Introduction

This lesson was developed in conjunction with Region 20 as a part of the San Antonio Northside School District's Creating Web-based Lessons Workshop.

This is an integrated project dealing with the topic of juvenile crime.  It should take anywhere from one to three weeks in length -- depending upon your students' grade level and background knowledge.

Content Area and Grade Level

This lesson is anchored in eighth grade language arts and involves social studies and math to a lesser extent. The lesson can easily be extended to the seventh through twelfth grades by altering/amending the assignments.

Curriculum Standards

The following standards are derived from the Northside School District Standards and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).

In addition to describing learning outcomes within traditional subject areas, the following is a list of thinking and communications skills encouraged by this lesson: critical thinking, creative production, creative problem solving, categorization, comparison/contrast, analysis, evaluation, decision making, policy formation, and teamwork.

Implementation Overview

This project is basically two weeks in length, but it can be extended to three weeks if needed.  It is organized into the approximate number of days that each lesson should take.  It mainly involves the Language Arts class, however, it would be a great help if the math teacher had already taught, or would teach at the same time, various spreadsheet and/or graphing skills. Also, several current events topics could be incorporated into the social studies/history class.  (It is assumed that students already have basic word processing, spreadsheet, internet, and e-mail skills.)

Resources Needed

Describe what's needed to implement this lesson. Some of the possibilities:

• E-mail accounts for all students
• Specific software: MS Office
• Specific hardware (computers with internet access -- at least one computer for every three students)
• Specific reference material in the classroom or school library: periodicals with articles dealing with juvenile crime
• Video or audio materials: video cameras and tape recorders (if available), otherwise these materials must be provided by the students

This project is designed to be implemented by one teacher.  One teacher should be sufficient provided that the spreadsheet/graphing and technological skills have previously been taught.   There may be a role for trained computer aides or computer literate parents in the room. Partners in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and law enforcement are necessary for the interviews.  Many websites were provided in the web links to take care of this activity via e-mail, but you may want to have some people readily available for personal interviews.  A follow-up activity to this project could be a field trip to a juvenile court or a correctional institution.

Entry Level Skills and Knowledge

Students: basic word processing, spreadsheet, research,  internet, and e-mail skills.

Teacher: pre-requisite skills that are needed for his/her curricular area, all of the skills listed for the students, organizational skills, and good classroom management.

Evaluation

Student evaluation will be done using a Rubric

Possible Variations

Increase or decrease the complexity of the various products for each grade level as necessary.

Conclusion

This project encompasses a vast number of the standards that need to be addressed for the eighth grade language arts curriculum.  It is also a very relevant topic in today's society.  Much discussion on this topic should take place, and students should be encouraged to share their plans/ideas with those community, city, state, country leaders who are in a position to develop juvenile policies.