In the course of developing the media-infused presentation for this topic, I had an opportunity to build on a unit I started last year when I was still in the classroom, and then further developed in another Wilkes course. This presentation assignment challenged me to add depth and additional resources to a unit that I have now been working on for quite some time, and I am quite happy that I had that opportunity.

Here's the presentation:
Understanding Juvenile Justice

In considering how I would put this presentation together, I realized that it is an excellent opportunity to point students toward resources that can help them more fully understand a topic. In this case, it is a topic that we study in the CSU Expository Reading and Writing Course, which is taught throughout California. The last time I taught the unit, I took the core content (reading and structured scaffolding activities) and infused technology into it. My students had to blog as their final essay, they had to research additional information, and they had to include both class readings and outside sources into their final blog. This provided additional opportunities for my students to understand the topic.

By using this presentation as a starting point for additional depth of understanding, I am helping my students access additional information that directly connects to key ideas presented in the unit's texts, helping them develop the disciplined mind. By requiring them to take relevant information from their course readings, the information provided in this presentation, and through their own additional research, and develop a proposal for sentencing guidelines that would address some of the issues that surround sentencing juveniles as adults and then publishing it online, I am helping them develop their synthesizing minds.

On its own, the presentation I put together is not enough to provide students with a thorough understanding of the topic we cover in class; however, when combined with already-existing course materials and readings, this presentation allows students to develop a much richer, more personal, understanding of the issues raised in this unit, which is essential for success on the final blog assignment.

Having spent as much time as I have on this unit (and I am really excited about what this presentation adds to it!), I am sad that I will not have an opportunity to teach the unit again. Fortunately, I have colleagues who teach this course who will be able to take advantage of the work I have done, and I am considering turning it into a Wiki page and sharing it on a forum for other teachers who teach the course, in case they'd like to give my new approach to the unit a try.