PROBLEM

Being an adolescent is hard. School demands, family pressure, friend issues, and puberty… that’s already are a lot to deal with! 

Now imagine dealing with all of those pressures on top of having an incarcerated family member, which affects your emotions.  Or imagine having a learning disability that makes school even more difficult.  Or imagine having a physical disability that makes just getting around more difficult.  Some young people don’t have to imagine. 

Some young people have personal experience with disabilities, violence, and incarceration.  Sometimes, these young people aren’t always supported in how to handle their serious challenges.

INTRODUCTION

In Freak the Mighty, both Kevin and Max have a challenge that made life in school and life at home even more difficult than the usual teenage problems.  Kevin has his physical disability.  Max has his learning disability, an incarcerated parent, and a family history of domestic violence.

Some challenges like Kevin’s are visible, while some challenges like Max’s are invisible.  They are both hard to deal with.  Both make it difficult to be successful in school when you have so much going on in your personal and home lives.  Sometimes these challenges are kept secret because when the secret is out, others can make fun of your situations.  You might feel frustrated and ashamed to be “different.”

But what if there was enough support for kids dealing with the challenges of incarcerated family members or disabilities?  Could there be ways to make life easier for these young people?  Is there something we could do to make it feel ok to go through difficult times or to manage a disability without worrying about being made fun of.  How can everyone feel supported so they are able to succeed in school and life?

TASK

In this task, you will identify a character from Freak the Mighty and an issue they were facing.  Then, in a group, you will research organizations that could help support that someone else who is going through the same issue.

Issues: Physical Disabilities, Learning Disabilities, Incarcerated Family Members, Domestic Violence

Each person is responsible for producing a RATE paragraph about their character, their issue, and their support organization. 

Remember: A RATE paragraph includes a claim that Restates and Answers the question, has two pieces of Text Evidence, and Explains the connection of the evidence to your claim.

Each group is responsible for making a flyer advertising the real-life organization and how it can help other young people going through the challenge you identified.

PROCESS

To complete this task, you will have to think like a Public Policy Analyst (PPA).  You will use the steps of the PPA to complete your RATE paragraph and flyer.

1.             Define a Problem: Explain the issue from the book that you are researching. Make sure that you can answer this question: How does this issue affect young people?

2.             Gather Evidence: Through your research, it is essential for you for find proof that this problem exist. You can use statistics, primary or secondary sources, and articles from newspapers or social services agencies.  Some texts and video links are listed below.

3.             Identify the Causes: Why do students have challenges when dealing with the issue you selected? Who or what is responsible for the problem? What are the underlying factors that lead to student difficulties?

4.             Evaluate Existing Public Policies: Find policies or organizations that already exists regarding supporting students with challenges. What do these policies say? Or what do the organizations do? Who do they benefit? Do any policies need to be changed?

5.             Develop A Solution: Come up with a solution that you think will solve or help a student with their issues.

6.             Select the Best Solution: Is the proposed solution realistic? Are there any obstacles that can prevent it from working? What can you do to overcome the obstacles?

After You’re Done, Share Your Findings: Connect your research to the book in a RATE paragraph. Connect your research to real life in your group flyer.

RESOURCES

Significant Quotes from Freak the Mighty to get you thinking.

Disabilities

Readings:

Learning Disability article

A Girl and a Word

Explaining Autism (Sesame Street)

John Franklin Stephens Responds to Ann Coulter

Morquio Syndrome article

Different Like You

Organizations:

Learning Disability Association of America (New York Chapter)

Everyone Reading Resources (Dyslexia and LD Support)

Special Olympics

Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD)

Incarcerated Family Members

Readings:

Silent Victims of Incarceration

Coping with Incarceration (Sesame Street)

Jacqueline Woodson discusses her book Visiting Day

Organizations:

Hour Children

Prison Fellowship

Domestic Violence

Readings:

Traumatic Experiences

Effects of Domestic Violence on Children

Organizations:

National Domestic Violence Hotline

EVALUATION

Your individual RATE paragraph will be scored on the following rubric:

Your group’s flyer will be scored on the following rubric:

CONCLUSION

By the end of this project, you will learn about what resources are already out there across the country and in New York City to help support young people who are going through serious issues in their lives. Throughout your investigation you will see how young people are impacted by these issues, why it could be a problem, and suggest a solution based on available resources.

STANDARDS

Writing

W7.1: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.

W7.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

W7.7: Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions for further research and investigation.

Reading

RL 7.1:  Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

History/Social Studies
LITERACY.WHST.6-8.7: Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.