Were The Three
Bears Robbed?
An Issue of Teen Rights
Scenario
| Assessment |
Robert A. Black and Newberry Math and Science Academy are two Chicago Public Schools with similar demographics, needs,desires and goals. Both are magnet schools with students scoring above the national average in reading and math on the IOWA and above the target band for the IGAP. Student selection is through a lottery system. Both schools service a racially diverse population of students of African American, White, Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander and Hispanic descent. The economic level of our school families range from lower to upper middle income.
One of the goals we
share is student motivation. Many of our students have a strong dislike
for social studies and an equally strong need to meet State of Illinois
requirements for Social studies. The students in the upper grades will study
the United States Constitution during the second semester. The dilemmas
associated with studying the Constitution with elementary students generally
are: devising a program whereby students are provided with pertinence in
what they study; the ability to apply learned concepts in their daily lives
and having them realize the impact this important document has on their
lives as citizens. As a collaborative effort, the teachers in Social Studies,
Language arts and Technology are sharing their resources to make this project
a reality and an integrated curricular involvement for the students.
The Constitution will
be studied with major focus on the
Bill of Rights and the many amendments that have been added to it. The
Social Studies teacher will cover the Constitutional amendments. The computer
teacher will work on the technological components of the research. The Language
arts teacher will aid in the narrative portions of the project.
This exercise is designed to meet the requirements for the State of Illinois in a setting relevant to students. Our goals are:
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To create instructional activities for students relevant to the Constitution |
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To survey students to determine which rights are more prevalent |
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To acquaint students with the Internet in conjunction with the Constitution |
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To assess appropriate media/materials/resources for use with the project |
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To communicate with politicians via e-mail |
The project, "Were the Three Bears Robbed? An Issue of Teen Rights" are aligned with the Illinois State Goals for Learning Standards in all three components.These skills are critical in school across all learning areas and are key to successful career and lifelong learning experiences.
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Language Arts Component |
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Social Studies/Civics Component |
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Technology Component |
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Constitution |
The teacher will initiate the discussion by asking students to orally respond on an individual basis to the issue of "Students Rights -- To Wear or Not Wear Uniforms In Schools Where Uniforms Are Mandated". Following this discussion, students will be asked to divide into groups (according to which side of the issue they debat) for the following example: A Fairy Tale- Explore the Rights of The Three Bears vs Godilocks.
Students will be asked to respond to why they believe each party possesses these rights independently. The homework/research assignment will require each student to list the Bill of Rights and apply them to the rights in which "they" believed they were entitled.
After research of the initial discusion, students will be divided into groups
of fives.They will be given several situations to discuss based upon popular
fairy tales. Students will be asked to present both pro and con opinions.
Upon discussion and note taking students will be directed to the Internet
to research the areas of the Amendments that may support their conclusions.
Note: The purpose of having both a pro and con is to keep students focused
on moral issues as well as legal ones.
Prior to the social studies exercise, during the first quarter (to aid the students with their web searches for the related materials), the computer lab instructor will introduce this group to the Internet using "selected" sites and "guiding" the direction of the queries. In ten 40 minute class sessions (each assignment should require two class sessions for completion) the students will be introduced to:
- The teacher will discuss the definitions for: URL and its links; explain identifying an organization by its suffix - type: edu, com, gov, org, mil.
- Explain and discuss accessing information through a URL and discuss common URLs such as the Cartoon Network.com and its homepage.
- Explain and discuss the relationship between the homepage and its possible links. Example: cartoon.network. com/scoobydoo/.
- Explain and discuss using email to communicate through the web .
- Explain and discuss using 3rd party software -- word processing and reference software.
Math ScenarioCharts and graphs are usually made by the students at Newberry Academy for Science and Math classes. Many of the students have done surveys on subjects of their choice for Math, analyzed the data and displayed the results of the surveys. In Science, students have recorded their height vs. their arm spans and displayed that data in charts and graphs. Other situations in which data analysis came into focus was during our vacation. Students were asked to record the rising and the setting of the sun for a two-week period. When this assignment was given, there were puzzled looks on their faces.
The students were amazed at the results after the two-week period ended. Their analysis showed that sunrise was about the same time each day but sunset was a minute later every two days. Following this, the class discussed other areas besides Math and Science when data collection may be used. Naturally, most of the students named sports. Politics was finally named and then Social Studies. The students checked newspapers and news magazines for political news to see how charts and graphs are used. The class looked at The Constitution and The Bill of Rights and brainstormed ways to tie charts and graphs to this focus. The students decided to use a bar graph to display their findings.
Teacher-made survey questions were given to the students to test their understanding of The Bill of Rights andThe Constitution and to generate material for the bar graph. The data was collected Groups of three students made bar graphs to show how the computer generated graph would look after spreadsheet tabulations were done. ClarisWorks spreadsheet was used to generate the bar graph. The students found out that their results matched the computer generated results. This showed them how easy it is to tabulate and analyze volumes of data not related to Math or Science.
