A WebQuest for 9th Grade English
Created by Ms. Kollaris
“Most people in
our communities are decent, hardworking citizens who pursue their own interests
legally and without infringing on the rights of others. But there are also
monsters in our communities—people who are willing to steal and to kill, people
who disregard the rights of others” (Petrocelli, p.
21) Monster
by
Walter Dean Myers.
We have just finished reading Monster
by Walter Dean Myers, a book about a young man involved in a crime. Steve Harmon is a 16-year-old who has been
accused of being an accomplice in the murder of a convenience-store owner in
Think about your own communities. This is not the movies; it is not
television. This is real life. Have there been violent crimes committed in
your neighborhoods? Have you or has
anyone you know been a victim of a violent crime? There is no doubt that violence exists on our
streets. Violence is everywhere. Violence can turn our world upside down, as
it did Steve’s.
Is there anything we can do?
You have been recently hired as a member of The
Special Research Unit (SRU) and have been assigned the following task. Your responsibility for your unit is to
investigate and complete a special report on crime. You must act now!
As citizens of our city, your task is to help
curb or stop the problem of violence in The Bronx. You will be researching
the topic of violence in your neighborhoods and find out what has been done
throughout the city to deal with this issue.
You will be responsible for discovering the causes of violence and the
effects it has on victims. You will then
create a policy to be implemented in your community to prevent violence and rid
our communities of it.
You will be…
·
Completing Public Policy Analyst worksheets
(see Process)
·
Create a poster for your campaign to stop the
violence on your streets. Your poster
should include the following…
-
Title
-
Evidence of your research
-
A policy towards violence/ a way to stop the
violence
·
A 5-8 minute presentation on your findings and
your poster, which will be based upon the TIPS PPA worksheets and information
gained from them.
___Step 1: You will be assigned to a group
of 2-3 students in order to complete the task.
___Step 2: Each group will research
violence in the
___Step 3: Each group will complete the
following Public Policy Analyst worksheets
in order to assist you with your projects :
#1- Defining the
Social Problem
#2-
Gather
evidence of the problem
#3-
Identify the
causes of the problem
#4- Identify and
evaluate the existing public policies
#5-
Developing
public policy solutions
#6-
Selecting the
best policy solution
___Step 4: After researching the web and
other resources, and completing the worksheets, each group will create a poster
to help in the campaign against violence.
___Step 5: Finally, each group will
prepare an oral presentation to be presented to the class, along with the
posters, outlining the problem, presenting data to support the evidence of the
problem, and detailing your effective policy.
Here are some websites that will help you in
your research…
http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/summaries/reader/0,2061,562380,00.html
http://www.courtinnovation.org/demo_03brxdv.html
http://www.cfah.org/hbns/newsrelease/manysouthbronx11-15-99.cfm
http://www.safeyouth.org/home.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/dvp.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/related.php?filename=030725080942
http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/ofpa/pdfdocs/antiviol.pdf
http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/walsh.html
http://www.jointogether.org/gv/action/strategy/policy/
http://www.nydic.org/nydic/policypositions/juvenilejustice.htm
You should also use the following search
engines to further research the topic of violence…
You will be evaluated on all worksheets, your
poster, and your presentation according to the following rubrics…
Worksheets
Grade A:
All questions are completely answered
Grade B:
All
of the questions are answered however some are
not complete
Grade C:
The questions are not completely answered
The
information is copied word for word with no student input
Grade D: The answers are incomplete
Oral Presentation Rubric
4 3 2 1
|
- Everyone
in group presents - Excellent
eye contact - clear and
loud speech - Creative
use of visual aides |
- Everyone
in group presents - Most
people maintain decent eye contact - volume and
clarity of speech is sufficient - Visual
aides used appropriately |
- 3 people
in group present - Eye
contact half of the time - Can
understand most of time - some use
of visual aid, may be inappropriate |
- Only one
person in group presents -Little eye
contact - Difficult
to understand and hear - No or
minimal use of visual aid |
Poster Rubric
3 2 1
|
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 is appealing; images represent the social issue
being discussed |
Poster captures the social issue but is not as relevant
as category 3 |
Poster does not capture the social problem or the themes
of the news story |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
English:
#1: Language for Information and Understanding
#2: Language for literary response and
expression
#3: Language for Critical analysis and
evaluation
#4: Language for Social Interaction
By
completing this webquest and researching violence in
The Bronx, students
will understand the impact of violence in their communities. They will have developed a sense of social
responsibility to rid their communities of violence.
Students have also learned to use the Internet
to gather information and do research. They have used critical thinking skills
to make decisions on what policies would be most effective.
