PROJECT SAVE
“ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL”
Mr. Donner
M.S.
326—Literacy Arts Academy
INTRODUCTION
The Declaration of
Independence was a document, whose purpose was to cut ties with
Because there are certain
people that were left out of the Declaration of Independence there is a danger
that you, or someone you know may face a similar fate. You
and your friends are worried about something happening to you if you are not in
the “protected group.” This also makes you and your friends a little
upset because you believe that you feel as though you deserve to share in the
benefits of “the protected group.” In
fact, the struggle to fully enforce the ideals of the Declaration of
You have an important task
ahead of you. You must figure out why, the ideals stated in the Declaration of
Independence, did not apply to all
American citizens. Your findings may have n important impact on
TASK
You and your group are to
create a report that identifies
those people who were not originally protected under the Declaration of
independence. Secondly, you will figure out why these people were not included.
Thirdly you will create changes to the Declaration or unique laws that include
these people. You must also create a poster board demonstrating your findings and present it in front of the class.
To save true democracy in
·
Why the Public
Policy stated in Declaration did not include specific groups of people. You
will investigate problems that this exclusion created,
and you will make recommendations regarding how this policy could have been be
changed or and recommend alternative public policy solutions. You will
accomplish this task by using the “PUBLIC
POLICY ANALYST”
o
Go to the Public
Policy Analyst (PPA) website and use the worksheets to develop the information
for your report. (you can access these worksheets in the process area as
well)
o
The report must
be 5 paragraphs.
§
Paragraph
1 = Introductory
§
Paragraph
2 = 3 Reasons why the certain groups were
not included.
§
Paragraph
3 = 3 problems that this created.
§
Paragraph
4 = 3 Recommendations on how to change
this law/or a new way(s) to solve the problem altogether.
§
Paragraph
5 = Conclusion—Summarize the essay and
also state which one of the 3 recommendations in paragraph 4 your group chose
and why.
o
The report must
be typed using Microsoft Word.
·
A POSTER or picture summarizing the issue. (Click to see a
sample) 
o
The sample poster
board is that of a science fair exhibit—this of course Social Studies, so note
the following changes going counter-clockwise starting at the project title.
§
The Project title
should be the same as this web quest and then the group member’s names.
§
The
“Problem/Purpose” section is the topic of this web quest.
§
Instead of the
Hypothesis section, this section will be “The Reasons Certain People Were
Excluded from the Declaration of Independence.
§
Eliminate the
procedure section.
§
“Science Fair
Board Layout” (bottom-middle) will be the recommendation that your group chose
and why.
§
Eliminate the
“Recommendations section.”
§
The “Conclusions
section” states the 3 recommendations that your group came up with.
§
The “Results
section” states the 3 effects that the exclusion of certain people had on
society.
§
The middle
“graphics and data” section, find an appropriate picture or graphic to enhance
your poster. Use either the last link
under the resources section, or one of the search engines to find an image—IT
MUST BE A RELEVANT IMAGE,
something that relates to what you are doing.
PROCESS
The class will be divided into groups of four.
Go to the PPA (Public Policy Analyst) and complete the
worksheets using the internet sources as a basis to complete the task, which is
your report and poster. There must be
evidence of work that was done on all 5/6 worksheets in your final report and poster. All the steps in the worksheet process must
be included on the poster board:
Identify and define the problem, evidence of the problem, causes of the
problem, 3 public policies or solutions to the problem, and an evaluation and
choice of the most effective public policy or solution that your group
chose. Attach the completed worksheets
to the final report: You will use these worksheets as resource material to
complete your task assignments. Each step may be an outline for you poster and
report.
1.
Identify and
define the problem of not including certain people in the Declaration of
Independence and complete the worksheet:
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet1.html
2. Gather
evidence of the problems that excluding certain groups of people caused and
complete worksheet:
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet2.html
3. Identify
causes of not including certain groups in the Declaration of Independence using
the worksheet found at the website:
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet3.html.
4.
Create three of
your own public policies that will address the social problem of excluding
certain groups from the Declaration’s protection. Use the worksheets found at:
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet4.html
and http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/solutions.html
5.
Finally, evaluate
the effectiveness of your public policy solutions and select the best solution
to solve the problem of excluding
certain groups from the Declaration’s protection by using the worksheet found
at the website:
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet6.html
RESOURCES
Public Policy Analyst (PPA) Website
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/tips.html
Search Engines
SPECIFIC
Websites
1. Lack of Rights for
Women, Ethnic and Racial Groups under the original Constitution (Resources through Project
LEGAL)
2. Overview
of the Declaration of Independence
3. Not Very Equal (Very hard read—difficult vocabulary)
4. History of Women’s Rights
in the United States
6. 5
facts about the Declaration of Independence—check out #2
7. Declaration of
Independence--broken down for kids
EVALUATION
Upon completion of your
report, each group will be graded based upon:
A) The amount of information gathered
B)
The quality of
the information gathered and
C)
How well the
report was presented in the poster and the written report, pictures and graphs.
PPA PRESENTATION EVALUATION RUBRIC:
|
|
3 |
2 |
1 |
|
Content |
Writing shows in depth understanding of the social
problem |
Shows understanding through explicit references to
the social problem |
Shows understanding through implicit references to
the social problem |
|
Organization |
Clear, elaborate sentence structure; gives
background, analysis, and persuasive evidence for new policy |
Writing varies length of sentences; gives some
background, analysis, and partly persuades with some evidence |
Writing uses basic sentence structure; news story
gives little or no background or analysis, and does not support new policy |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Collaboration |
There is strong evidence that all group members
participated equally |
There is some evidence that all group members participated
equally |
There is little or no evidence that all group
members participated equally |
|
Visual
Piece |
Poster or Picture is appealing; images represent the
themes in the report |
Poster or Picture captures the social issue but is
not as relevant as category 3 |
Poster or Picture does not capture the social
problem or the themes of the report |
CONCLUSION
From this web quest you
should have learned the reasons why the Declaration of Independence did not
include certain groups of people and the effects
exclusion on 18th & 19th American society. You have
also proposed public policy solutions to this problem. By completing this web quest, you have
actually become an historian and a public policy analyst. These highly educated
people are crucial to a maintaining a democratic society. They study the past
to find lessons that can be applied to social problems always present in our
contemporary society.
|
|
Read and
comprehend informational materials. |
|
|
Produce a
report of information. |
|
|
Participate in
group meetings. |
|
|
Demonstrate an
understanding of the rules of the English language in written and oral work. |
|
|
Analyze and
subsequently revise work to improve its clarity and effectiveness. |
|
|
Respond to
non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive and critical
processes. |
Social Studies Standards
|
Social Studies Standards
|
|
Standard 1 |
History of the use a variety of
intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras,
themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the |
|
Standard
2 |
World History use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives. |
|
Standard
3 |
Geography use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface. |
|
Standard
4 |
Economics use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the U.S. and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms. |
|
Standard
5 |
Civics, Citizenship, and Government use a variety of intellectual skills to
demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing
governments; the governmental system of the |
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/socstands/socstand.html