When the Good go Bad:
Why Jueveniles Become Delinquent
Juvenile Justice
Julie BartlettThis curriculum on Juvenile Justice is designed for a middle school Humanities classroom that is taught in 90-minute blocks incorporating language arts and social studies curriculum. This unit is of high interest to students because they can see the relationship of government and their own lives. The activities and assessments are designed to meet a variety of learning styles.
Students at the middle school age are extremely curious about their rights as they start to step away from the adults in their lives and make their own decisions. This is the age of experimentation, testing boundaries, and making mistakes. The world today is forever changing and that includes the treatment of juveniles. The time frame of adolescence is constantly expanding. Along with this, youth rights and responsibilities are frequently being challenged and debated.
This unit on juvenile crime will focus on several areas. First, students will understand the difference in the adult system and the juvenile system. Will society continue to try young criminals in a separate court system? Second, the various methods of rehabilitation of juvenile offenders across the United States will be examined. Boot camps, detention centers, and community-based recreation centers are all examples of ways to deter young criminals. Which method, if any, works the best? Third, world comparisons will be made by showing how various countries such as China, Germany, Japan, and Mexico treat their juvenile delinquents. What would it be like to live in a foreign country and commit the same crime? Fourth, various Supreme Court cases will be reviewed such as New Jersey v. T.L.O.. How did these cases push the issue of constitutional rights for juveniles?
The class structure will vary greatly from individual work and debates, to role-playing and a field trip. Many teacher-made resources will be utilized. Handouts will be provided on various topics including case studies, statistics, and personal accounts of juvenile criminals. The first lesson is introducing the juvenile justice system and why it was started. The second lesson is comparing the juvenile and adult systems by looking at fictional cases and charting the proceedings for each. Students will be asked to become the judge and defend their decision in the case. The third lesson will look at the various methods of rehabilitation. A mini-debate will provide an arena in which students may discuss their opinions about the pros and cons of different methods. Students will vote on the most effective and least effective methods of rehabilitation. The fourth lesson will examine juvenile justice around the world. Students will answer questions about juveniles in another country through research and create a poster on their findings. The fifth lesson is a study of various Supreme Court cases set up in classroom workstations. Students will choose one case and perform a mock trial about its events. The final lesson will involve a fieldtrip to the juvenile courthouse where students will interact with judges, attorneys, and officers. They will then have the opportunity to observe actual detention hearings.
To Have Sex, or To Wait
Carol J. BostianAdolescent choice is the focus of my research and curriculum unit. It is my intent to teach this unit in three sections. The first is parenting skills, to prepare my young students for the rigors and joys of being a parent at the appropriate time. This will include prenatal care, the responsibility of each parent, statistics regarding the divorce rate of teen marriages, and so on. The second is the importance of protected sex, for when teenagers feel that they are ready for this type of activity, including birth control methods and sexually transmitted diseases. The third addresses the appropriate age for beginning sexual activity, including reasons why adolescents may decide to become active at this age and underlying reasons for these decisions. It is my hope and intent to give the adolescents whom I teach and nurture daily the information they need, and the connection they require to assimilate the information they need, to enable them to make positive choices regarding sex and parenting in their lives. This connection will be made through readings about young people like themselves and visitors who will give them additional information and insight into why their lives can change based on the decisions they make now.
Teaching Corrective Reading to Learning-Disabled Adolescents
Jan EnglandThis unit will explore a variety of ways to teach learning disabled students to read better, and to enable them to see how the ability to read impacts their lives. The student population will be 6th, 7th and 8th grade "C" and "D" level special education students in a Corrective Reading class. The reading level of these students is generally between 2nd and 5th grade.
The Corrective Reading unit will consist of several components: (1) a phonetic approach to learning to decode words, (2) an in-depth study of the novel Sounder, (3) time for discussion about the value of being able to read, (4) time for listening to short books or short stories read by the teacher, and (5) time set aside for silent reading of appropriate materials chosen by the student.
The phonetic decoding approach will utilize a program developed by Marcia K. Henry and Nancy C. Redding called Patterns of Success in Reading and Spelling: A Multisensory Approach to Teaching Phonics and Word Analysis. This approach is based on Orton-Gillingham techniques and is specifically designed for teaching reading to dyslexic and learning disabled students. It is a phonics-based program that introduces one phonogram (letter-sound correspondence) at a time, then builds in practice and review of previously learned phonograms in each lesson. Non-phonetic "memory" words are also taught and reviewed in the lessons. The emphasis of this approach is on enabling the students to sound out, pronounce and spell words according to the phonetic rules and patterns that apply to most of the English language.
In Sounder, a story set in Louisiana in the 1830’s, a poor African-American boy in a family of sharecroppers faces various trials as he grows into young adulthood. One of the main ideas in this book is that any education the boy can receive is considered a privilege. Another point in the book that will be emphasized and discussed is that the boy is filled with wonder at being able to possess a book he retrieved from a trash can. Many relevant questions arise from this novel, for example, "What would the boy’s life have been like had he not had the opportunity to go to school?" "What would your life be like if you were the only one in your family who could read?" "How does reading better make one feel better about one’s self?" "How could being unable to read lead to deviant behavior?"
An important part of the unit will be for the students to listen to the teacher read various "picture books" or short stories available in any school library or city library. This not only provides the students with a role model for fluent reading, but enables them to appreciate the value and enjoyment available from reading. There will be time for silent reading of self-selected materials.
This curriculum unit is designed to reach sixth through eighth grade special education students who have difficulty reading and who reside in an environment that is low income and has a great deal of gang activity. The materials chosen to do this are folk tales and parables. The primary method used is Socratic seminars with use of some Four Block guided reading techniques. The lessons consist of a three day block. The folk tales will be presented the first day or read, then the following day a Socratic seminar discussion will be held both in an attempt to construct meaning from the text and to facilitate communication skills (and actual communication) in the students. Hopefully we will come up with a class common mythology regarding behavior and ideals.
Bad Boys, Bad Boys…Whatcha Gonna Do?
Alicia HicksWe have all seen the statistics about the amount and kind of television our students watch. Action shows or reality based police shows are standard fare for, especially our male, children. Children of immigrants, low income families and special education students watch the most television and are most at risk for being unable to separate reality from hype.
This unit was written with middle school students in mind. It focuses on three components of the television experience. Stereotyping, the typecasting of gender and races which can lead to students feeling locked into a media-driven persona; news bias, especially reporting that sensationalizes violence and seems anti-youth in nature. And finally, the Mean World Syndrome – a phenomenon in which avid TV viewers become leery of a seemingly more violent world and react accordingly. This three week unit seeks to deconstruct some of the violent myths the media is promoting to our students.
Teaching "Self Concept Skills" through Mentoring
Jannelle Jacquez-GutierrezThis curriculum focuses on empowering students to feel confident in themselves and learn how to effectively deal with life situations. The ideas in this curriculum are meant to provide you with practical lessons that involve didactic instruction through mentoring. By initiating our students into experiencing the role of mentor to others, we can help empower our students to feel competent as a role model for young children. Through building an ongoing relationship, a middle-school student can develop life-affirming skills that include self-awareness, self-control, motivation, empathy, active listening and cooperation.
By teaching students about themselves we empower the student with knowledge. They then have the means to effectively mentor young children in these same areas mirroring behaviors and attitudes in a low risk environment allowing them to strengthen their inner control. When the student has successfully resolved some of their own issues, they then have great potential for understanding the problems of others. In this way they begin to care, empathize and learn with their heart as well as their mind. It is my profound wish that this curriculum unit might help students experience the same pride, joy and sense of fulfillment that I have experienced through mentoring.
The focus of this curriculum unit is peer mentoring and "self-concept learning," focusing on self-esteem issues, motivation and individual achievement. The target group is middle school students. Their mentoring group is preschool children age three to five years old. This curriculum can also be adapted to work with students of various ages and ability levels.
Through the peer mentoring experience, middle school students will develop feelings of caring, self-worth and concern for others as they engage young children through the use of various picture book stories. These stories provide opportunities for open discussion of several "self-concept skills" including self-awareness, dealing with change, achievement, self-esteem, handling teasing and bullying, and setting
goals.
Juvenile Delinquency in the U.S.: Deconstructing the Recipe
Linda D. OrtegaThis unit of study will explore a topic that is of compelling interest to high school students. Not unlike the average citizen of the United States, most have either been perpetrators or victims of crime and violence in a very personal way. Although interest in this social issue approaches a kind of fascination, understanding and knowledge is usually very superficial and thinly reflected upon. The broad goals for this unit are twofold. The first is to develop a citizen and future voter who is informed and critical as U.S. communities continue to grapple with the tangle of social dysfunction that appears to be worsen each year. Most students espouse a very conservative attitude in regard to causes and ways to address the issues. Generally, the attitude is a simple parroting of internalized, politically motivated analysis projected by the media. This unit will seek to create a foundation of knowledge that delves beneath the surface of risky behaviors that lead to criminality in adolescents. Students will be pushed to be consumers of information, but most importantly assume a critical stance. It is felt that this can be best achieved by presenting conflicting views with ample opportunity for discussion and written reflection. The essential intent of the unit also seeks to provide an opportunity for students to look at themselves as a sub group framed by larger U.S. society.
The second purpose is to tap into a body of high interest printed material that will lend itself to developing literacy skills. Related to developing academic skills, the unit seeks to tap into the pool of future, or in some cases, recent parents. It is frequently noted that more is required and provided in the way of training a new automobile driver than of a new parent. Young people simplistically have created a romantic mystique around the issues of what is required to raise well adjusted productive children. It is strongly believed that a byproduct of this unit will be to develop a more informed and effective parents, thereby addressing the need for intervention of criminal behavior in the next generation.
The theoretical framework for exploration will be carried out through the ecological theory developed by Urie Bronfenfrenner. This will allow an exploration of the various social systems that interact and influence a growing child. They consist of five environmental systems beginning with the physiological make up of the individual and include the contexts of family and community (microsystem), economic factors (mesosystem), greater societal influences such as the media and government (exosystem), and the sociohistorical context that influences attitudes and identity of individuals within a culture (macrosystem). Some aspects of this framework will be developed more for the teacher who facilitates and directs learning than for the student who is the consumer of the content.
Students will be reading a variety of literary genre utilizing the conventions of literary analysis for providing a method for investigation and discussion. Developmental and academic materiel will be infused and interwoven with the literature to provide an additional perspective for analysis. Essentially there will be back-and-forth movement for the students between literary and academic material. The unit will provide for a great deal of discussion in large and small groups followed by reflective writing assignments and opportunities for sharing of that writing. Resources for guest speakers from related social agencies will be sought out and utilized. Speakers as well as reading selections will be chosen with the intent of providing conflicting views so that students can develop an understanding of how liberal and conservative perspectives, impact this phenomenon. Additionally the unit will suggest some topics and research opportunities for individual student interests. In this way the students can achieve a measure of understanding that encompasses breadth as well as depth. A case study approach, including analysis, will be used for assessment purposes.
During the past two decades our society has experienced cultural, demographic, economic, and social changes that are both profound and radical. Many of the changes that students and their peers are encountering are unfortunately negative. In the United States students are daily immersed in a "society of violence." The children I am privileged to encounter on a daily basis are born into, reared within, and daily grappling with this "society of violence." This social milieu has greatly affected the epidemic of behavioral and discipline problems facing our schools nationwide. Yet, are there more factors shaping this current difficulty? This curriculum unit explores the basic premise that a significant factor in the behavioral and discipline difficulties facing our schools today is in large part due not only to our "society of violence," but also the dearth of social and emotional intelligence of our students.
In the classroom, educators have a critical window of opportunity for influencing the lives of students. The most seized upon opportunity has been teaching cognitive subjects such as math, language arts, science, and health. And when discipline problems arise, more times than not, teachers/administrators use punitive measures. However, there is also a critical window of opportunity for shaping and influencing the basic social skills and emotional intelligence of students in a positive manner. This curriculum unit explores the need for social and emotional intelligence in the classroom and proposes practical ways to teach students the necessary skills for dealing with emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, frustration, hurt and inadequacy, recognition of emotions in others, managing one’s own emotions and handling relationships. The culminating goal of this unit is that teachers will make their classrooms a teaching center and laboratory in which students learn, try out, and practice appropriate and emotionally informed behavior.
Being a Responsible Adult
Sean WingfieldTo get my curriculum unit off and running, I would like for my math students to research a career in the library. I would like the students to record such details as the amount of education involved, the hours needed to be successful, the starting salary and opportunity for growth. With this information, I would like my classes to estimate their monthly income and expenditures. They will need to figure into the mix such monthly expenditures as food, shelter, automobiles, pets, entertainment, and others. I want them to realize just what budgeting is and why it is a reality for all adults. They need to be aware that even with a good job some financial limitations need to be monitored. Some mathematical concepts to be touched upon here include estimation, addition and subtraction (including decimals and fractions), division, multiplication, rounding, using charts and graphs, and more.
The projected theme for this curriculum unit will be personal responsibility. My goal is for my students to take the information they discovered from the first group of lessons and use it to explore both the good and bad scenarios involved in being a responsible adult. My classes will analyze statistics covering areas from many fields including crime, welfare, child abuse, drugs, dropout rates, and more. I want the students to get a feel for what happens when adults are not responsible and the way that such behavior affects us all. While this exploration is occurring, lessons will be reinforcing such concepts as reading charts and graphs, identifying patterns and relationships, making projections, drawing conclusions, mathematical computations, and others. I feel it is very important for middle school students to see a reason behind why they are asked to add fractions and decimals. They need to have a purpose for what they are doing or their interest will begin to diminish. This also is a topic that hits close to home for many of my students, as the teachers they see at school are often the only grown-ups they have contact with that actually act like adults. It is important for these young people to realize the consequences for irresponsible type of behavior.
When the Good go Bad:
Why Jueveniles Become Delinquent
Stanley P. YukonThis curriculum unit about juvenile delinquency will simultaneously stimulate student reading development while increasing student awareness of various aspects of delinquency.
The unit utilizes Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and E.F. Hinton’s The Outsiders, both read in Literature class, to actively engage 8th grade Special Education students on some of the causes and implications of juvenile delinquency. The two books will be read and discussed over a period of nine to twelve weeks during which time guest speakers, role-playing, class discussion, and essay writing will be used to facilitate student learning.
Immediate goals of this unit include enhanced student knowledge of the causes of delinquency, awareness of the effects of poverty on youth, possible attitudinal band behavior changes amongst students, and student ability to more effectively implement reading strategies to increase their reading comprehension. Means of assessment include vocabulary and comprehension testing, written essays, oral exams, and teacher observation of student behaviors.
Longer-term goals of this unit include better personal decision-making, enhanced social skill, more positively conformist behaviors, and an appreciation for reading as a means of self-discovery and as a means to discover and better understand the world. Tom Sawyer and The Outsiders will be the avenues through which students learn about socio-economic facets of 19th and 20th century American life. Hopefully, student learning will engender a greater sense of optimism and motivation in their personal lives.