Driven to Distraction

YOUR ASSIGNMENTS

Below, you will find your assignments listed by your teacher. Just click on the link in your teacher's name and it will take you to your assignment. Go on! I know you're excited about it! What are you waiting for?

Mrs. Bailey

Mrs. Biggs

Mrs. Byrd

Mrs. Daughtrey Use this note template to gather information from the websites you visit. Remember that you will have to create an annotated bibliography at the end of this project!

Mrs. Woodruff -- Please read the "Introduction" and then begin looking at various links. Find several articles in which you are interested and read them. A sample annotated bibliography will be modeled by your instructors and then a sample will be given to you. You will then be asked to complete an annotated bibliography on your own.

Cell Phone Driving Hazards The Cell Phone Safety website has all the information you ever really wanted to know about cell phone usage and driving. And it probably has a lot you didn't even know you wanted to know!

Cell Phones and Driving The Insurance Information Institute is really interested in cell phones and how they cause accidents, so their website is filled with information about the dangers and the consequences of cell phones mixed with driving.

Driven to Distraction: Cell Phones in the Car Edmund's should know all about cars, so this is what they have to say about the use of cell phones in cars. This article discusses not only the dangers, but also the benefits of having a cell phone in the car.

Talking Distractions: Why Cell Phones and Driving Don't Mix This website from the University of South Carolina includes information about a study on what happens to your brain when you drive and talk on a cell phone.

Texting and Driving Prevention This website from the AdCouncil has information about their campaign to stop texting and driving. There are videos as well as links to other websites where you can get involved.

The Great Multitasking Lie Think you can multi-task really well? Think again! This website from the National Safety Council debunks the myth of multitasking and gives you helpful statistics about car crashes and distracted driving.

Working to Stop Teens Texting Behind the Wheel This article from National Public Radio focuses specifically on teens and texting while driving.

Is the U.S. the only place that has problems with distracted driving? Read this article from the Center for Disease Control to find out about texting and driving in the U.S. compared to Europe.

Want to find out about distracted driver laws in your state? Check out this website sponsored by the Governor's Highway Safety Association. Are you following the law?

Did you know that there is an official U.S. government website about distracted driving? Check out Distraction.gov to see what information you can find.

Many of these websites are very serious, but this one is actually sort of fun. This report from NBC News looks at equipping cars with cameras and other devices to help drivers see just how distracted they actually are.

Researchers at Virginia Tech got really serious. This research study followed 241 drivers of 100 cars for more than a year to see what was happening to cause car crashes.

Should your dog wear a seat belt? This article takes a little lighter look at distracted driving and your canine friends!

Are teen drivers more at risk for distracted driving? The following websites explore the issues of teen drivers.

Play a game at the Toyota Teen Driver website that will put your driving skills to the test! You can also take quizzes to test your driving knowledge and find other information about teen driving and just being a teenager.

This article from the Rhode Island Department of Education was set up for parents, but you can learn a lot from it as well. There are also links to other websites for even more information.

VIDEOS

This video produced by ENDDD (End Distracted Driving) is one of the first public service announcements to feature both the driver and the victim's family.

WARNING! This video contains graphic scenes that may upset some viewers. Watch at your own discretion! This video was created as a public service ad in Great Britain to show people the dangers of texting and driving. British public service ad

Here is an interactive page about drunk driving. This woman appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show to tell her story. Click on the "Faces" link at the top of the page to see other stories.

Drinking and Driving: A Threat to Everyone The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a short page with some important statistics about drinking and driving as well as suggestions for ways people can prevent it. There are also some interesting links at the bottom of the page for more information about drunk driving. Another page from the CDC, the Fact Sheet is full of statistics about drunk driving.

Drunk DrivingThis guide from the Center for Problem Oriented Policing describes the problem of drunk driving and reviews the factors that increase its risks. It is designed to help local police groups identify problems that exist in their community and find ways to deal with them based on research and other successful police programs.

This page from the Illinois State Police has information about penalties for drunk driving, but it also has an interesting chart about body weight and alcohol consumption.

Drunken Driving The state of Wisconsin has the highest rate of drunk driving in the U.S. This website from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation has information about the ways that Wisconsin is trying to combat drunk driving.

DUI Statistics This page has statistics for every state on the number of DUI arrests.

How DUI Works This page from How Stuff Works explains all the ins and outs of being arrested for a DUI. Remember, this is better information to read about rather than experience!

Even though drunk driving is what people talk about the most, this website from the BBC explores the issue of driving while under the influence of drugs.

Students Against Destructive Decisions, or S.A.D.D., has this Statistics Fact Sheet about underage drinking, teen driving under the influence and distracted driving as well as lots of other stats on bad teen decisions.

U.S. Behind the Curve in Drunk Driving is what one author claims in his book. He talks about it on National Public Radio.

You can also check out these other books by Sharon Draper in the SSHS library

The Battle of Jericho deals with high school hazing. The story continues in the sequel November Blues.

Sharon Draper is not the only author to write stories about troubled teens. Below, you'll find many different books about a variety of teen issues.

This highly acclaimed book was a finalist for the National Book Award and was a Printz Award winner.

Looking for Alaska Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

Lessons from a Dead Girl Laine struggles to come to terms with her friendship with troubled Leah Greene, whose secrets were too much for Laine to bear and whose actions sent Laine on a painful journey of self-discovery.

Echo After Justin witnesses his brother's accidental shooting death, he must live with the repercussions, as the same horrific day seems to happen over and over.

The Truth About Forever The summer following her father's death, Macy plans to work at the library and wait for her brainy boyfriend to return from camp, but instead she goes to work at a catering business where she makes new friends and finally faces her grief.

What Happened to Goodbye? Seventeen-year-old Mclean begins to lose sight of who she really is after she tries to reinvent herself at each school she attends after her parents' divorce and her father moves her from town to town.

White Oleander: a novel Astrid, the only child of a single mother, struggles to find a place for herself in a world full of foster homes and impossible circumstances, after her mother is jailed for murder.

Begging for Change African-American teenager Raspberry Hill, off the streets after years of homelessness with her mother, inexplicably steals money from one of her best friends and wonders if she is no different than her recently returned, drug-addicted, thieving father.

For Keeps Just as sixteen-year-old Josie and her mother finally begin trusting men enough to start dating seriously, the father Josie never knew comes back to town and shakes up what was already becoming a difficult mother-daughter relationship.

Lush Unable to cope with her father's alcoholism, thirteen-year-old Sam corresponds with an older student, sharing her family problems and asking for advice.

Burned Seventeen-year-old Pattyn, the eldest daughter in a large Mormon family, is sent to her aunt's Nevada ranch for the summer, where she temporarily escapes her alcoholic, abusive father and finds love and acceptance, only to lose everything when she returns home.

Identical Sixteen-year-old identical twin daughters of a district court judge and a candidate for the United States House of Representatives, Kaeleigh and Raeanne Gardella desperately struggle with secrets that have already torn them and their family apart.

Tilt Three teens, connected by their parents' bad choices, tell in their own voices of their lives and loves as Shane finds his first boyfriend, Mikayla discovers that love can be pushed too far, and Harley loses herself in her quest for new experiences.

The Rules of Survival tells the story of a teen boy trying to help his sisters survive an abusive mother.

Dark Angel When his older brother is released from prison, seventeen-year-old Jeff's family secret is revealed, causing upheaval in his home, school and love life.

Somewhere in the Darkness A teenage boy accompanies his father, who has recently escaped from prison, on a trip that turns out to be an often painful time of discovery for them both.

The Rules of Survival Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally and physically abusive mother.

Like Sisters on the Homefront Troubled fourteen-year-old Gayle is sent down South to live with her uncle and aunt, where her life begins to change as she experiences the healing power of the family.

Miracle's Boys Twelve-year-old Lafayette's close relationship with his older brother Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and blames Lafayette for the death of their mother.

How to Save a Life Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly nineteen, are thrown together when Jill's mother agrees to adopt Mandy's unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated.

Brothers in Arms When his eight-year-old brother is killed in a drive-by shooting, Hispanic teenager Martin Luna is torn between his thirst for revenge and the pleas of his mother, teacher, and girlfriend for him to resist becoming a gangbanger.

Game Drew Lawson, counting on basketball to get him into college and out of Harlem, struggles to keep his cool when the coach brings in two white players and puts them in positions that clearly threaten Drew's game.

Motown and Didi: A Love Story Motown and Didi, two teenage loners in Harlem, become allies in a fight against Touchy, the drug dealer whose dope is destroying Didi's brother, and find themselves falling in love with each other.

Slam! Sixteen-year-old "Slam" Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees things differently.

Just Listen Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not been truthful with them, sixteen-year-old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and passion for music help her to face and share what really happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life.

After Devon Davenport is a straight-A student and prominent player on her school's soccer team, but when she is linked to an abandoned baby found in the trash she is accused of attempted murder.

Shattering Glass Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, provokes unexpected violence when he turns the school nerd into Prince Charming.

Impulse Three teens who meet at Reno, Nevada's Aspen Springs mental hospital after each has attempted suicide connect with each other in a way they never have with their parents or anyone else in their lives.

Perfect Northern Nevada teenagers Cara, Kendra, Sean, and Andre describe in their own voices their very different paths toward perfection and how their goals change when tragedy strikes.

Trick Collects five stories about three girls and two boys who question how they feel about themselves while learning about love and sexuality.

You Don't Know Me Fourteen-year-old John creates alternative realities in his mind as he tries to deal with his mother's abusive boyfriend, his crush on a beautiful, but shallow classmate and other problems at school.

Cut While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better.

Jude Still reeling from his drug-dealing father's murder, moving in with the wealthy mother he never knew, and transferring to a private school, fifteen-year-old Jude is tricked into pleading guilty to a crime he did not commit.

Monster While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.

It's Kinde of a Funny Story New York City teenager Craig Gilner succumbs to academic and social pressures at an elite high school and enters a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide.

Perfect Following the death of her father, a thirteen-year-old uses bulimia as a way to avoid her mother's and ten-year-old sister's grief, as well as her own.

Someone Like You Halley has always followed in the wake of her best friend, Scarlett. But when Scarlett learns that her boyfriend has been killed in a motorcycle accident, and that she's carrying his baby, she's devastated. For the first time ever, Scarlett really needs Halley. Their friendship may bend under the weight, but it'll never break--because a true friendship is a promise you keep forever.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson When two teens, one gay and one straight, meet accidentally and discover that they share the same name, their lives become intertwined as one begins dating the other's best friend, who produces a play revealing his relationship with them both.

The First Part Last Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.

The Story of a Girl During the summer after her sophomore year, Deanna Lambert tries to come to terms with the reputation with which she was slapped in the eighth grade when she was caught by her father in the backseat of a car with a high school senior, and struggles with her still-strained relationship with her father and her changing feelings for her best friend, Jason.

HoopsA teenage basketball player from Harlem is befriended by a former professional player who, after being forced to quit because of a point shaving scandal, hopes to prevent other young athletes from repeating his mistake.

The Catcher in the Rye. Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins, "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

Still can't find what you want or need? Come by the SSHS library and Mrs. Cordeiro will try to find something for you!