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Current Events
(Week 1, 39 Weeks)
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Why does the public need this information?
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Who are the gatekeepers of information?
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What factors influence the decision to publish or not
publish a story?
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What does the public find entertaining, exciting, and
important?
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Is there a trend, bandwagon appeal or other factors
that bend the news?
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How much does patriotism factor in on what is or is
not reported?
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Is the coverage skewed by using too many sources from
one institution or ideological perspective?
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Might the subject matter be interpreted differently
by those of other nationalities or cultures?
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Can we gain any insights into our unconscious
partisanship or bias by comparing our coverage with that of the world press
or the ethnic or other special-interest news media in our own country or
region?
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What are the motivations of the sources from whom the
information was gathered?
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Is the use of disturbing or contentious photos,
illustrations or other graphics, designed to impact or manipulate the reader?
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The ethics of journalism
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Summarizing a news story
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Causes and effect of current events
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Connecting present to past events
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Identifying the relative location of places in the
news
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Personal reactions to events around the world
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Assessing potential future impact of current events
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Reading the news
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Citing sources
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Summarizing important information (the 5 W's)
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Drawing a map of an area by hand, identifying
surrounding countries and bodies of water
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Presenting information
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Providing a visual to go along with information
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Answering questions about the event. These will
include: -Cause and effect -Similarity to a past event -Personal reaction
-Reliability of source
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To become informed world citizens
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To appreciate various points of view
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To become a more critical reader of the news
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To use and refine presentation skills
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To ask and respond to impromptu questions
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To understand the importance and location of various
regions of the world
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To understand the importance of accurate, non-biased
reporting of the news
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To understand that corporations/governments and other
agencies use the news for their own purposes
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- Posters
- Article
Summaries
- Headlines
with Active Verbs
- Maps
- Speech
- Discussion
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Map Projections
(Week 6, 2 Weeks)
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What does a cartographer do?
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What are demographics?
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What are the constraints that cartographers face when
making flat maps of a round earth?
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How does centering influence a culture's view of the
world?
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How does the choice of map transfer ethnocentricity?
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How are maps used as propaganda? (introduction)
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Why are all map-projections distorted?
What are ways in which specific projections are used to represent data?
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Cartographers choices when making a flat map of a round
earth
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Geographic inquiry and how a variety of sources
supports the process
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Pros and cons of various projections
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Mapping terminology:
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Selected map projections
• Mercator
• Polar
• Robinson
Aspects of the
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Earth that can be
distorted
• Area
• Shape
• Distance
• Direction
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Uses of projections
• Mercator—Ship navigation
• Polar—Airline navigation
• Robinson—Data representation
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Different world perspectives and to see why that is
important
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- Using
an interactive National Geographic site to view projections
- Reading
for information
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- To
understand why we have projections, their limits and their strength.
- To
consider the different types of map projections and the most appropriate
projections for a specific use
- To
take pro and con notes on a variety of map projections
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- Notetaking
a pro and con list
- Orally
defending a choice based on fact (optional)
- Making
a map to illustrate their choice
- Map
Projections
- Assignment
Sheet
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Roots and Routes
(Week 8, 3 Weeks)
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- Where
do we come from?
- Why
do people move?
- What
moves (goods, ideas, beliefs, culture, disease)?
- How
do they move?
- What
kind of people move?
- Why
do people stay?
- What
are the consequences of a move (short term, long term)?
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- Awareness
of one's own heritage
- Movement and impacts on individuals and
society
- Personal
goals and priorities
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- Investigating
multiple sources and assessing their value (the incredible moment
assignment)
- Interviewing
skills (family patterns of movement)
- Taking
notes from both written and oral sources
- Selecting
appropriate information
- Summarizing
information
- Constructing
a map for a specific purpose
- Transferring
knowledge from the immediate to the general
- Analyzing
what moves, not just who moves and the result of that movement
- Citing
sources properly
- Appropriately
presenting information in a written, visual and oral format
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- To
build on prior knowledge in order to develop an understanding of the
importance of place, movement, tradition, culture and family.
- To
coherently express knowledge of personal background and future goals.
- To
reflect on what steps necessary to reach goals.
- To
develop an awareness and appreciation of the diversity within the CAC
community.
- To
link personal history to the study of history.
- To
recognize major world events which have occurred in our life-time.
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- Writing
an anecdote
- Writing
a biography of an ancestor (based on oral research)
- Drawing
and tracing the movement of an ancestor
- Researching
and writing a description of an event
- Writing
a description of their own hypothetical future
- Mapping
Assignment Handout
- Assessment
Handout
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Dam Simulation for Prime Trip to Aswan
(Week 11, 2 Weeks)
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- Are
the world's water resources threatened? What issues need to be considered
when making decisions about large infrastructural construction projects?
- What
is considered when making of the decision to build or not to build?
- Who
decides?
- How
do large-scale projects impact people and the environment?
- How
do these projects impact the cultural, including religious, legacy of
the region?
- What
are the long-term implications of the construction of such projects,
i.e. disease, change in lifestyle, water table, soil fertility, fishing,
jobs, and archeological / historical / religious sites.
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- Define
Human-environmental interaction
- Be
able to give examples of human-environmental interaction
- Identify
contributing factors to decision-making
- Define
bias
- Define
graft, corruption and special interests
- Understand
that seemingly innocent projects like a dam could be used for hostile
purposes
- Understand
the multi-national implications of such decisions
- Understand
the value of dialogue
- Formulate
and defend a point of view from conflicting facts/evidence
- Accept
mutual responsibility for intra-group cooperation and success
- Develop
respect for divergent opinions
- Synthesize
info to support a point of view
- Learn
how to reach consensus
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- Reading
for information
- Teaching
new vocabulary
- Extracting
main points from the data
- Note-taking
- Role-playing
- Collaborative
reporting
- Discussion
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- To
become aware how valuable and vulnerable our world's water resources are
- To
build the necessary background for a visit to the Aswan Dam.
- To
have a simulated experience
of how complicated decisions are in the "real" world
- To
appreciate various viewpoints
- To
have an opportunity to make reasoned arguments based on conflicting
evidence/facts
- To
develop understanding of the long-term ramifications of decisions
- To
engage in consensus-building
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- Note-taking
Packet Decision Sheet
- Group
Report
- Discussion
rubric
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