A TIPS WEBQUEST

C. SULLIVAN

colintheteacher@yahoo.com

THE BRONX GUILD H.S.

???WHERE TO GO:

WHAT TO DO???

The Lack of After-School Programs in City Schools

Over the last four years the economy of the United States has entered a serious depression. With record job loss, expansion of cheap foreign sources of labor, tax cuts for the richest 1% of the country, and an ever-increasing war budget, America is suffering a massive national deficit. The question is…how has that effected your school environment, and the answer is, in part, that many schools have suffered cuts in their after-school programs. No big deal, right? Wrong. After-school programs mean everything from chess club to football to debate club. Those programs are set up to broaden your sphere of learning while also simply giving you opportunities for things to do in your free time. As a newer and smaller school, The Bronx Guild is still severely lacking in after-school programs.

Now, how does this make you feel

and what are you going to do about it???

The question on every students lips is…what do we have to do? So, without further adieu…your task is to create an after-school program, something you’re really passionate about and sell that idea to your classmates. We will have a competition with the finished proposals and the idea with the most votes will be put into action this year.

THE PROCESS YOU MUST TAKE

WiTH THiS PROJECT iS:

Step I: Get with a group of 2-3 people. This will be your “brain gang” for this assignment.

Step II: As a group you must find out the advantages of having after-school programs and reasons as to why they would be cut when a school is looking at their budget. Use the process outlined by the TIPS worksheets to help you:

1. Define the Problem
2. Gather Evidence
3. Identify the Causes
4. Evaluate Existing Public Policies
5. Develop A Solution (After-school Program)
6. Choose the Best Solution

Step III: Now that you have evaluated the problem, or the thing you think your classmates need to be most informed about, now you must integrate that into your thinking about an after-school program. You will need to produce three things in order to implement your own after-school program into the school.

1. You must produce a cost analysis sheet for your program
2. You must write a 1 -2 page formal proposal on your project and explain how it will improve your school’s living and learning environment (Hint: Use the answers you got on your TIPS worksheets to help)
3. You must find some way to formally present your idea to the class (i.e. a poster, a power-point presentation, a video tape, etc…)

Here is a list of helpful internet resources to help you find statistics and research on after-school programs:

http://www.afterschoolforall.org/news/research.html

http://www.nmefdn.org/CriticalHours.htm

http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/research.cfm

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dycd/html/services-afterschool.html

http://www.opinionpower.com/Surveys/294019583.html

http://www.afterschool.gov/cgi-binh/home.pl

Your evaluation will be based on several criteria in several areas:

Points	5	4	3	2-1	Overall Total 10 points
Development & Organization	Excellent, Used Online Resources, TIPS sheets, and turned in all parts of project	Very good development, Used resources and TIPS sheets, but not thorough	So-so organization, Used online resources, but skipped parts of process, Didn’t use all TIPS sheets	Poor, Needs improvement, No resources, parts of process skipped completely
Written Work	Cost analysis is complete and well-thought out, essay is comprehensive and well-written.	Cost analysis is done, essay is written, but not proof-read, mistakes on both.	One of the two is complete, neither is proof-read, needs work	Neither analysis nor essay is complete, needs serious proof-reading
Visual Presentation	Exceptional presentation of visual resources and materials.	Good usage of materials. Could have been better.	Somewhat good visual presentation. Needs improvement	Poor visual presentation. Visually unprepared

………….. WAY TO GO!!!

This WebQuest addresses the following English Language Arts Standards:

Standard 1:   Language for Information and Understanding

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Standard 2:   Language for Literary Response and Expression

Students will read and listen to oral, written, and electronically produced texts and performances from American and world literature; relate texts and performances to their own lives; and develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the texts and performances represent. As speakers and writers, students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for self-expression and artistic creation.

Standard 3:   Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.

Standard 4:   Language for Social Interaction

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction. Students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.

And…as all good things must come to an end, so must this. I hope you have learned the value and importance of including after-school programs as a part of your daily lives. Also, I hope you realize how much work it takes to construct and propose a workable after-school organization that will benefit your school and community at large. Most of all, I hope you realize the amazing contribution you have made in attempting to bring something new and exciting to your present and future classmates; after all, knowledge is no good if it’s not passed on. Congrats.