Lesson Plans 9.16.14

Junior Class Meeting 2nd Period

Groups

1. Imagine that you are the principal of North Thurston High School and you just found out that there was a fight in the lunchroom during lunch.  You've asked many students and teachers who witnessed the fight what they saw so you can figure out who started it.  Unfortunately, you have received many different accounts that disagree about who started the fight, who was involved, and when it started.  It’s important to remember that NO ONE is lying.
2. Answer following questions;
1. How could there be different stories of the event if no one is lying?
2. Who are the different people who might have seen this fight?
3. What might make one person's story more believable than another person's?

Discuss

1. Why might people see or remember things differently?
2. Who has an interest in one person getting in trouble instead of another? Who was standing where? Could they see the whole event?
3. The plausibility of the stories themselves. Is the story believable? Trustworthy?
4. Time: Do stories change over time? How might what we remember right after the even differ from what we remember a week later? Does time make the way someone remembers something more or less trustworthy?

Stanford History Education Group