Peter Weiss
English 1
Introduction: Your younger sister has just
entered high school. Her first day of
classes, the local gang leader forces her to hand over her metro card. She comes to you for help, but when you size
up the situation, you see there are twelve of them and just one of you. You decide not to do anything.
Later
that week, while having lunch in the cafeteria with your girlfriend, the
smallest and youngest member of the local gang comes to your table and harasses
your girlfriend. You stand up and are
about to confront him when all of a sudden fifteen other gang members
appear. Again, you decide not to do
anything.
Later, all of you discuss your feelings. Your sister is afraid to go back to
school. She feels victimized. Your girlfriend feels humiliated and
ashamed. You feel powerless and anxious
that it all might happen again and again.
Your
favorite teacher has found out through the grapevine what happened to you and
has been happening to other students. In
conjunction with the principal and the student
government, a committee is being formed to address the issue of violence, gangs
and student victimization in your school.
You have been selected to be a member of that committee. Your committee will develop a policy to prevent
students from being victimized by the bullies who belong to gangs.
Task: Your task is to research the topic of student
victimization in high schools and find out what has been done throughout the
country to deal with this issue. You
will be responsible for discovering the causes of student victimization within
the schools and the effects it has on the on the students who are
victimized. You will then, in committee,
create a policy to be implemented in your school to prevent student
victimization and rid the school of bullies and gang influence. In order to complete this web quest, you must
follow the Public
Policy Analyst steps found at the TIPS web site. You must also complete the following:
A. Research to substantiate the public issue
B. Public Policy Analyst worksheets
C.
Group
summaries and oral presentation based upon worksheets
D. Public policy paper
E.
Public policy
solution presentation
Process:
1.
You will be assigned to a group of 3 - 4 students.
2.
Each group will research student victimization in schools. This may include information about bullying
and gangs, but must include research
into the effects of victimization of students within the school setting. Research will be done on the internet, using
recommended sites as listed.
3.
Each person will complete the Public Policy Analyst worksheets:
a. Defining the Social Problem—worksheet
1
b. Gather evidence
of the problem—worksheet 2
c. Identify the causes
of the problem—worksheet 3
d.
Identify and evaluate the existing
public policies—worksheet 4
e.
Develop your
own public
policy alternatives—worksheet 5
f.
Select the
best public policy
solution—worksheet 6
4.
Each group will take the individual summaries for each question, put
them together and edit the summaries into a formal report on your findings.
5.
Each person will complete a public policy paper (2-3 pages), in which
you state the issue, its causes and effects and present in detail your public
policy and how it will help effect a solution to the problem.
6. Each group will prepare an oral presentation to be presented to the class (as if the principal and student government were in the audience), outlining the problem, presenting data to support the evidence of the problem, detailing how existing policy has failed, and explaining your policy and why it will be effective.
Resources:
http://www.ncvc.org/newsltr/schvio.htm
http://www.ncvc.org/vroom/main.htm
http://www.ncvc.org/STATS/SV.htm
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/srsc.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r990421.htm
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/living/dailynews/bullying010424.html
http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/resources/gangs.html#facts
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/iscs01pr.htm
Evaluation Criteria:
In-Depth
Completion of Public Policy Analyst Worksheets
Detailed
research to substantiate social problem
Public
Policy Paper
Participation
in all Group Work and presentations
Evaluation Scale
5 Outstanding
work, complete, focused and thoughtful; controlled and guided technical English
4
Thorough,
complete and substantial work; proficient in technical English; organized,
focused and clear
3
Complete,
basically thorough and substantial work; somewhat proficient in technical English
(some errors); mostly organized, focused and clear
2
Perfunctory
work, not complete, not detailed; shows beginning of proficiency in technical English; partially focused and clear
1 Incomplete
work, no substantial data, little research effort, little group participation
5 90-100
4
80-89
3
74-79
2
65-73
1 64 or below
Conclusion: Having completed this project, you will have begun to understand the impact of being victimized by violence in schools, which is mostly perpetrated by gangs and bullies. You will have a sense of the feelings of victims and a factual basis for understanding how a violent school atmosphere can undermine successful education. You will have begun developing a sense of social responsibility, the notion that this is a social problem. And you will have begun to create public policy leading to solutions to prevent student victimization and violence in schools.
Standards: In
doing this project students will have met the following New York State Learning
Standards:
ENGLISH
LANGUAGE ARTS STANDARDS
STANDARD 1 – LANGUAGE FOR INFORMATION
AND UNDERSTANDING
1. LISTENING AND READING
Listening and reading to acquire
information and understanding involves collecting data, facts, and ideas;
discovering relationships,
concepts, and
generalizations; and using knowledge from oral, written and electronic sources.
2. SPEAKING AND WRITING
Speaking and writing to acquire and
transmit information requires asking probing and clarifying questions, interpreting
information in one’s
own words,
applying information from one context to another, and presenting the
information clearly, concisely, and comprehensibly.
E1 – READING
E1c. – read and comprehend information
material.
E2 – WRITING
E2a. -
produce a report of information.
E3 – SPEAKING ,
LISTENING AND VIEWING
E3b. – participate in one to one conferences
with a teacher.
E3c. – participate and deliver an individual
presentation.
E4 – CONVENTIONS, GRAMMAR, AND USAGE OF THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
E4a. – independently and habitually demonstrate an understanding of
the rules of the English language in written and oral work.
E4b. – analyze and subsequently revise work to
improve its clarity and effectiveness.
MATHEMATICS,
SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY
Standard 1 -
Analysis, Inquiry, and Design
Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.
Standard 2 - Information Systems
Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies.
Standard 7 - Interdisciplinary Problem Solving
Students will
apply the knowledge and thinking skills of mathematics, science, and technology
to address real-life problems and make informed
decisions.
SOCIAL
STUDIES STANDARDS
Standard – 5 civics, citizenship, and
government
Students will use a variety of
intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for
establishing governments, the
governmental system of the United
States and other nations; the United States constitution; the basic civic
values of American constitution,
democracy, and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship,
including avenues of participation