4th - 6th Writing, February 13

Lesson:
This lesson was divided into two parts. We spent most of the lesson going over our next project, which is a country report. After that, we devoted the last part of our class time to introducing an exercise from Andrew Pudewa's Institute for Excellence in Writing. We will continue both of these sessions over the next class period.

Country Report:

Obviously, to write a comprehensive report about any country would require much more time, effort, and page length than we are devoting to this assignment. Therefore, students will need to be selective in choosing information that is most important in helping fellow classmates learn what is essential and distinctive about their chosen countries. Though not all items on the following list would apply in equal depth to all countries, some important information to consider might include:

- Name of country (and any previous names)
- Location (continent, region [north/south/east/west], near neighbors, etc.)
- Landforms (coastal, peninsular, mountainous, desert, plains, etc.)
- Climate (temperate, tropical, arid, etc.)
- Natural Resources (oil, gold, minerals, timber, fishing, etc.)
- Population/Demographics (number, ethnic mix, old/young/ rural/urban, etc.)
- Language(s)
- History (settling/founding, invasion/war, dramatic turning points)
- Government (form [democracy, monarchy, dictatorship, etc.], capital)
- Religions(s) (Which beliefs? actively practiced? freedom of religion? etc.)
- Culture (way of life --- food, clothing, social structure, customs, etc.)
- Economy (income sources, financial condition)
- Special Features (places to visit, distinctive attributes, interesting facts)

Students should include a map on a separate sheet. This may be printed from an up-to-date internet source. The map source must be cited.


Assignment:

Students are to choose any current country; this is not a report on ancient countries or cultures. I suggested that the students may want to report on countries where their ancestors lived, or where the students have visited, or perhaps where they may know friends or missionaries; however, that is not a requirment.

As with the recent animal reports, students are to do light research into their chosen topics, taking simple notes, and crediting their sources. From those notes, student will write one to three long paragraphs about their chosen topic. These paragraphs are to:

~ begin with an interesting "hook"
~ include well-chosen details
~ flow smoothly in logical order
~ use effective transitions and a variety of sentence openers
~ demonstrate lively word choice
~ conclude gracefully

Students are to add a Works Cited page following their report. It will follow the guidelines in last week's post, moving more toward correct and complete MLA format. The best tool I know for easily formatting resources is http://citationmachine.net/.
To use that, click on the link here to access the site; then click on the words MLA in the top left column of the page that opens; then click on the words in the left column describing the type of resource you are using (book, magazine, online article, etc.). Enter the prompted data, then click the word Submit; the website will format the citation correctly.

Students will have two weeks to complete this assignment.