you felt proud of on the day of the Fair.

2 - Two specific researching or presentation techniques that were helpful to make your project so wonderful.

1 - One suggestion to make the History Fair even better in the future.

DigLitCirc Section 5 Hosts

Hello R8A,

Please visit Ms. Crosbie's blog to find your hosts for discussion #5. All the hosts are from her class, except for the host for Branded. Shahad from R8A will be hosting that discussion. Discussion #5 questions are now up and ready for your contributions. You have until the Monday following March Break to answer. Remember, the faster you get involved, the more interesting, juicy and deep the discussion will be!

DigLitCirc Summary Expectations

Hello all,

Two weeks after you have hosted a question and all your group members from Oshawa and Ottawa have answered, the host must post a synthesis on his or her blog.

You must write a summary post on your own blog...

-read all the comments made by your group members, notice any interesting trends, over-arching themes and on-going questions

-create a graphic organizer on paper to summarize their thoughts (this is your rough draft)

-write a paragraph:

• intro: what your book is, what your question was, what the group members answered overall (big idea), three pieces of support written in a concise way
• support #1: the most powerful piece of support to prove what your group members though/you decided the consensus was
• support #2: another piece of support to prove your big idea
• support #3: another very powerful piece of support
• conclusion: summarize what you want the reader to understand about the big idea, leave them with something to think about (a connection, a question...)

-carefully edit your paragraph for clarity, spelling, punctuation and grammar
-post the paragraph on your blog in a new post
-link to all your group members in this post and thank them for their contributions