Social Justice and Government Reform in the U.S.

Government/Economics

Mr.Wright

INTRODUCTION:

As future leaders of the world our nation is asking you all to impact our public policy makers by becoming “agents of change”.

You will be responsible for:

1.Choosing an issue of social justice that needs reform.

2.Gathering Evidence through close reading of historical documents, events, statistics and articles that present relevant facts sufficient enough to indicate why this topic is a social justice problem?

3.Identifying the causes and factors surrounding your social justice issue

4.Evaluating the current government policies in place that concern your issue.

5. Sharing your process and data with the class to inform them on the social justice issues and your analysis of its historical contexts.

TASK 1: Day 1 Objective Day 1: Review Familiarize yourself with the PPA Steps:

1. Define the Problem

2. Gather the Evidence

3. Identify the Causes

4. Evaluate the Policy

(Optional Step) Do a Comparative Analysis of the Policy

Choose one of the following Social Justice Issues to complete your 1 paragraph proposal for PPA research defining the problem of your choice and explaining why it remains a social problem.

Black Lives Matter Movement, Police Brutality, Criminal

Justice Reform, Gun Control Reform, Mass Shootings.

Task 2: Gathering Background Information and Historical Context: Conduct Research on your social justice issue. Objective: Complete the PPA worksheets

Task 3 Part 2: U.S. Constitution: History of the U.S. Constitution: Closely read, annotate and study the first, second, and fourth, 13th and 14th. amendments. Identifying controversial issues with landmark supreme court cases over freedom of speech, right to bear arms and illegal search and seizures. Objective: Identify the legislation that impacts your social justice issue.

Identify the root causes of your social justice issue that exist within the structures of public policy (U.S. government. - Objective: Create a google slides presentation of the resources and data you’ve collected, including landmark supreme court cases that apply to these issues .

Task Part 4: Application and Analysis of Study: Evaluating the policy. You will now take the research that you’ve conducted on your social justice issue, combined with the legal and historical research to determine how current governmental policy is ineffective in addressing these social issues or what laws existing governmental policy can be used to address your social issue. -Objective: Create a thesis for a thematic research paper based on your social justice issue in your group

Task 5: Compiling and Writing Research. Students write their group research paper using their PPA research. - Objective: Complete 3-4 Thematic Research Paper with a works cited page.

Task 6: Implementation and Share: Objective: Present your thematic research paper and findings on social justice issues to the class and outline their PPA research process.

PROCESS/RESOURCES:

· Black Lives Matter Mission Statement and Website

· U.S. Constitutional Amendments

· Breakdown and classification of all 27 Amendments

· Landmark Supreme Court Cases and Decisions

· Federal Supreme Court Cases that have shaped U.S. policy.

· Gun Control Pro's vs Cons

· Examining Police Brutality

· PPA Steps 1-4 Worksheets

· Gun Control & Mass Shooting Data

· Active Shooter Incidents from 2000-2018

· History of U.S. Mass Shootings

EVALUATION

CONCLUSION

Now that you’ve concluded your research, the next step is to brainstorm potential efforts to combat these social justice problems.

NGLS STANDARDS

Science Literacy

RST1: Cite specific evidence to support analysis of scientific and technical texts, charts, diagrams, etc. attending to the precise details of the source. Understand and follow a detailed set of direction

RST9: Compare and contrast findings presented in a source to those from other sources (including their own experiments), noting when the findings support

Social Studies/History

RH8: Analyze the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

WHST7: Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.