Current Issue Advocacy Letter

Your final assignment in Geography this year will be to write a formal letter advocating for a position related either to the issue you researched or to an issue presented by a classmate.

Your letter should follow the business letter format explained in The Write Source.

After you decide on the issue you will advocate on behalf of, you need to choose a recipient for your letter.  You may choose to write to someone in a position to act upon your issue or you may choose to write to someone in a position to bring awareness to your issue.  You may write to politicians, advocacy groups, media outlets, or individual activists.

Paragraph 1: Introduce yourself.  Explain who you are, your age, and where you attend school.  Then describe your Geography class and the nature of the Geography Project you have been working on for the last few months.  Finally, explain that you have been studying a particular world issue.

Paragraph 2: Explain what you know about the issue you are advocating on behalf of.  Use concrete detail in your explanation so that your explanation is complete and thorough.  Keep your explanation to one paragraph, however.  No need to go overboard with detail.

Paragraph 3: Explain what you think should be done regarding the issue.  Your ideas should be practical and possible.  Be clear and reasonable in your explanation.  You want to convey the serious nature of your advocacy.  

Here are some organizations which come to my mind to which you could address your advocacy letters: The Olympian, The New York Times, State Senator Karen Fraser (D-Olympia), Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), Secretary of State John Kerry, President Barack Obama, Amnesty International, Gates Foundation, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.  There might be an organization specific to your issue to wish you would like to write.  You will need to look up the address to which you write.

Due Thursday, May 30, 2013.

Reading Log #16

Final Reading Log of the year!

Please record all reading (minimum of 4 hours).

Due Thursday, May 30.  On this day bring all previous reading logs (which should be archived in your journal).  Be prepared to reflect on your entire year in reading.

Quiz Bowl Questions #5

5 questions total:

• 1 history
• 1 geography
• 1 science
• 2 pot pourri

Quiz Bowl rules apply to these questions.

Due Tuesday, May 21, 2013.

Open Writing Submission Due Date

I will be compiling work from Open Writing classes this year into books.  Any pieces which were worked on this year in Open Writing are eligible.  Pieces should be edited and proofread, but they do not have to be finished works.  They may be works in progress.  Please create a simple title page with the piece’s title and your name for each work.  [Please delete any previous headings you may have created for your works.]  Submissions may be any page length.

The due date is Friday, May 17.

I will be binding the books of student work on the following day (Saturday), so the due date is definitely firm. 

Please submit a hard copy of your work to Mr. Gacek.  DO NOT STAPLE YOUR SUBMISSION.  Please use a paper clip in the upper left hand corner of your submission.  If you are unable to get a hard copy to Mr. Gacek you may e-mail him your submission at jgacek@novaschool.org.

Open Writing students are not required to submit work this year, particularly if students have only had the class during the third trimester.  However, students who have had Open Writing all year are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to submit a piece.

Students who took Open Writing in the first or second trimesters but are not currently taking the class may submit works they worked on earlier in the year.

Students in Open Writing and Open Reading will have the opportunity to read the books during their classes after May 17.

You may e-mail me with questions.

I look forward to seeing all the great work completed this year in Open Writing!

Look! We're on TV!

The episode of "Oregon Field Guide" featuring the sixth grade class aired on PBS tonight!  Not only is the episode very informative, but it shows some great footage of us.  Cool!

Watch Wolf Haven International on PBS. See more from Oregon Field Guide.

Final Geo Quiz: World Capitals

Canada: Ottawa
Russia: Moscow
Australia: Canberra
Germany: Berlin
Japan: Tokyo
China: Beijing
India: New Delhi
Brazil: Brasilia
South Africa: Pretoria (also Cape Town, Bloemfontein)
Italy: Rome
France: Paris
Spain: Madrid
Indonesia: Jakarta
Argentina: Buenos Aires
Nigeria: Abuja
Pakistan: Islamabad
Iran: Tehran
Cuba: Havana

Egypt: Cairo
Syria: Damascus

Quiz Date: May 24, 2013

Current Issue Outline

Now that you have finished taking notes on your current issue, you need to arrange these notes in the order that you need for your presentation.  You have accumulated notes from a variety of sources.  You now need to arrange these notes into a presentation with a beginning, middle, and end.

If you took notes on things which are actually NOT RELEVANT to your presentation, then DO NOT include them in your outling.

You need to put your notes on your issue into a logical order for your presentation.  Your current issue will cover at least 10 slides.  Each presentation will have the following order:

1. Introduction to Issue
2. Historical background of issue
3. Current state of issue
4. Future outlook for issue
5. Personal stance on issue
6. Conclusion

Within each of the headings, you can create sub-headings.  For example, if you have 3 Historical Background slides, you can give each slide a separate sub-heading.  However, you do not need to use sub-headings.  You can use only headings if you prefer.

Outlines should be typed.  This way you can move notes around in your outline to create the presentation that works best for you.

Due Wednesday, May 8.

Story Proposals

You will write two story proposals: one for a Mystery Story featuring your detective from your Detective Dossier and a second for a Science Fiction Story featuring the setting you described in your Science Fiction Setting.

Each proposal needs 2 elements: The synopsis and the outline.  The synopsis should be 5-10 sentences in length.  It should provide an overview of the story.  It must include information about the characters, plot, and setting.  The synopsis is a summary paragraph.

The outline should list 5-10 events from the story in chronological order.  Each event must be one sentence in length.  The outline does not need to cover all the events in the story.  Also, some elements from the outline might change as you write the actual story.

Finally, you need to write about your inspirations for each story idea.  What books, movies, or television influenced your ideas for your stories?  Be honest.

Once you have completed both proposals, you will choose the one you like best and you will write that story.  However, save the second proposal, as you may decide to write that story in the future in Open Writing.

Coming up with story ideas is challenging.  You will need to do some brainstorming.  Be creative.  The more thought you put into the planning stage, the easier you will find writing the actual story.