Extra Credit Assignments Now Live!

Greetings 9th grade civics students!  With the end of winter break approaching we'll soon see each other again on January 5th.  Hopefully you've been enjoying your time away from school and are re-charging your batteries as we head into the end of the semester.  With finals fast approaching many of you are still badly in need of getting your grades up.  Remember to check your grades on Infinite Campus which you can now access from the Infinite Campus button to the right side of this page.

Keeping this in mind I am now offering several extra credit assignments for you to choose from.   These assignments will offer you extra opportunities to show me you have meet some of the standards I have been assessing all semester.  Depending on how you are currently doing on those standards, how many of these assignments you do, and HOW WELL YOU DO THEM, these extra opportunities COULD boost your grade.  

If you choose to do these make sure you actually do your best on them.  This is one of your last chances to get your grades up.  

Directions:  You may do only 5 of these assignments, I will not accept more than 5.  You will have until Monday, January 12th, 2015 to email me your answers or turn them in in person.

Here are your assessment options:

1. Watch the movie 13 Days based on true events and answer the questions that can be found here. Sadly it is no longer streaming on Youtube or Netflix, but you can still find it at your local library (or if you're creative online).
2. Read the adapted article "Why Millennials Love the Federal Government, But Loathe President Obama" and answer the attached questions.  The handout can be found here. 
3. Read any of the following articles and fill out a question sheet for each one.  The questions sheet can be found here.  These articles have been adapted to be at an 8th grade reading level or below.  You may pick up to 5 of these articles, each article will count as 1 extra assignment.
1. Urban high schoolers find work on debate team is difficult but rewarding
2. 2014 Lie of the Year: Exaggerations about Ebola
3. Baldwin says Obama needs approval for fight against Islamic State
4. U.S. House narrowly approves $1.1 trillion spending plan
5. Gov. Scott Walker has too many liabilities to make a run for president
6. Texting while walking is becoming more dangerous
7. Reading helps one man get through prison
8. "Now I'm in the Struggle Singing"
9. Obama proposes more training, body cameras for police
10. Protests spread across the country for change
11. Prison holds dance to show inmates "there's still time" to be good dads
12. How should U.S. respond to the cyber attack on Sony Pictures?
13. Lawmakers release report of CIA torture
14. Troubled teens learn skills in summer jobs program
15. That little plane? It's a drone. It's fun, but it can be dangerous too
16. Go team! Video-game players get athletic scholarships at one college
17. Students' lunch boxes have too many treats, not enough meats, study says
18. Space station welcomes 2 women to its small crew
19. Digging out a lost city's secrets
20. Space-exploration history is made as probe lands on comet
21. Easing the 50-year tension between the U.S. and Cuba
22. An East-West split remains in Germany 25 years after the Berlin Wall's fall
4. As we return to school we will be studying the Supreme Court.  As part of our group packet we will taking a look at the landmark Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson from 1830 CE.  In class we will only be looking briefly at it in our group packets. However, if you are looking for extra credit you might want to consider doing this packet that closely analyzes the decision.  Directions are included on the first page of this packet.
   
   
   This will count as one of the five extra credit assignments I will accept from you before the cut-off date.  If done properly it can really help your grade.
5. The free speech through music assignment posted on this page.  You may do that assignment only once.