Poor Grades at PS 129 WebQuest

Teacher: Ms.Sahar Shabazz

Introduction:

Many students in our school are struggling academically. They are getting poor grades which impacts their promotion, chance to get into good high schools and future success. Some students are coming into the school more than a year behind. Other students are failing to show up to class and have missed out on a lot of work as well. The quality of student performance in English Language Arts and Mathematics classwork and on exams has been on the decline. Something must be done to help students with poor grades get back on the academic track to success.

Task:

After meeting with the principal, we have decided to create a special task force to address this problem. This task force will be called “Making the Grade Team.” The exciting news is that you will be on this taskforce. As a member of this team, you will be responsible for completing a Public Policy Analysis (PPA) of the problem. By the end of your analysis, you will:

1. Create a survey to gather evidence on why students are failing their classwork and exams using https://docs.google.com/forms/u/o/

2. Write an essay or create either a Google Slides Presentation, or video clip,

3. Give an oral presentation on the topic.

Process:

Your teacher will assign you to one of 4 groups to examine the problem of poor grades using the 6 steps of the (PPA). The 6 steps are listed below. Make sure that your group stays focused and that you listen to one another. See Group Work Rubric 1. You and your group will create a survey that asks your classmates about their grades on their ELA and Math classwork and exams to gather evidence on that problem. You can create a survey by using one of two websites. You can use Survey Monkey or Google Forms. You will have to sign up for a free account or login and follow the instructions on the site for creating the survey. Your survey should include specific questions to find out about report card grades in ELA and Math for the last marking period and the scores they received on the last to ELA and Math assignments. Your survey should have at least 8 questions and should elicit responses that tell you about students' academic performance in ELA and Math and what challenges may be causing the performance. For example, how often do you attend classes? What grades did you receive on your last exam? What is your most difficult subject in school? What do you find the most challenging? Once you have completed the survey, you will send it to your classmates so they can answer questions about the problem. (See survey rubric in evaluation section below) Once your classmates have finished the survey you will review and discuss the results within your group. Once you have reviewed the survey for your group, you will read articles about poor grades by clicking the hyperlinks below the step in the PPA.

2. After your group completes each step in the process, you will be able to choose to write an essay or create a slideshow, or poster to share all of the work you have done. The essay can be type or hand-written. It should be at least one page long with an introduction, body paragraph(s) and a conclusion. Make sure you stay on the topic and include multiple details and examples to support.

If you choose to do a Google Slides Presentation, you must create a title slide that includes the WebQuest title (Making the Grades at PS 129) and your name and class. You will need to have at least 6 more slides to the problem, the evidence, causes, existing policy, solutions, and a conclusion. You should have at least 8 slides in total in your PowerPoint presentation. You can include pictures in your slides using google images. To use images, you right-click on the image, click copy and then right-click into your PowerPoint slide and select paste.

3. For your oral presentation, you will have 5-7 minutes to share what your solution is and how you determined its feasibility and effectiveness. You should use visuals such as your slideshow, pictures or a poster to aid your presentation. You will be graded on how prepared you are so be sure to practice before-hand. Make sure your presentation is at least 5 minutes long. Also, you should use expression and try to motivate your audience and keep their attention. Lastly, make sure you present your thoughts clearly and you stay on topic. (See Oral Presentation Rubric).