I’d like to wish you and your family a happy and restful Thanksgiving holiday.

I have just a couple of notes for you before the holiday begins.

Please note that extra credit is available for your student for this six week marking period. If they need the grade help, now is the time to act. A file on the “Unit Info” page explains a wide range of options. Students must email me by the 28th though to let me know of their intention to do extra credit work and which assignment they selected.

The reading checks for Harm de Blij’s The Power of Place were a strong learning experience for students about the nature of AP level course work and the gap they may have between their current ability and where they will have to be before taking on the Advanced Placement challenge. This will be valuable information for you when course selection time for next year comes around.

I am not assigning homework, but if your student has had a rough time with this reading and less than desirable results on the reading check scores, this holiday may offer a good opportunity for some catching up. The week we return, students will take the second test of the marking period on chapter one of The Power of Place. Taking some time to prepare a study guide of the key points in the chapter would be a wise use of time.

I am grateful for the opportunity to get to know your child and guide his or her learning.

All the best,

Greetings!

The test, “Intro to Human Geography” based on Chapter 4 of the textbook is scored and in the grade book for the 3rd six week marking period. This was an open ended test (no answer choices) and most students really stepped up to the challenge. They are climbing a tough hill, but the view from the top will be amazing. A re-test is available for that on Thursday the 17th at 3:45 or by appointment at “homework lunch” before that date. Your student must have completed the “post test analysis” form and bring that with them in order to be eligible to re-test.

We have finally come to the point that we are ready to take on Harm de Blij’s outstanding contemporary analysis of geographic systems and the meaning of globalization, The Power of Place. We will break the book down slowly in class, but my expectation is that students will have done the small chunks of active reading I have assigned on the class calendar. Each day will begin with a reading check. These do not test conceptual ideas, simply content knowledge they will have if they have diligently read and looked up words that they do not know. In class we will break down de Blij’s argument. All the reading checks will be in open ended format as will the culminating test on Chapter One just after Thanksgiving.

Please encourage your student to spend a few minutes with the book each evening and to take active study measures such as outlines, Cornell notes, webbing, reading out loud, flash cards, self quizzes and the like.  10 minutes each day should do the trick.