Discrimination Against Inner City Youth

A web quest for 11^th grade English

Created by Ms. K. Smith

Christopher Columbus High School

Introduction:

Literature often portrays “real life” situations and experiences. In Richard Wright’s Autobiography Black Boy, he shares his story of how he grew up in a world full of racial discrimination towards African Americans in the South.  Throughout his childhood he faced day-to-day conflicts in which he was called harsh names and treated unfairly. Discrimination is an overlooked, but serious problem among youths of today. You are a MTV reporter covering a Reality Show, which you will name. You will investigate the causes of discrimination among teenagers in the inner city (Bronx). What can our society do to solve this problem? It will be your job to create policies that will correct this social problem. You will then present your findings to the class. Your job is extremely important. Your findings may end discrimination toward the younger generations........Good Luck!

Task:

Your group will study the problems of discrimination found against today’s teens. Using the Public Policy Analyst you will develop specific suggestions for policies that might better deal with this problem. Your report may well bring about changes that can really improve life for teens in the Bronx.

Your group will:

· Complete the Public Policy Analyst Worksheets (to be explained in Process)

· Create a campaign to prevent teenage discrimination in the Bronx. You can create this campaign by creating a poster or designing a pamphlet. Your campaign must include:

ü A title

ü Your research (you must show evidence of your research)

ü A new policy that you group has created to help and prevent teenage discrimination in the Bronx

ü A 5 minute presentation of your group’s findings and poster or pamphlet based on your PPA Worksheets

Process:

Step 1: You will form groups of 3-4 to complete this Web quest together.

Step 2: Each group will research teenage discrimination in the inner-city (Bronx), particularly a community you are familiar with. This may include information about why teens are victims of discrimination, ages and sex of teens, type of discrimination he or she is experiencing, statistics, etc. Make sure you include your research about these topics. Research will be done on the internet, using the suggested sites and search engines listed.

Step 3: Each group will complete the following

Public Policy Analyst worksheets in order to help you with your projects:

1. Begin by defining the problem the social problem presented to you in the introduction.

Worksheet #1

2. Gather the evidence from the websites below about teenagers experiencing discrimination.

Worksheet #2

3. Identify the causes of teenage discrimination.

Worksheet #3

4. Evaluate the policy. What are the current solutions to deal with teenage discrimination?

Worksheet #4

5. Develop solutions. What new solutions can your team propose to confront the problem of teenage discrimination in the Bronx?

Worksheet #5

6. Select the best policy. What is the best specific policy to deal with teenage discrimination in the Bronx? This is a new policy that your group creates themselves!

Worksheet #6

Your group will use these worksheets as resource for completing the task assignments.

Step 4: You will use your research to create a poster or pamphlet to address the problems of discrimination among youths in the Bronx.

Step 5: Each group will prepare a five minute oral presentation describing the new public policies (step # 5 in the PPA) accompanied by a poster or pamphlet. In your presentation, which includes the poster or pamphlet, your group should outline the problem, present data to support the evidence of the problem, and detail your effective policy.

SPECIFIC RESOURCES ABOUT DISCRIMINATION

http://www.youthinformation.com/infopage.asp?snID=486

Community Service Society of New York

Racial Profiling

The Future of Children - Sub-Sections

Changes to the law against racial discrimination

You should also use the following search engines to further research the topic of teenage discrimination in the inner city. (Bronx)

1) www.google.com

2) www.yahoo.com

3) www.askjeeves.com

4) www.altavista.com

Avoid Plagiarism Put research into own words or use quotations.

Please make sure to cite ALL websites if you use them for your research!

You will be evaluated on all worksheets, your poster, and your presentation according to the following rubrics…

Worksheets

Grade A: All questions answered thoughtfully and completely

Grade B: All questions are answered thoughtfully however some are not complete

Grade C: The questions are not thoughtfully answered or the information is copied word for word with no student input

Grade D: The answers are not done or incomplete

Oral Presentation Rubric

A B C D

- 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

- 1or 2 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 or Pamphlet Rubric

A B C-D

Collaboration	There is strong evidence that all group members participated equally for the assignment	There is some evidence that all group members participated equally for the assignment	There is little or no evidence that all group members participated equally for the assignment
Visual Piece	Poster/ Pamphlet is appealing; images and themes represent the social issue being discussed	Poster/Pamphlet captures the social issue and themes but is not as relevant as category 3	Poster/Pamphlet does not capture the social issue or the themes of the assignment

STANDARDS:

New York City Language Arts Performance Standards

E2a: Produce a report of information

E3b: Participate in group meetings

E4a: Independently and habitually demonstrate an understanding of the rules of the English language in written and oral work.

E6a: Critique public documents with an eye to strategies common in public discourse

SOCIAL STUDIES

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.

Standard 3:  

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the interdependent world in which we live—local and national.

Conclusion:

Congratulations! Upon your successful completion of this web quest, you have researched and analyzed the social problem of teenage discrimination using the TIPS Public Policy Analyst guidelines. Through this web quest, you analyzed the causes and effects of discrimination among teenagers.

Your group reviewed current public policy solutions to teenage discrimination, while creating your own new solutions for preventing discrimination in your own neighborhoods. You have learned to develop a research report using websites for evidence and information to complete your task. Hopefully, you all developed some creative solutions to prevent teenage discrimination. Perhaps your solutions could have made Richard’s life a little less stressful!