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The constant toll on our schools and communities regarding gangs, leads us to question if gangs are becoming the new family unit. Based on the readings from this week, write an argumentative essay that makes a claim and cites evidence from the three readings to support your argument regarding g...

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Quiz on Friday!

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Purvis Middle 7th Grade ELA Vocabulary Flashcards | Quizlet

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Start studying Purvis Middle 7th Grade ELA Vocabulary. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.

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Get the facts on gang violence in America from Instant Checkmate criminal background checks.

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Making a Plan and Writing an Argument
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1. Take out the graphic and explanation that you composed Wed. and read it over.
2. Write an argumentative essay that makes a claim and cites evidence from the three readings to
support your argument.
*When completed, turn it in and review vocabulary terms!

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**Quiz on Ch. 1-4 of The Outsiders and Quizlet vocabulary!!!** Do not write on the test- this is a class set! Fill in your answers on the bubble sheet given to you. Hand both packets back into the substitute.
Switching Styles:
Write a NARRATIVE text that details the story of a character(s) who are in the situations we discussed this week through our readings (our argumentative topic). Using some evidence from the text (but not citing it), show the character(s) developing through such a situation as this. Remember these elements:
-Dialogue (quotation marks and correct punctuation)
-Character Interactions and character development
-Start new paragraphs as the narrative switches scenes, emotions, thoughts, conversations...anything!
-Feel free to use similes and metaphors, vivid language, sensory language, etc.
-Detailed descriptions and logical sequences

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Writing into the Day:
1. Read AND ANNOTATE (on your own) the infographic labeled Wednesday and write the title in your Writer's Notebook.
2. Draw a simple graphic that represents the relationship among these three articles.
3. Write a short explanation of your graphic. Keep your graphic and your writing in your notebook.
*Add author (and other groups, if necessary) to the table.
*Students create the Atwoodian Table in their notebooks and discuss/model the They Say, I Say process as they write around their tables.
*Think-Pair-Share with a partner who AGREES with you; then, do the same with a partner who DISAGREES with you! Gain multiple perspectives.

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Much has been said about the recent gang violence in Chattanooga. While a great deal of attention has been given to this issue, relatively little has been said about the true underlying cause of the problem.

I am convinced that for this problem to improve we cannot simply react to each individual situation that arises, but must deal with the root cause.

So what is the cause?

To state it plainly: Gangs are simply substitute families. As the family unit increasingly disintegrates, gang involvement will continually increase. Teens are looking for acceptance and anything that resembles love. When they don't find this at home they go searching elsewhere. Teenagers need accountability and responsibility. When they are not given this at home, they look elsewhere.

Teens need a sense of community. When they can't find that in their homes, they fill that need in other ways. Teens are looking for support. They need to know that someone has got their back and will be there for them. If this need is not met at home, they go searching.

What our city is discovering is that gangs are more than willing to meet these needs. They offer acceptance into a group. They provide a one-sided friendship that at first glance resembles love. Gangs offer responsibility in tasks that prove loyalty to their gang. They also provide accountability in the form of consequences for letting the gang down.

Gangs provide that needed support, and they defend each other. Teens are open to joining gangs because they are not receiving what they need at home. As families crumble, gangs are built.

How can we address the root cause of our gang problem? It would be nice to instantly fix families by creating loving and involved fathers and nurturing mothers. But the sad reality is that this is not a problem that can be fixed in a one-day seminar.

We must understand that the gang problems we see today are the result of the failing family over the past 20 years. While the disintegration of the family unit should be addressed, we also need to address the gang problem that exists today. We must create programs that offer teens what they need. But this is impossible for city leadership to do alone.

What if a group of churches came together to adopt a school; and in so doing created a program for that school that offered acceptance, mentoring, tutoring, love, responsibility and accountability for children and teens? This has been done in other cities, such as Dallas, through a program called The National Church Adopt-A-School Program. This is not the program that must be used, but it proves that programs like these exist and do make a difference.

If teens are joining gangs in search of meeting these core needs, why can churches not help to meet these needs? I am afraid church leaders are too content to sit back and criticize the problem rather than get involved and become part of the solution. Churches need to step up!

The church of which I am pastor is currently discussing ways we can do our part.
Jeremy Wallace is pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in Chattanooga. He was formerly director of admissions at Tennessee Temple University.

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Failing at home: Gangs are a substitute for broken families

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Much has been said about the recent gang violence in Chattanooga. While a great deal of attention has been given to this issue, relatively little has been said about the true underlying cause of the problem. I am convinced that for this problem to improve we cannot simply react to each individual situation that arises, but must deal with the root cause.

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Writing into the Day:
1. Read the article labeled Tuesday and write the title in your Writer's Notebook.
2. Underline or note in the margin the main claim of the article.
3. Highlight what you consider to be the writer’s strongest evidence.
4. Then write informally for 5-7 minutes:
5. What do you want to know more about?
6. Where do you stand on this issue today?
Keep your writing in your notebook.
*Add author (and other groups, if necessary) to Atwoodian Table.
* Annotate the text together as teacher models the process.
*Review Vocabulary!
*Read The Outsiders as time allows.

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Consumers of popular lore and many adherents to contemporary sociological thinking believe that affiliation with a street gang is psychologically motivated, at least in part, by a desire to belong to the family the individual never had while growing up. Ostensibly, the gang offers support, sustenance, acceptance, and a structure that the youngster lacked at home. Gangs offer a hierarchy of leadership and a path to gain approval and achieve success. In a highly structured gang, one can "earn" one's way and gain a sense of belonging, status, and power. Sociological determinists have contended that gang membership constitutes an understandable, even "normal," means of adapting to circumstances that are bleak, if not seemingly hopeless. If this were true, everyone who lives in an impoverished, decaying, and otherwise brutal environment would join gangs.

In nearly forty years of research and clinical practice, what has impressed me far more than the environment from which people come is how they choose to deal with whatever their circumstances are. In almost every instance of my interviewing a gang member, that person had siblings or neighbors living nearby who faced similar or even worse adversities and were confronted by the same temptations but chose to react differently. Though their home life was riddled with instability, poverty, and violence, they sought no "comfort" in the world of gangs. Contrary to what gang members tell others when held accountable, most were not coerced into joining gangs. They had to indicate their availability and interest. Seeking excitement that their peers and school did not offer, they sought out other, usually older, youths and did their utmost to demonstrate that they could be trusted. Some gangs require engaging in elaborate,often violent, initiation rites so that the prospective member can prove that he is tough enough to merit acceptance. Not everyone in the neighborhood desires to participate. As one man remarked, 'Us kinds find each other."

One youth talked to me at length about growing up in a gang-infested area of a large west coast city. On his way home from school, he was approached and badgered repeatedly about joining a gang. When he respectfully expressed disinterest, telling them he had "nothing to bring to a gang," he endured threats, name calling, and even being spat upon until finally he was left alone. Deciding to focus on school and sports, he vowed never to end up in trouble like some of the other youths in his neighborhood or incarcerated like his brother. As he saw it, gangs offered only a future of destruction, prison, and death. He wanted something far better!

People do not choose the environment into which they are born and grow up. But even in what sociologists term the most "criminogenic" environments (i.e., environments that appear to foster crime), there are individuals and institutions that provide inspiration and guidance toward becoming a responsible human being. Schools, churches, and community and athletic organizations offer opportunities to those who avail themselves of them.

In the "family" of the gang, anyone is expendable. "Loyalty" is demonstrated through the street code of "don't snitch" or inform. When a gang member is incarcerated, his so called-family is not likely to be at the ready to assist him, help his mother, or look out for his little brother.

Gangs offer power, control, and excitement. The primitive rites of initiation, the violence, the drugs are hardly to be equated with the nurturance and stability a real family offers. For many who lack such a family during their childhood, they compensate by struggling to educate themselves, acquire skills, and work so as to one day enjoy the family life that they missed.

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The Myth of the Street Gang as a "Family Substitute"

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Consumers of popular lore and many adherents to contemporary sociological thinking believe that affiliation with a street gang is psychologically motivated, at least in part, by a desire to belong to the family the individual never had while growing up. Ostensibly, the gang offers support, sustenance, acceptance, and a structure that the youngster lacked at home.

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Writing into the Day:
1. Read the article labeled Monday and write the title in your Writer's Notebook.
2. Underline or note in the margin the main claim of the article.
3. Highlight what you consider to be the writer’s strongest evidence.
4. Then write informally for 5-7 minutes:
5. What do you want to know more about?
6. Where do you stand on this issue today?
Keep your writing in your notebook.
*Add author (and other groups, if necessary) to Atwoodian Table.
* Annotate the text together as teacher models the process.
*Review Vocabulary!
*Read The Outsiders as time allows.