Wednesday, January 4. 2017

Welcome back! Today's schedule is B-A-D-C

B & C Block Social Studies 11 - Today I’d like you to begin a propaganda poster assignment. For this assignment, you will create your own propaganda poster for Canada in World War II. What you put on your poster has to be relevant to Canada (Encourage men to enlist; Pressure women to encourage their husbands, brothers and boyfriends to enlist; Encourage women to help out at home e.g. conserving food, buying victory bonds; Encourage children to help the war effort e.g. purchasing war stamps; Persecution / suspicion of enemy aliens; Encouraging pacifism; Glamorizing the Canadian war heroes; or just plain Demonizing Japan, Germany or Italy). You need to make sure that your poster is as authentic as possible (stay within the 1940’s decade) and that it could have been useful to the war effort.

Your poster will be graded on the following criteria:

• the purpose of the poster is clearly defined
• the poster demonstrates knowledge of World War Two content
• the poster is persuasive
• it’s visually appealing
• creativity and originality

The best propaganda posters use both words and pictures. They could use only words, but remember that the poster needs to be appealing to the eyes (and that sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words). In addition, the posters should be in color (and no, pencil-lead grey is not a color). Remember, the poster needs to be visually appealing; otherwise nobody is going to support the war effort! Check out the following:
Canadian Air Museum Propaganda posters
Canadian War Museum Propaganda posters
US National Archives Powers of Persuasion


A Block Geography 12 - Today in Geography we will begin looking at biomes and biogeographic realms. Biomes are the major regional groupings of plants and animals discernible at a global scale. The distribution of these biomes is connected to climate, soil, and the physical topography of the earth. Biogeography is the study of the distribution and patterns of plants and animals throughout the biosphere.

Using chapter 20 of your Geosystems textbook, I would like you to describe the adaptations and structure for flora and fauna (plant and animal) in each of the following terrestrial biomes (land based not aquatic): Equatorial & Tropical Rain forest (ETR); Tropical Seasonal Forest and Scrub (TrSF); Tropical Savanna (TrS); Mid latitude Broad leaf & Mixed Forest (MBME); Needle leaf & Montane Forest (NF/MF); Temperate Rain forest (TeR); Mediterranean Shrub land (MSh); Mid latitude Grasslands (MGr); Deserts (DBW & DBC); and Arctic & Alpine Tundra (AAT). At the end of this there are questions 8, 12, 13, & 15 from page 693 to complete as well.

D Block Crime, Media and Society 12 - Today we start our week long look at the Casey Anthony trial and media coverage in the United States. In June 2008 Casey's daughter Caylee went missing and was found dead later that December. Due to inconsistencies in her story, her delay in reporting her child missing, and increased public pressure and scrutiny, Casey was charged with Caylee's murder. A ferocious media storm ensued and Casey Anthony's trial was conducted both in a Florida courtroom and the national media in June 2011. After a month long trial, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter, and aggravated child abuse. She was found guilty on four counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer, and sentenced to one year in jail and $1,000 in fines.



So this week we'll try to make sense of the crime (Casey Anthony), the media's coverage of the crime (particularly Nancy Grace), feminist perspectives on criminology, the bad mother motif, Schadenfreude, and the way fictional crime media represented the story (Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit). Today, I'll give you a handout on the case and we'll go over it together. After that, I'll show you the 48 Hours Mystery episode above "The Untold Story of Caylee Anthony" and we'll talk about it at the end of the video.

Tomorrow will be Schadenfreude, HLN (Nancy Grace) and the commentary on that network's coverage of the case (including an excellent portion of the HBO series The Newsroom and skits from SNL) and we'll look at feminist perspectives and the bad mother along with Law & Order Special Victim's Unit. There are almost too many web pages dedicated to the Casey Anthony trial but to start with, take a look at:
Investigative Discovery "Casey Anthony: Mom or Murderer"
HLN Nancy Grace Essential Guide to the Casey Anthony Trial