Child abuse occurs with alarming frequency in New York City. 1 in 3 children experience abuse by the time he or she is 18 years old. Most often, the perpetrator is someone the victim knows and trusts.

Elsie Madera

MS 321

The Minerva Mirabel School of Law & Journalism

emadera@nycboe.net

I came home today and I was hit by my mom for misbehaving in school. I told my mom that she left marks on my arms and legs but she said she did not care, so I went in to my room and cried. I arrived to school the next day and my teacher asked me where did my bruises come from, but I just put my head down and started crying. What do you think the teacher might be thinking now? Would the student tell her what happened or lie not to get his mom in trouble? Child abuse is a very serious issue that some students go through but do not know how to communicate to others if they are being harmed and some do communicate it to another adult. Why is that?

As a public advocate for children of New York City you have been selected to go out in to your school community and investigate the different views that other youth have on child abusers and what they feel should be done to these perpetrators. After collecting your data you will take on a position on what should be done to people who abuse children and you will write a 2 page paper on your findings and present it to your group. You will then create a 10 minute presentation on your findings to your group members. After presenting your findings you will then role play some of the issues that the abuse child goes through and you will come up with solutions on preventing child abuse. After you have role played some of the issues and solutions of the abuse child. I would like for you to create a poster about preventing child abuse in New York City. As the public advocate for New York City you will present this poster to your fellow classmates on the importance of preventing child abuse in NYC.

1) You will be placed in group of fours to complete the task. Each member in the group will take on a specific job to help the group achieve their goals. The following positions are:

a) Facilitator: Will make sure the group is on task

b) Researchers: will make sure the findings are presented for the presentation and paper.

c) Presenters: Each group member will present their work and make sure that they are all well prepared.

d) Recorder: One person will record the information that the group has found and explored.

2) You will discuss the topic of child abuse and things that can be done to resolve the issues against the perpetrators. You will organize your ideas by using the Public Policy Procedure in helping you gather information in seeking out other students views, writing your paper and role playing your issues.

Organizing Ideas Using the PPA

Define the problem:

https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/select.html

Gather evidence:

https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/gather.html

Identify causes:

https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/identify.html

Evaluate a policy:

https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/existing.html

Develop solution:

https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/solutions.html

Select best solution:

https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/bestsol.html

3) After collecting your ideas you will go out into your school community (lunch time, recess, after school) to collect the different views that students have about child abuse and what should be done to prevent these perpetrators from doing harm to children.

4) You will then report back to your group and go over the

different findings that all of you found. After discussing the findings you will then write a two page paper about the findings and your views about the victim and abuser.

5) After completing your paper, you will then create roles

in your group to role play. You will use the findings in your paper to assist you in your play.

6) After you have presented your skits, each member in the group will create a

poster on the importance of preventing child abuse in New York City. (The poster can have magazine, and newspaper cut outs), poems, stories. You are to use your imagination in creating this poster.

You may use the following general search engines to assist you in gathering your research.

www.google.com

www.askjeeves.com

www.yahoo.com

www.altavista.com

www.lycos.com

Here is information on getting your information about child abuse

http://www.childhelpusa.org/manhattan/ Children’s Advocacy Center in Manhattan

http://www.safehorizon.org/ Safe Horizon

http://preventchildabuseny.org/resource.shtml Child Abuse Prevention Resource Room

http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309048893?OpenDocument (Understanding child abuse/Neglect)

www.radkids.org/definingtheproblem/2004100801/ New York Daily News/Child abuse/Death

www.apa.org/pi/pii/undergraduate.html Information on Child Abuse

www.unhny.org/children/child_abuse.cfm United Neighborhood Houses

www.safespacenyc.org success stories

girlhealth.org/childabuse_ reporting/facts.html Feelings of abuse

www.unitedwaynyc.org/?id=68&pg=082602 United way of New York City

muskie.usm.maine.edu/helpkids/news.htm Child welfare News

Your group will be graded on the following rubric

	4	3	2	1
Research	*Problem well identified and thoroughly researched *All six steps of the PPA  are thoroughly addressed *Evidence of notes and action research	*Problem identified and reasonably well researched *All six steps of the PPA are addressed,	*Problem identified with limited research. *All steps of the PPA are addressed,	*Problem identified but research is lacking *Incomplete work
Essay	*Well organized, demonstrates logical sequencing and sentence structure *Thoroughly addresses each of the six different parts (see Task)	*Well organized, but demonstrates illogical sequencing or sentence structure. * Addresses each of the six different parts	*Well organized, but illogical sequencing and sentence structure. * Barely addresses each of the six different parts	*Weakly organized. *Does not address each of the six different parts
Presentation	*Social problem introduced with authority based on information *Utilizes clear and helpful visual aids *Generate and field questions and responses from audience around their topic of discussion. *Every member in group participates in presentation.	*Social problem introduced with some authority *Visual aids used *Generate questions and responses. *Most members of group participate.	*Students state the social problem *Students require  prompts to generate questions *Limited participation within the group	*Teacher generates discussion
Group cooperation	*Group establishes and maintains an equal distribution of labor among all participants.  *Differences are dealt with maturely and students exercise listening skills, leadership skills, and compromise skills	*Group makes attempts to maintain an equal distribution of labor among all participants. *Almost all differences are dealt with maturely and students exercise listening skills, leadership skills, and compromise skills	*Groups make unsuccessful attempts to maintain an equal distribution of labor among all participants. *Only some differences are dealt with maturely as students attempt to exercise listening skills, leadership skills, and compromise skills	*Group is unable to equally distribute work. *Differences are not dealt with maturely

By completing this web quest, you have acquired the knowledge and research skills, on the issues of Child Abuse in New York City. You have also learned the Six steps of being a Public Policy Analyst. In addition, you have written and presented your findings on Child Abuse In New York City.