Group presentation assignment

About tonight's class

You're reading this tonight because I'm confined to the house with the dreaded H1N1 virus. My son came down with a very bad case of this over the weekend. Within a half-hour of us getting off the bus from Ottawa, I was in the ER with him. He finally got released yesterday afternoon, but will be home for the rest of the week. I've been hit with flu-like symptoms for the last couple of days, so I'm forced to cancel our class tonight. The last thing I want to do is get any of you sick.

What we were going to do tonight is talk about Ottawa and look at the video you filmed. This presentation was going to count for 10% of your final grade. We're still going to go ahead with your presentation, but it will just take a bit of a different form. It will now be a special posting on your blog.

Online group presentation assignment

Here is the group presentation assignment:

Your job in this special blog posting is to work together to write a joint posting that will talk about your experiences in Ottawa. This posting should touch on many of the things you did and observed. Use it to tell us what you learned about Canada and Ottawa, both through what you were told by tour guides and your professors, but also through what you observed on your own.

Your blog posting will be at least 1200 words long. It will include pictures and video. It will be written by everyone in the group and you will be graded for this assignment as a group. So, it is everyone's job to make sure that you all collaborate equally and that the final product is as good as you can possibly make it. This assignment counts for 10% of your final grade.

DEADLINE: Friday, November 6

Some tips for your assignment

As I mentioned above, this posting will include the video clips (or some of them) that you shot in Ottawa. In our class on November 4, we will have a short blogging workshop that will show you how to add the videos you took with the iPods into your blog posting. So, you may want to review those videos tonight and think about what you might say about them.

Tonight, you will want to spend some time as a group to talk about the things you'll write about and how you will do this. Writing your sections independently and then combining them later will not be very effective, as you don't want to wind up repeating yourselves. So, at the very least, your goal tonight is to spend some time reflecting on your Ottawa experiences and then work on an outline for your blog posting. Then, you might want to take some time to figure out who is going to be writing what.

By next class, you need to have a full draft ready to go. So, between tonight and next Wednesday, you should spend some time collaborating electronically on the draft of your blog posting. You might want to use something like Google Docs to work on this together. Or you could simply send everything back and forth to each other via e-mail. By next week, you need to have a full draft complete. On November 4, you will be adding your video and doing a final revision of your blog posting. The completed posting needs to be posted on your group blog by November 6.

Group blog assignment 2009

As you know, each of your groups is focusing on one region of Canada and your group will be creating a blog where you will share with the rest of the class (and the world!) all that you’ve learned about this area.

All of your blog postings should contain text and images and each should be a minimum of 250 words. I’ll also be expecting to see you using a variety of types sources. The Internet might work for some of these, but I expect you to use the library as well.

Podcast assignment 2009

Create a 7-10 minute podcast on a Canadian topic that you find interesting. This could be anything from your take on our Ottawa experience, an interesting event in the history of Canada, Canada/US relations, or even your favourite Canadian band, writer, or hockey team. The sky is the limit!

Your goal is to create an interesting podcast that will pique your audience's interest in the topic. For it to be engaging, you need, of course, to have an argument or hook of some kind that will make people want to listen to what you have to say. You can do research if you like and, if you wish, you can incorporate images and audio clips. You could even create a video podcast if you like. If including research or audio and video clips that you have not created yourself, make sure to tell your audience where you got that material. If using copyrighted music, use a clip of less than thirty seconds rather than an entire song.

It's also important to think about your delivery of your content. A successful podcast will be one in which you are relaxed and clear, while not seeming overly rehearsed or sounding like you're reading directly from the page. Let your personality come through. Have fun, too, with the medium. There are all sorts of things you can do to make your podcast different from those of everyone else.

To hear last year's student podcasts, you can find them all on our blog under the "Assignments" tab.

PODCASTS ARE DUE NO LATER THAN 11/4.

WHEN YOU'RE FINISHED, SEND YOUR FILE TO ME VIA THE UVM FILE TRANSFER SERVICE

How to log in to your group blog

To log in, simply go to http://canada.blog.uvm.edu/mt

Three questions about Canadian geography

Today, each of you wrote down three questions about Canadian geography and then passed your questions to your neighbour. Your job now is to do a bit of research and answer your neighbour's question. In your entry, include the question and the source you used to answer it.

Introductions

Using your first name only, tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? What brought you to this class? What do you know about Canada? How was your first week of classes?

Do you have any questions about the class that I didn't answer today?

The prairie sky

We've been talking about the prairies this week, so I thought I'd point you to the "Seven Wonders of Canada" website created by CBC. This was a nationwide contest to choose what Canadians thought to be our country's greatest wonders. Naturally, to this prairie boy at least, the prairie sky was one of them.

This video clip from the CBC news will show you just what I'm talking about.

Final assignment 2008

The final project for this course gives you the opportunity to write a paper on anything connected to Canadian culture that interests you. Your topic could stem from something we've covered in the class, something you learned about in Ottawa, or anything else about Canada you'd like to explore in greater detail. When you're thinking about what to write, cast your net widely. Your paper could be on anything from an historical event or an aspect of Canadian politics, to hockey in Canadian culture or any of the books we've read this semester.

That said, your paper must also have an argument, a thesis that you are setting out to prove with the research that you've done. When using your research, make sure that we still hear your voice and ideas and that you're not simply stitching together many different pieces of information that you've picked up from elsewhere. Finding that balance between simply describing your topic and analyzing what you think is interesting about it. This one of the key things you need to do to write a good research paper.

Your paper will, as I suggest above, need to to involve a fair amount of research. You can use the internet, but you also will need to use the library. At least two of the sources you cite in your essay must be PRINT sources that you located at the library. If you've not yet started to explore the resources our library has to offer, this is your opportunity to do so. You can include images and even multimedia if you wish (you could send your paper to me electronically or even make it a blog posting!), but not to such a degree that it overwhelms your text.

Before you begin researching, you must clear your topic with me. By December the 10th at the latest, submit to me a proposal outlining your topic and the approach you are going to take. Your proposal should also discuss what kind of sources you plan on using and should show me that you've already done some preliminary research on your topic.

Word length: 2000-2500 words (roughly 8-10 pages)
Due date: 12/19, 8:00 AM (at the absolute latest)

Top 5 Canadian songs

Here's your assignment in place of Friday's class. Post a comment to this blog entry where you list your top 5 Canadian songs from the iPod. Make sure to explain the reasons for each choice.

See you after the Thanksgiving break!

Readings for Nov. 19

Alice Munro: Miles City, Montana (p. 656)

Canada at War - resources

The Memory Project Digital Archive

"The Digital Archive officially launched on the anniversary of D-Day on June 6th, 2003. Explore over 85 years of military history through hundreds of first-hand accounts and original artifacts shared by veterans from across Canada."

Canada and the First World War

An online exhibit from the Canadian War Museum

Remembrance

Information on Remembrance Day in Canada and all that it signifies

Podcast assignment 2008

Create a 7-10 minute podcast on a Canadian topic that you find interesting. This could be anything from your take on our Ottawa experience, an interesting event in the history of Canada, Canada/US relations, or even your favourite Canadian band, writer, or hockey team. The sky is the limit!

Your goal is to create an interesting podcast that will pique your audience's interest in the topic. For it to be engaging, you need, of course, to have an argument or hook of some kind that will make people want to listen to what you have to say. You can do research if you like and, if you wish, you can incorporate images and audio clips. You could even create a video podcast if you like. If including research or audio and video clips that you have not created yourself, make sure to tell your audience where you got that material. If using copyrighted music, use a clip of less than thirty seconds rather than an entire song.

It's also important to think about your delivery of your content. A successful podcast will be one in which you are relaxed and clear, while not seeming overly rehearsed or sounding like you're reading directly from the page. Let your personality come through. Have fun, too, with the medium. There are all sorts of things you can do to make your podcast different from those of everyone else.

To hear last year's student podcasts, you can find them all on our blog under the "Assignments" tab.

PODCASTS ARE DUE NO LATER THAN 11/14.

WHEN YOU'RE FINISHED, SEND YOUR FILE TO ME VIA THE UVM FILE TRANSFER SERVICE

Roch Carrier's The Sweater

As you know, we've had a chance to listen to a recording of Roch Carrier reading his story, The Hockey Sweater and we'll also watch part of the film, The Rocket. We've also been able to read two of Richard Harrisons' poems about Richard. Before class on Friday, please watch this ten-minute film based on Roch Carrier's story.

The goal of this assignment is partly to have you read/hear a Canadian classic that tells us something essential about Canadian and especially Québécois culture. The other aim, though, is to give you, I hope, a greater sense of the importance of hockey to Canadian identity and the place of Montréal Canadiens and Maurice Richard in the history, culture, and identity of Québec. As this year is the 100th anniversary of the Canadiens, I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot about Rocket Richard over the coming months.

The story, the children's book, the audio book, and the National Film Board film short are all touchstones in many Canadians' memories of childhood.

Canadian Studies Ottawa Trip Itinerary

Here is the itinerary for our upcoming Canadian Studies Trip to Ottawa which runs from Oct. 23-25. This trip has been running annually since the 1950s and is one of the great traditions of our program here at the University of Vermont.

This year, there will be 109 of us heading to the nation's capital and this promises to be an amazing trip for students and faculty alike. The majority of this trip is funded through student fees, but we also get generous support from the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC, the James and Mary Brigham Buckham Fund from the Dept. of English, and from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Itinerary for Ottawa Field Trip: October 23-25, 2008

Thursday, October 23:

- Depart from south side of Waterman Building (College Street) at 7:00 AM sharp. Participants will arrive by 6:45 in order to assure a prompt departure, because Parliament won't wait for us (and we won’t wait for you). Students ought to be dressed for Parliament (i.e. "business attire" -jackets and ties for men) because there is no time/place to change once we are on the bus. We will plan on arriving at St. Michael's at 7:05 to pick up the St. Mike's group.

· Brief lunch at the Rideau Centre in Ottawa before walking over to Parliament as a group

· Go to Parliament for tours and to go up the peace tower and view the Memorial Chamber. Tours for Massell’s students (Group A) are at 12:10 and 12:15. Tours for Ayres/Martin/Bose students (Group B) are at 12:30 and 12:45.

· Group photo outside of Parliament after the tours

· 3:00-4:30: Meet with Members of Parliament in room 752 at 131 Queen Street.

· 5:30: Quick meeting in the Pearson Room after checking in at the Lord Elgin Hotel.

· Dinner on your own.

Friday, October 24:

· Breakfast on your own.

· 9:00-3:30: Tour of Canadian art at the National Gallery of Canada and tours of the Grand Hall and Canada Hall at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Before walking over to the National Gallery, Group A will be in Lord Elgin lobby by 9:00 AM (10:00 AM tour), and Group B will be in Lord Elgin lobby by 10:00 AM (11:00 AM tour).

· Lunch on your own at National Gallery before heading to Museum of Civilization. Group A leaves for Museum of Civilization at 12:45 PM, Group B leaves at 1:15 PM.

· 3:30: Both buses leave Museum of Civilization for Carleton University.

· 4:00-6:00: Speaker/reception at Carleton University, Southam Hall, Room 416.

· 6:45: Bus leaves for hockey game, Ottawa 67s vs. Sarnia Sting at Ottawa Civic Centre.

Saturday, October 25:

· Breakfast on your own. Morning free for shopping, sightseeing, touring, etc.

· Check out of Lord Elgin by 12:30 PM.

· 1:00: Buses depart from Lord Elgin. Arrive in Burlington around 5:00 PM.

PARTICIPANTS SHOULD NOTE:

Crossing the border: Either A) birth certificate and government-issued photo ID (driver's license) or B) a passport is now required as proof of citizenship to cross the US-Canadian border. Students will need to present these documents before boarding the bus. Only a driver’s license is not enough.

Dress Code: Dress is "business attire" Thursday, and "neat and clean" Friday. In general, pack for chilly weather.

Money and Food: We will provide refreshments at the Carleton reception and vouchers for concession food at the hockey game. $75 - 100 US should cover other meals. We strongly suggest that students exchange at least some of this at a local Burlington bank (including the Chittenden bank inside the Davis Center) before October 23. You may want to bring a few snacks.

Ground Rules: Attendance and participation at all scheduled activities is required. "Downtime" is your own. Be aware that your conduct and actions represent UVM, St. Mike's, Vermont, and the USA.

Canadian Election assignment part two

Each of your groups has chosen a Canadian political party for the subject of your presentation assignment. Prepare a ten-minute presentation on why your classmates should vote for your party.

In your presentation, make sure to demonstrate your understanding of the following:

• Key issues in the current election
• Your party's history and main principles
• The difference between your party and the others
  
• Why you think your party leader would be the best Prime Minister

In addition, prepare a written summary to submit on Monday (2-3 pages plus a list of sources you used). Your presentation will count for 10% of your final grade for the course. You will be graded according to the following categories

Content: fair / good / very good / excellent

Research and preparation: fair / good / very good / excellent

Presentation: fair / good / very good / excellent

Enthusiasm: fair / good / very good / excellent

Contribution to the class’ knowledge of the topic: fair / good / very good / excellent

Canadian election assignment (part 1)

Today, I'd like you to watch the full episode of The National from Thursday night and we'll talk about your reactions to it on Monday.

Also, please read this extensive post I wrote to give you some background about the Canadian government and the Constitution.

Talking to Americans

Here's a source for the full video of Talking to Americans: part one and part two. The new season of The Mercer Report begins tonight on CBC. The show website lets you watch clips from the most recent episodes and every segment from the past seasons.

Group blog assignment

As you know, each of your groups is focusing on one region of Canada and your group will be creating a blog where you will share with the rest of the class (and the world!) all that you’ve learned about this area.

Fall 2008 syllabus now posted

Welcome to English 005! It's going to be a great semester and I'm looking forward to working with all of you.

For the full syllabus, click on the "Syllabus" tab above. Note that the schedule may need to be adjusted at times, so make sure to check it regularly