Activity 5- Synthesizing Multiple

Perspectives – Charting Multiple Texts

Directions: Fill in the charts for each of the 5 texts.

Text #1

Title "Wrestling Defense" Murder trial of 12-year-old Lionel Tate 

| Kenneth Padowitz, P.A. 
Author A&E

Genre Video news/ documentary

Questions Answers

What is the text’s big issue? Juvenile murderer who was sentenced to life
● What is the issue the video is and given a deal and took it, but a year later
reporting about? Here you will identify went right back to jail for robbery.
the “main idea” of the text. “The
Wrestling Defense” is informational,
but it is still making a contribution to
the conversation about juvenile
justice. Document that contribution in
your chart because you may wish to
refer to it when you write your final
writing assignment for this module.

What claim does the text make?
● Does “Wrestling Defense” take a
position on sentencing Lionel Tate to
adult prison? This asks you to identify
the video’s perspective on the issue.
They were trying to explain that sometimes
age doesn’t matter when choosing a
sentence.

What are examples or quotes from the They gave him a deal and a year later he
text? ended up in jail for robbery at gunpoint.
● This is where you would put
examples. Be sure to identify where
you found the quotation or idea and
note who is speaking. You can’t give
page numbers, but it will be important
 to indicate the name of the video and
who is speaking.

What do you think about the text’s claim? I feel as if they are correct, but how would
● In this box, you will explain your you know if the child would do the same as
response to the text’s claim. What are Tate?
your examples? In this column, give
your reaction and examples from your
experience that help explain your
response to the text’s claim. Your
experience may simply be your
observations about young people, or
you may know about teens who have
committed crimes.

How does this text connect to other texts? This video agrees with the statement in the
● Does this text support or disagree with article written by Phillip Holloway that every
the ideas in the other texts you have child is different and that it depends on the
read? Consider texts (including case when you are considering charging a
pictures, videos, or websites) you child as an adult.
have read not only in this module in
other classes and out of school). This
is the first text in the module, so you
will need to leave this box blank until
you have read the other texts for this
module. Then be sure to go back and
make connections with the video and
those texts.

Text #2

Title Should 11-year Olds Be Charged With Adult Crimes?

Author Phillip Holloway

Genre

Questions Answers

What is the text’s big issue? Children being charged as adults and
sentenced as adults.
What claim does the text make? When given a case where a child has a
possibility of being charged as an adult the
judge, psychiatrists, and psychologists should
look over the case and the child carefully.

What are examples or quotes from the He gives an example of a law passed in
text? Georgia that gives an automatic 5 year
sentence to a murderer.

What do you think about the text’s claim? I agree with his stance completely. You can’t
just automatically charge a child just from
reading a headline, you have to know all the
aspects

How does this text connect to other texts? This connects to the Tate video because
when you have a situation like that it’s best to
look over the entire case and the child’s
mental, physical, and emotional health.

Text #3

Title Beautiful Brains

Author David Dobbs

Genre Article

Questions Answers

What is the text’s big issue? The way young adults think and why they
think what they think and why they do what
they do.

What claim does the text make? The author doesn’t really make a claim, he’s
informing the audience how the brain
functions and why teenagers behave how
they behave.

What are examples or quotes from the He uses many different articles to prove his
text? main arguments about how the brain
functions.

What do you think about the text’s claim? I understand the author's perspective on this
 topic and I feel as if it’s in a way correct.

How does this text connect to other texts?
This connects to the “Should 11-Year Olds
Be Charged With Adult Crimes” because they
both bring up the under the adult age
situation and this article gives us more
aspects of the teenagers brain.

Text #4

Title Punishment and Teen Killers

Author Jennifer jenkins

Genre Open Letter

Questions Answers

What is the text’s big issue? The author wants the victims families to be
supported more instead of the murderer.

What claim does the text make?
The claim the text makes is that the public
vocalizes more about the child who killed
someone and is now in jail for life than they
do about the family members who just lost a
loved one.

What are examples or quotes from the “JLWOP has spent millions of dollars
text? advocating for these convicted murderers to
be set free. Not a dime has been allocated for
the victim outreach or support”.

What do you think about the text’s claim? I feel as if it’s correct to a certain extent
because some of the children incarcerated do
need people on the outside voguing for them

How does this text connect to other texts?
This, in a way, disagrees with every other text
in the package. She claims that the way
children are being sentenced and when they
are sentenced as an adult it is the
“Enlightened system”.
Text #5

Title Charging Youth as Adults Is Ineffective, Biased, and Harmful

Author Human Impact Partners

Genre

Questions Answers

What is the text’s big issue? The juvenile justice system and how they
decided the prosecution of their suspects..

What claim does the text make? That the system is racist and does nothing to
help children to better themselves, it only
shows them that they’ll forever be “bad” kids.

What are examples or quotes from the “Research shows that youth of color receive
text? harsher sentences than white youth charged
with similar offenses”.

What do you think about the text’s claim?
I feel as if this is completely correct and I
agree with the statement presented because
there are many cases in this nation that the
exact same crime was committed, but the
sentencing was different and it was because
of race.

How does this text connect to other texts?
It agrees with the first three texts with the fact
that the cases should be truly looked over
and never be looked at with bias eyes
because it is a child's life you are dealing
with.