Journalism Lesson Plan

Overview: A Kansas-based book published named St. Louis, Mo., the Most Dangerous City in America, followed by Detroit, Mich.; Flint, Mich.; Compton, Calif.; and Camden, NJ.

Suggested time allotment: Students can read the report of safe and unsafe cities (although the complete report costs $4.99) and then research for approximately a week the status of their city or any nearby.

Objectives

Students will:

1. Write about the in their own or a neighboring city after research.
2. Interview police representatives, perhaps the mayor, city council or others to get their insight into the degree of local danger. Use crime records to compare past and present rates and those of nearby areas.
3. Report on how their community stacks up.
4. Write a sidebar about how to keep safe, using law enforcement and medical sources for the info. A bullet-pointed box might be good.
5. Write an editorial if the staff believes there are things the community could do to make the area safer.

Standards: National Council of Teachers of English and International Reading Association Standards for English Language Arts:

4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written and visual language (e.g.,conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
8. Students use a variety of technological and informational resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
12. Students use spoken, written and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion and the exchange of information).

Resources and materials:
Web sites with information:
• The short, online version of Morgan Quitno Press’s findings are available at
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• The Safe Neighborhood Initiative (SNI) in the Boston area is a good model for what some urban areas might do to improve safety. Read about that on the Web site of the Massachusetts Attorney General.
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