In a nation in which our needs are met and our desires quenched, it is hard to pinpoint the genesis of this social disease, and why it has become difficult to address. It seems as if each time one turns on the television or opens a newspaper we are confronted with the reality that we have become one of the most illiterate societies within the developed nations. As paradoxical as this may seem; regarding the affluence of the Internet, grand bookstores, well equipped libraries, the myriad journals and publications. Yet, with this over-indulgence of mass media, we have to face a greater part of the population who does not find time or pleasure to read.
This dilemma has drastically affected the youngest members of our
multi-cultural urban society in their reading and writing abilities, but also
in their attention span. Today much of information is being delivered by the
moving image, but abstract knowledge can only be conveyed by the written
word.
Your goal, in this project,
is to improve the literacy level of students at
Your
task will be to write a five-page recommendation that will improve the reading
levels of the students at
The
paper must be typed as an MS WORD document
Your
paper will use the TIPS
Public Policy Analyst steps as outlined in the Process below
You
will also include information from your survey that will utilize “opinion
power”. Your task will be to survey a cross-section of the student body in the
school and then write a report, compiling the information. You will then
analyze the information and try to find a public policy that will remedy this
critical problem
Your
group will also be responsible for an oral report of about 10 minutes that
outlines your findings and solutions. You should use visuals and other graphics
gathered from your Internet research for your oral presentation.
Students will be divided into groups of
three to four.
Each group will conduct a survey based on www.opinionpower.com. This survey will
uncover the effect of reading on the lives of Dodge students. The survey must cover, a five-point scale
questionnaire system of which five questions must be of the following:
q
Students’ knowledge affected by television
and video games.
q
The reasons why they prefer television and
video games to books and to journals.
q
Opinions on how this affects their
education.
q
Critical ideas on how literature is taught
to them in school.
q
Solutions on how to enhance the motivation
for reading and writing.
The group members will compose a 5-page report, in which they will state the main ideas
contained in the information that was gathered in the surveys. You will also state the conclusions and
summarize the solutions that they have developed. You will utilize the “Public
Policy Analyst” along with the survey to complete the task.
Finally the groups will present their findings to
the class in an oral
presentation. A PowerPoint Presentation of your work is optional.
To complete this, you will, again, need to use the Public Policy Analyst.
Group
members will research the assignment together, taking turns being the
recorders/writers.
After
the survey is accomplished, each group will complete the TIPS “PUBLIC POLICY
ANALYST” protocol. The worksheets will be completed using the survey and the
Internet resources listed in the “RESOURCE” section of the web quest. The
worksheets are linked below. GOOD LUCK!
TIPS PUBLIC POLICY
ANALYST
Define the problem:
·
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/select.html
·
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/sp.html#scl
Identify the cause of the
problem:
·
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/identify.html
·
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/identifyex.html
(examples)
Develop solutions:
·
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/solutions.html
·
http://maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/Tips/existing.html
·
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/solutionsex.html (examples)
4.
Groups will develop a better solution or keep the existing policy and modify
it:
http://maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/bestsol.html
5.
Students will use Internet links to gather the needed information,
and this will include graphs and pictures if possible. This will be used in
your written and oral reports.
Literacy
vs. Illiteracy
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112734/page1.htm
http://www.bastroplibrary.org/lvab/causes%20of%20illiteracy/illiteracy.htm
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/7635502.htm
(PROBLEMS OF LITERACY)
http://www.thiscityreads.org/media/010504-1.pdf
(POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS)
http://www.lindr.on.ca/fact_sheets/family_literacy/family_literacy.htm
( A NEW PROGRAM)
I:
WRITTEN REPORT
EVALUATION:
Your paper will be
graded based upon the following rubric:
|
Points |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
Total |
|
Task Completeness |
6 Steps |
5 Steps |
4 Steps |
3 or fewer steps |
|
|
Development &
Organization |
excellent organization & thorough explanations |
very good organization & explanations |
good organization & explanations |
poor organization & explanations |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Grammar |
writing is in your own words; few grammatical errors |
writing is in your own words; 5-8 grammatical errors |
writing is in your own words; 9-11 grammatical errors |
writing is not in your own words; 11> errors |
|
|
Research |
Gathered information from at least 4 online sources |
Gathered information from at 3 online sources |
Gathered information from at 2 online sources |
Gathered information from at 1 online source |
|
II:
ORAL REPORT
Evaluation:
|
GRADE: |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
Oral
Presentation |
no
knowledge of the uses of PPA - presents
no data to support the proposed policy |
little
knowledge of the uses of PPA.-presents several sources of data in a logical
format to support the proposed policy |
acceptable amount
of knowledge Of the uses of PPA –presents
several sources of data in a logical and organized format to support
the proposed policy |
superior
knowledge of the uses of PPA.-presents
an exceptional amount of data to support the proposed policy |
|
Research |
links
not relevant to support the proposed policy |
enough
links but few support the proposed policy |
many
links that support the proposed policy |
all
links support the proposed policy |
|
Report
and Worksheets |
Incomplete
- does not use the conventions of standard written English |
complete
weak usage of the conventions of standard written English |
complete
with and acceptable usage of he conventions of standard written English |
-complete
with superior use of the conventions of standard written English |
ELA Standards:
1. Students will read and write for information and
understanding
2. Students will read and write for literary response and
expression
3.
Students will read and
write for critical analysis and evaluation
4.
Student will speak and
listen for social interaction
SOCIAL STUDIES PERFORMANCE STANDARDS
Standard 4:
Economics
Students will 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 United States.
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 constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and
responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.
As your research has shown,
lack of literacy is a major social problem. It is even more pronounced in the inner
city schools of
Our
next web quest will involve another serious issue in education…Mathematics
literacy. This is an equally perplexing problem. See you next time.
