March 10

Social 10

Most of today's class was disrupted by registration for Grade 11 next year. When most people returned to class we drew lots and picked countries for the Imperialism Research Project. Tomorrow's class will be spent mostly in the library, starting the research process on the country that you have selected. For those of you that missed class today, don't worry, there are still countries to pick from. Just another gentle reminder: many of you still need to post to your group's blog and make a comment on a classmate's posting. Both the blog post and the comment must be on the Bhutan article from this month's National Geographic. Please go to your group's blog for the hyperlink and the question to be answered.

Social 33

I gave you some more notes on Soviet history, from Stalin to Gorbachev. We then watched a few videos from the CBC News in Review on the fall of communism in the Soviet Union. I then gave you a handout on the structure of the Soviet government. You have a couple of tests coming up next week: the Dictatorship Final Exam on March 17th and your Political Systems Unit Final on March 20th.

Dictatorship Unit Final Study Guide:

Dictatorship Unit Final is on Monday, March 17th. It is multiple choice and will have a writing assignment as well.

• types of dictatorships
• characteristics of dictatorships (key ingredients/"recipe for a dictatorship")
• techniques of dictatorships
• advantages/disadvantages of a dictatorship
• the individual's role in a dictatorship
• similarities and differences between a dictatorship and a democracy
• be able to draw upon case studies/examples (fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Stalin's USSR)
• techniques of dictatorship used by Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin

Political Systems Unit Final Study Guide:

Political Systems Unit Final is on Thursday, March 20th. It consists of 50 multiple choice questions.

• characteristics of democracies
• types of democracies
• advantages/disadvantages of democracies
• advantages/disadvantages of direct democracy
• advantages/disadvantages of representative democracy
• be able to draw upon case studies/examples (Canada, USA)
• understand other key concepts like first past the post, rep by pop, and proportional representation
• understand the political spectrum and related concepts (for example, values associated with liberals, radicals, conservatives etc.)
• understand all concepts listed off above for the Dictatorship Unit Final Study Guide