Exploration
Age: 14-15 year olds
Attention span: 12-15minutes
without changing activity.
Piaget: the child is in it's Formal 
operational period which means
the student should be able to think
more abstractly. This means for my 14 
and 15 year olds, they should be able
to think more independently in an
abstract manner through the help
of scaffolding.
Erickson: the child is in its identity vs.
role confusion stage. The student at this
stage is searching for a sense of self 
which means exploration will come 
naturally as they search for meaning.
They are expected to search intensely 
as they seek for answers to questions.
Vygotsky: we need to know where the
student is at in his zone of proximal
development. The student will need 
help from the teacher through 
scaffolding and other technological
tools to help them understand new
information in their zone of proximal 
development.
Gender (will be
a mixed class)
Boys: will require more 
opportunities to move
around. Activities need
to have some degree of 
competition for them to
be engaged. Moderate
stress is enabling.
Girls: need for social 
interaction and interaction
with peers as well as the
teacher. Excessive stress 
may also be debilitating.
Government Class
Research
Finding Reliable sources
Defining features of reliable sources:
Prototype:
Peer Reviewed Journals
Examples (Positive instances):
Wall Street Journal, Pew Research,
websites with .gov
Non-examples (negative instances):
blog posts, wikipedia
Misconception:
Overgeneralization:
"Wikipedia had correct
information once. This
means it is guaranteed to
have correct information 
when researching my paper."
Undergeneralization:
"Wall Street Journal has all
the features that define a 
reliable source. This means 
it is the only reliable source
out there."
Depth
Objectivity
Accuracy
Currency
Authority
Purpose
Correlational Features
Primary sources, 
secondary sources,
well reasoned arguments
unbiased...
Cross curricular ties
Language Arts:
Intertexualityundefined
Science:
Geologic feature
mapping
Math:
Proof and Paradox
