Civics: Writing Contest

Being an American Essay Contest

The Bill of Rights Institute is currently hosting an essay contest for high school students.

The contest asks students to write an essay (1000 words max) about the following question,
"how does the Constitution establish and maintain a culture of liberty?"

Cash prizes of up to $1000 will be awarded in five U.S. regions.
You can find the contest rules here. Entries are due by December 15.

Submit a copy of your essay to Mr. Mallory for Bonus Credit

Drawing: Hallways

• Please read the directions on pp.152-155


• Draw a hallway in the school on 18x24 newsprint. Use a basic unit and sight your angles

CIVICS; Homework this week

1-4 p. 30 Due Wed 11/2
1-4 p. 34 Due Thurs 11/3
1-3 p. 39 Due Fri 11/4
1-3 p. 43 Due Tues 11/8
Reviewing Main Ideas 1,3,5, & 7 p.48 Wed 11/9

CIVICS; Extra Credit& Memorization Pieces

Paraphrase any of the following (for bonus credit):

• The Oath of Allegiance made by immigrants being naturalized (pg.15)
• The first 6 paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence (pg.44)
• The Mayflower Compact

Memorize for Chapter 2 (Mandatory, not just for extra credit):

• The 2nd paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths..." 

Previous memorization pieces:

• The Pledge of Allegiance
• The Boyer Valley Fight Song

Future memorization pieces:

• The Preamble to the Constitution (pg.68)

Civics; What should govt. do for young people in this recession?

http://www.ted.com/conversations/6663/how_do_you_feel_about_the_resp.html

How do you feel about the responsibility of the government towards the young people (18-25) regarding the economic and financial crisis?

Follow the link above to a web-discussion. It's only open for another 13 hours, so you need to read over it now- feel free to participate, I'll be impressed with you.

Read it, write about it, and I'll give you extra credit. 1) Summarize the discussion, 2) Offer your opinion and defend it well. Shoot for 150 words. (I'll take 75, I'm easy).

Photo; Composition

Take the Photo-Composition quiz online By or Before Friday October 4th, whenever you feel you're ready.

Composition Terminology

You may need to look some of these up on your own if you can't find them in our book, because this is a supplemental unit. Tryhttp://photonotes.org/dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com, http://en.wikipedia.org or if all else fails, just try googling them. You may also pick-up some of these terms by reading the articles I've included links to on this page or by watching the videos I've embedded here.

• Principles of Design; Click here for a good explanation of the principles.
  • Balance, Symmetry, Asymmetry
  • Emphasis/Dominance
  • Unity
  • Rhythm
  • Eye-Flow
  • Leading Lines
  • Variety
  • Proportion
  • Hot-Spots
  • Horizontal 1/3 & 2/3 lines
  • Vertical 1/3 & 2/3 lines
  • Golden Mean/Golden Section
• Framing
• Cropping
• Placement
• 3/3, 2/3, 1/3, Tight
• Foreground, middle-ground, background
• Walk-Around
• Merging

Shooting Assignments

#10- Take some landscape or townscape pictures using the Rule-of-Thirds. Upload your 3 best to our Flickr group by or before October 4th. Actually, once you think you understand the Rule of Thirds, try taking almost all of your pictures from now on using the rule. Ideally it should become "second-nature" for you, so that you'll do it without even trying. Then, when you do deliberately break the rule, you're work will be even stronger. Click here to look through my 4-H Presentation for examples of how the Rule-of Thirds works, otherwise, be sure to watch the videos on the bottom of this page.

#11- Take some pictures using "Leading Lines." Click here to view some examples of leading lines from Flickr. Again, please upload 2 or 3 of them to our Flickr group by or before Friday October 4th.

#12- Shoot some subjects using framing. Make sure that you read pages 182-183 in our textbook (London/Stone) and take a look at Terry Eiler's photo at the old fiddler's convention (1978). Click here to view some examples of framing on Flikr.Upload your best 2-3 to our Flikr group by/before 
Friday October 4th.


#13- Point-of-View. Take some pictures from unusual angles. These may or may not end up being DOF, macro, or distorted perspective, and they don't have to follow the rule-of-thirds, but these should be from points of view that you don't usually use.Here are some examples of POV pictures on Flickr. As with all four of these assignments, you have about 2 weeks, to take them, please get them into our Flickr group by
Friday October 4th.
. Please feel free to get them there sooner! In fact, you may want to get each assignment uploaded as soon as you're done with them, instead of waiting until you have all 4 done.

Class Participation Grade

Every time you have a chance, go ahead and comment on the example pictures in the galleries (or on mine, if you want to) and more importantly, please leave comments on each other's pictures in the Group Pool. I give you credit every time you do, so if you're at all worried about your quiz grades, participating on Flickr can help raise your average.

Articles on Composition

• Top 10 Photo Composition Rules

Videos on the Rule of Thirds

How to Create Composition with the Rule of Thirds

Here's a video on how to compose with the Rule of Thirds from film makers

Rule of thirds from Jayne Whitelock on Vimeo.

Articles on the Rule of Thirds

• http://www.digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds
• http://photoinf.com/General/KODAK/guidelines_for_better_photographic_composition_rule_of_thirds.html
• About.com Rule of Thirds examples
• About.com Rule of Thirds article

Drawing; Informal Perspective

• Doorway; read directions on pp. 146-148
• Corner of a room; pp. 149-150
  
  We will begin are large, week-long hallway drawings next week