Monday, November 26, 2012

Current Events and The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Rick Mercer Rant Assignment


To gain a better appreciation of how The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is relevant to our lives today, you are asked to explore a current event or issue where a Charter right or freedom was violated. To do this you may choose one of the issues presented by your classmates or a new one you learn about through research. 


Assignment: Once you have chosen an issue, you are asked to create a Rick Mercer style rant (see examples attached) exploring the relationship between this issue and rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Charter.  

Your rant should include:

-An explanation of the issue or incident in a way that people can relate to 
-How a particular right or freedom guaranteed in the Charter was violated. When doing this, use specific language and rights from the Charter to support your position. 

-Explain why this right or freedom that was violated should be guaranteed in the Charter.

To prepare for this begin by watching the examples of Rick Mercer style rants below. Consider how he hooks in his audience, outlines his position, and uses humour, sarcasm, exaggeration along with carefully chosen arguments and supporting evidence to back up his central position. 

Like Rick Mercer's rants, your rant should be about 2-3 minutes long max, which would make it 350-450 words. If you are working with a partner your rant should be no longer than 3 1/2 minutes long. 

A rough draft of your script should be handed in to Edmodo by Wednesday November 28th. 


Once you have received formative feedback, your final rant should be walking or sitting down, videoed and then posted on Vimeo or YouTube (you will need to create an account). If you would like this to be private, change your privacy settings ensuring to include my email: david.s@calgaryscienceschool.com. 



Here is the rubric for this assignment borrowed from the Alberta Assessment Consortium:



        
                  Level

Criteria

4
Excellent


3
Proficient

2
Adequate

1
Limited *

Explains impact and relevance of Charter on our lives

/8
Provides an insightful explanation of the impact and relevance of the Charter in relation to a current event in Canada today.
Provides a thoughtful explanation of the impact and relevance of the Charter in relation to a current event in Canada today.
Provides a suitable explanation of the impact and relevance of the Charter in relation to a current event in Canada today.
Provides an irrelevant explanation of the impact and relevance of the Charter in relation to a current event in Canada today.

Formulates and supports position

/8

Formulates a strong and clear position and provides compelling evidence to support position some of which is based on specific language from the Charter. 
Formulates solid position and provides convincing evidence to support position some of which is based specific language from the Charter.
Formulates a position that may not be clear and provides simplistic evidence to support position, which may not include evidence from the charter.
Formulates an unclear position and provides inconclusive evidence to support position.
Employs rhetorical devices to communicate position

/8
Adopts rhetorical devices like wit, slippery slope argument, sarcasm, analogies, and exaggeration to make the viewer strongly relate to your opinion.
Adopts rhetorical devices like wit, slippery slope argument, sarcasm, analogies, and exaggeration to make the viewer relate to your opinion.
Some rhetorical devices like wit, sarcasm, analogies, and exaggeration may be absent making it hard to relate to your opinion.
Adopts rhetorical devices like wit, sarcasm, analogies, and exaggeration to make the viewer strongly relate to your opinion.

Communicates information

/8
Communicates information in a skillful manner to engage the viewer. This includes speaking clearly and fluidly, with conviction and in an animated way.
Communicates information in an effective manner to interest the reader.  This includes speaking mostly clearly, fluidly, with conviction and in an animated way.
Communicates information in a straightforward manner that generally holds the attention of the reader.
Communicates information in an ineffective manner that does little to sustain attention of the reader.


















































Filming 
and Editing of rant

/8

Filming and editing is exceptionally professional employing camera tricks similar to Rick Mercer’s rant, camera is steady, sound is clear, and any cuts between takes are seamlessly integrated.
Filming and editing looks professional employing camera tricks similar to Rick Mercer rant, camera is steady, sound is clear, and any cuts between takes are seamlessly integrated.
Filming and editing lacks professionalism employing few camera tricks similar to Rick Mercer rant, camera may not be steady, sound not clear, and any cuts between takes are less than seamlessly integrated.
There are major issues with the filming and editing in terms of sound, transitions between cuts, movement, or other.


Here are two examples of Rick Mercer Rants to use as a guide. Although his rants follow no set formula, you will notice a number of characteristics common to each of his rants:


-He begins by introducing the topic by relating how this issue relates to our lives
-Then he states his position on the issue by first showing how the opposing position is ridiculous, or employs a slippery slope technique to show what would happen if this policy was pursued in the extreme (i.e., if we give the government access to our hard drives next they will want to record our phone conversations), or how the future would be intolerable if we took this position. 
-Ends with a funny, affirmative statement.      





Student example:


Sunday, November 18, 2012

Novel Study Posts Due November 20th

Over the next four weeks all grade 9's will be doing a novel study of their choice. Over the course of this time we will have a series of six discussion sessions as follows:

  • Novel Discussion 1 (read 1/6 of your book): November, 16th
  • Novel Discussion 2 (read 2/6 of your book): November, 19th
  • Novel Discussion 3 (read 1/2 of your book): November, 26th
  • Novel Discussion 4 (read 2/3 of your book): November, 29th
  • Novel Discussion 5 (read 5/6 of your book): December, 10th
  • Novel Discussion 6 (read final 1/6 of your book): November, 16th

Before the discussion session begins you are asked to create a 150-200 word response to either post on Edmodo or in the google doc your group is working within. These posts are due for the beginning of the discussion session and will be considered late if they come in after this. 

These posts should be either an interpretative, antidotal, or an editorial type response mirroring the work we did before the novel study began. See your Edmodo group for specific questions or themes to consider.    

Assessment will be based on the originality of the insights you bring to your response and your ability to support your insights with direct quotes from the novel or other research.  For a full 8/8 you must find genuine insights and support your ideas with quotes from the text or other sources. An undeveloped post with no supporting details will receive a 4/8. Work on taking on one idea or insight rather than engaging a series of insights. 

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Write three reading reflections: due Tuesday Nov. 13th




In this assignment, you will be choosing 3 of the 6 poems, short stories, and short films to write a response concentrating on themes. You must turn in one Analytical, one Opinion (Editorial), and one Anecdotal response. Please turn them all in on one document. You should also be choosing at least 2 different types of media. For example, at least one poem and one short story. Each response should be at least 350-500 words.

Please use the discussion questions below to help guide your responses:

What themes about life and the human condition does the film, short story, or poem explore?
What message is the author trying to communicate?
What language, phrases, metaphors does the author adopt to convey this message?
What connections can you make to experiences from your own life or other books and movies you have read or seen?
What do you think about the author's message? What is your position on this?
What supporting details can you bring in to back up your position?