Research Paper Parent Letter

Name: ______Date: ______Period: ______

Dear Students/Parents,

Every year, Baltimore County Public Schools requires students to complete a research-based paper in their English course. This project is geared to teach the fundamentals of the research process, which will benefit both career and college bound students. We are beginning our research unit now in English 10.

Before I explain the topic or assignments, I’d like to stress the importance of completing all aspects of this project fully and on time. As with many long-term assignments, it can be tempting to procrastinate. Doing so ultimately hurts the quality of research and writing, and will negatively impact student grades. In order to prevent procrastination and ensure the success of all students, the project has been chunked into several smaller assignments before the final paper is due. These assignments must be submitted on time. They will not be accepted late, as the success of the following step often depends on the completion of the previous one.

Parents, I am requesting your help in keeping your student vigilant with due dates. I recommend that students also keep a special folder for this project only as a way to stay organized, as that may be the most difficult aspect of this project. I know if we work together, our students will successfully complete this project and learn these important skills. I have coach class on Wednesday afternoons from 2:05-3:00. If your child would benefit from coaching before assignments are due, please have him/her join me at that time. Coach class is an excellent opportunity for me to give feedback on the work that students have produced.

Attached you will find a list of all assignments, their point value, and their due dates. Please keep the Parent Copy for yourself to utilize and sign the Teacher Copy of the Research Paper Assignment and Date Sheet to be returned to me. Please go over these with your child, and let me know if you have any concerns.

Thank you,

Molly Coleman

Parent Copy: Research Paper Assignment and Date Sheet

On ______your final research paper is due. There will be no exceptions to this date. Before you pass in your final paper, there are several assignments you must do. All steps must be handed in on time and completed before your final paper may be turned in.

Assignment / Points / Due Date / Initials
1. Choose a topic / /50
2. Assignment and Date Sheet, and Parent Letter Signed / /50
3. Plagiarism Sheet Signed / /50
4. Working Thesis / /50
5. 2 books sources / /50
6. 3-5 articles (you may use the internet) / /50
7. 4-6 notecards / /50
8. Final thesis / /50
9. Working Intro Paragraph / /50
10. _____ Note Cards / /50
11. 10 source cards / /50
12. Working Outline- Typed / /100
13. Working Cited Page- Typed / /100
14. Rough Draft- Typed / /150
15. Final Research Paper- Typed / /400

Teacher Copy: Research Paper Assignment and Date Sheet

Assignment / Points / Due Date / Initials
1. Choose a topic / /50
2. Assignment and Date Sheet, and Parent Letter Signed / /50
3. Plagiarism Sheet Signed / /50
4. Working Thesis / /50
5. 2 books sources / /50
6. 3-5 articles (print or internet) / /50
7. 4-6 notecards / /50
8. Final thesis / /50
9. Working Intro Paragraph / /50
10. _____ Note Cards / /50
11. 10 source cards / /50
12. Working Outline- Typed / /100
13. Working Cited Page- Typed / /100
14. Rough Draft- Typed / /150
15. Final Research Paper- Typed / /400

*Parent Signature: ______Date: ______

*Student Signature: ______Date: ______

Assignment: Research a controversial issue relevant to teens. Write a ____ page paper persuading your audience to take action.

Define controversial (controversy): ______

______

Brainstorming Controversial topics relevant to teens:

Define persuasion. What does it mean to persuade? ______

______

Choose three of the controversial topics from the brainstorm that you find the most intriguing. Write your three issues below.

a. ______

b. ______

c. ______

Today, we will research various ideas/topics on the internet. Be sure to research the three topics you chose thoroughly to ensure that you select the topic that is best for you! As you research, be sure to write down links of websites you find so you have easily access them in the future. Write the websites and topics on the lines below.

Topic #1: ______

Websites to remember:

a. ______

b. ______

c. ______

Topic #2: ______

Websites to remember:

a. ______

b. ______

c. ______

Topic #3: ______

Websites to remember:

a. ______

b. ______

c. ______

Homework: For homework tonight, select the controversial issue you want to research for your project. Decide what side of the issue you are on.

Name: ______Date: ______Period: ______

Choose a Topic

My topic for my research project is: ______

In one sentence: I am for/ against ______because ______.

Name: ______Date: ______Period: ______

Choose a Topic

My topic for my research project is: ______

In one sentence: I am for/ against ______because ______.

Name: ______Date: ______Period: ______

Choose a Topic

My topic for my research project is: ______

In one sentence: I am for/ against ______because ______.

Name: ______Date: ______Period: ______

Choose a Topic

My topic for my research project is: ______

In one sentence: I am for/ against ______because ______.

Research Project Sign Up Sheet

Name / Topic / Position

Research Project Sign Up Sheet

Name / Topic / Position

The Driving Age Should Be Increased

A growing number of Americans believe that increasing thedrivingagewould reduce the epidemic of fatal teen-drivingaccidents. Many brain researchers and safety experts agree. Mounting evidence reveals, for example, that a sixteen-year-old brain is not completely developed. When teens are speeding their brain's thrill center is working perfectly but the part of their brain that weighs risks is not yet fully developed. Since a record number of teens will soon bedriving, the time to increase thedrivingageand avert fatal car crashes is now.

Raise thedrivingage. That radical idea is gaining momentum in the fight to save the lives of teenage drivers—the most dangerous on the USA's roads—and their passengers.

Brain and auto safety experts fear that 16-year-olds, the youngest drivers licensed in most states, are too immature to handle today's cars and roadway risks.

New findings from brain researchers at the National Institutes of Health [NIH] explain for the first time why efforts to protect the youngest drivers usually fail. The weak link: what's called "the executive branch" of the teen brain—the part that weighs risks, makes judgments and controls impulsive behavior.

Studies have convinced a growing number of safety experts that 16-year-olds are too young to drive safely without supervision.

Scientists at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., have found that this vital area develops through the teenage years and isn't fully mature untilage25. One 16-year-old's brain might be more developed than another 18-year-old's, just as a younger teen might be taller than an older one. But evidence is mounting that a 16-year-old's brain is generally far less developed than those of teens just a little older.

The research seems to help explain why 16-year-old drivers crash at far higher rates than older teens. The studies have convinced a growing number of safety experts that 16-year-olds are too young to drive safely without supervision.

"Privately, a lot of people in safety think it's a good idea to raise thedrivingage," says Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association. "It's a topic that is emerging."

Americans increasingly favor raising thedrivingage.

TeenDrivingFatalities

Already, on average, two people die every day across the USA in vehicles driven by 16-year-old drivers. One in five 16-year-olds will have a reportable car crash within the first year.

In 2003, there were 937 driversage16 who were involved in fatal crashes. In those wrecks, 411 of the 16-year-old drivers died and 352 of their passengers were killed. Sixteen-year-old drivers are involved in fatal crashes at a rate nearly five times the rate of drivers 20 or older.

Gayle Bell, whose 16-year-old daughter, Jessie, rolled her small car into a Missouri ditch and died in July 2003, says she used to happily be Jessie's "ride." She would give anything for the chance to drive Jessie again.

"We were always together, but not as much after she got her license," Bell says. "If I could bring her back, I'd lasso the moon."

Most states have focused their fixes on giving teens moredrivingexperience before granting them unrestricted licenses. But the new brain research suggests that a separate factor is just as crucial: maturity. A new 17- or 18-year-old driver is considered safer than a new 16-year-old driver.

Even some teens are acknowledging that 16-year-olds are generally not ready to face the life-threatening risks that drivers can encounter behind the wheel.

"Raising thedrivingagefrom 16 to 17 would benefit society as a whole," says Liza Darwin, 17, of Nashville. Though many parents would be inconvenienced and teens would be frustrated, she says, "It makes sense to raise thedrivingageto save more lives."

Source Citation:

Robert Davis. "The Driving Age Should Be Increased."At Issue: Teen Driving. Ed. Louise Gerdes.Detroit:Greenhaven Press,2008.Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Baltimore County Public Schools. 25 Mar. 2012<http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&prodId=OVRC&userGroupName=bcps&tabID=T010&docId=EJ3010521211&type=retrieve&contentSet=GSRC&version=1.0>.

Teenage Driving Is as Dangerous as Teenage Drinking

Table of Contents:Further Readings

Anna Quindlen, "Drivingto the Funeral: If Someone Told You That There Was One Behavior Most Likely to Lead to the Premature Death of Your Kid, Wouldn't You Do Something About That?,"Newsweek, vol. 80, June 11, 2007, p. 80. Copyright © 2007 Newsweek, Inc. Reproduced by permission.

Anna Quindlen is the author of five novels, two children's books, and seven nonfiction books. HerNew York Timeseditorial column, "Public and Private" won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. Her column now appears semimonthly inNewsweek.

While the legal drinkingagehas received much attention and has been at the middle of a recurring debate over its virtues, the legaldrivingagehas been neglected. The risks of adolescentdrivingby far outweigh those of adolescent drinking. Parents appreciate their children's mobility, but they are closing their eyes to the number one killer of teenagers in the country.

The four years of high school grind inexorably to a close, the milestones passed. The sports contests, the SATs [Scholastic Assessment Tests], the exams, the elections, the dances, the proms. And too often, the funerals. It's become a sad rite of passage in many American communities, the services held for teenagers killed in auto accidents before they've even scored a tassel to hang from the rearview mirror. The hearse moves in procession followed by the late-model compact cars of young people, boys trying to control trembling lower lips and girls sobbing into one another's shoulders. The yearbook has a picture or two with a black border. A mom and dad rise from their seats on the athletic field or in the gym to accept a diploma posthumously.

It's simple and inarguable: car crashes are the No. 1 cause of death among 15- to 20-year-olds in this country.

It's simple and inarguable: car crashes are the No. 1 cause of death among 15- to 20-year-olds in this country. What's so peculiar about that fact is that so few adults focus on it until they are planning an untimely funeral. Put it this way: if someone told you that there was one single behavior that would be most likely to lead to the premature death of your kid, wouldn't you try to do something about that? Yet parents seem to treat the right of a 16-year-old to drive as an inalienable one, something to be neither questioned nor abridged.

Young TeenDrivingAgeOnly Benefits Parents

This makes no sense unless the argument is convenience, and often it is. In a nation that developed mass-transit amnesia and traded the exurb for the small town, a licensed son or daughter relieves parents of a relentless roundelay ofdriving. Soccer field, Mickey Ds, mall, movies. Of course, if that's the rationale, why not let 13-year-olds drive? Any reasonable person would respond that a 13-year-old is too young. But statistics suggest that that's true of 16-year-olds as well. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found that neophyte drivers of 17 have about a third as many accidents as their counterparts only a year younger.

In 1984 a solution was devised for the problem of teenage auto accidents that lulled many parents into a false sense of security. The drinkingagewas raised from 18 to 21. It's become gospel that this has saved thousands of lives, although no one actually knows if that's the case; fatalities fell, but the use of seat belts and airbags may have as much to do with that as penalties for alcohol use. And there has been a pronounced negative effect on college campuses, where administrators describe a forbidden-fruit climate that encourages binge drinking. The pitchers of sangria and kegs of beer that offered legal refreshment for 18-year-olds at sanctioned campus events 30 years ago have given way to a new tradition called "pre-gaming," in which dry college activities are preceded by manic alcohol consumption at frats, dorms and bars.