WebQuest: Teen Depression

Stand Up and Speak Out!

 Teacher, School Librarian, and Adults Page

INTRODUCTION 

This WebQuest project is about helping high school students learn more about teenage depression and why this mental disorder deserves as much attention and recogniton as adult depression.  Secondly, students in groups of four will learn how to locate, organize, and develop strong and effective arguments to support their findings based on what role play scenario card they draw in class, while simutaneousley learning how to work as a team.  For their final project, each group will create a visual project instead of the usual written report.  Students are encouraged to try using PowerPoint, using a camcorder to record their viewpoints, put on a skit, or design a creative piece of artwork.

LEARNERS

This WebQuest can be adapted for grades 9-12, and can easily be incorporated into an English, Health, or Psychology class.  This WebQuest will involve teaching students how to use the Internet to locate highly useful information and knowledge for their assignments in school, while also teaching them how to organize and present their viewpoints and facts in a comprehensive and concise oral presentation.  This topic is very crucial and significant in the public, but more so when it comes to educators, parents, and others who work around students.  By creating this WebQuest, the objectives are very significant for helping students become more aware of teen depression, how to get help, along with acquiring information inquiry skills that will guide them through their professional lives. 

Curriculum Standards

Students will learn the following based on Indiana Academic Standards located here: http://www.indianastandardsresources.org/index.asp. 

English Standards Addressed:

9.4.2: Establish a coherent thesis that conveys a clear perspective on the subject and maintain a consistent tone and focus throughout the piece of writing.

12.4.9: Use technology for all aspects of creating, revising, editing, and publishing.

9.5.4 and 10.5.4: Write persuasive compositions that:

• organize ideas and appeals in a sustained and effective fashion with the strongest emotional appeal first and the least powerful one last.
• use specific rhetorical (communication) devices to support assertions, such as appealing to logic through reasoning; appealing to emotion or ethical belief; or relating a personal anecdote, case study, or analogy.
• clarify and defend positions with precise and relevant evidence, including facts, expert opinions, quotations, expressions of commonly accepted beliefs, and logical reasoning.
• address readers' concerns, counterclaims, biases, and expectations.
  

12.5.8:    Deliver multimedia presentations that:

• combine text, images, and sound and draw information from many sources, including television broadcasts, videos, films, newspapers, magazines, CD-ROMs, the Internet, and electronic media-generated images.
• select an appropriate medium for each element of the presentation.
• use the selected media skillfully, editing appropriately, and monitoring for quality.
• test the audience’s response and revise the presentation accordingly.

9.7.3: Recognize and use elements of classical speech forms (including the introduction, transitions, body, and conclusion) in formulating rational arguments and applying the art of persuasion and debate.

 9.7.4 and 10.7.4: Use props, visual aids, graphs, and electronic media to enhance the appeal and accuracy of presentations.

 9.7.18: Deliver persuasive arguments (including evaluation and analysis of problems and solutions and causes and effects) that:

• structure ideas and arguments in a coherent, logical fashion.
• contain speech devices that support assertions (such as by appeal to logic through reasoning; by appeal to emotion or ethical belief; or by use of personal anecdote, case study, or analogy).
• clarify and defend positions with precise and relevant evidence, including facts, expert opinions, quotations, expressions of commonly accepted beliefs, and logical reasoning.
• anticipate and address the listener’s concerns and counterarguments and don't just teach a block of content; they also implicitly teach one or more types of thinking. In addition to describing learning outcomes within traditional subject areas, describe what kind of thinking and communications skills were encouraged by this lesson. Inference-making? Critical thinking? Creative production? Creative problem-solving? Observation and categorization? Comparison? Teamwork? Compromise?

Psychology Standards Addressed:

P.4.1: Identify the factors that may influence the formation of personality.

P.4.2: Identify and describe the characteristics of the major personality theories.

P.4.10: Discuss major categories of abnormal behavior. 

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated on several key issues.  These includes successful groupwork; using the Internet's resources and the WebQuest to research, organize, and present logical arguments for persuasive presentation to class. 

Conclusion

The overall signficance of this lesson is to make students aware that depression can affect anyone, regardless of age.  In addition, students will learn what the basic symptoms are, how to get help for themselves or a friend, how teens can express their feelings with the use of the Internet, and what politicans, parents, and the community can do to bring more awareness to the issue of teenage depression.

 Additional Sources and  for Teachers, School Librarians, and Parents

Below are some some additional materials and links that educators, school librarians, parents, and the community can work with in helping diagose teenage depression before it's too late for the student.  In additional, there are some useful educational materials that teachers can use in classroom discussions

• "It's My Life: Parents/Teachers Depression Material"

http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/parents/resources/depression.html

This link designed by PBSKids provides parents and educators with supplemental materials and lesson plans that can be used in the classroom.  Of importance includes the "IML Journal Page" that can be printed and handed out to students; a discussion guide/unit for teachers to use to encourage students to express their feelings on depression; and some creative activities, such as making drawings of what depression looks or feels like, and creating a personal "shoebox" that represents each student's inside and outside found here: http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/emotions/depression/print_activities.html

 

• Depression Toolkit

http://pibhs.uams.edu/toolkit/default.asp

Designed by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, this valuable CD toolkit is designed specifically for teaching high school students about the science of depression, with steps on how to relieve stress and depression especially for students who may have economic, social, and gender factors to contend with in their lives.  In addition, there are worksheets to help students explore the stigma and myths attached to having depression in today's world.

 

• Sad, Angry, Lonely and Scared: The Masks of Depression Video

http://www.ecb.org/guides/pdf/TeenMentalHealth4.pdf

A PDF teacher resource book and video that outlines how educators and anyone working around students can be more aware of depression by using active listening skills; knowing when and where to help students find support; using visual and group discussion to help students learn more about teenage depression; and handing out "Student Worksheets" that include role play scenarios and support charts. 

 

• Cool-Teacher.com

http://www.cool-teacher.com/teachers.htm

Very useful website created by a teacher for educators who need to learn what signs and behaviors of depression can be present in the classroom; and teaching strategies for teachers working with depressed students.

 

• "Saving Kids from Despair"

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA312537

A very instructional and helpful article printed in School Library Journal (8/1/2003) that details how media specialists can use the library as center for support and discussion.  Examples include "mentoring" or taking students to bookstores to select books for the school or public library; visiting the classrooms for "BookTalks" to develop critical thinking skills thruugh the use of YA literature; and media specialists opening the school libray during lunch periods for students suffering from low self-esteem, depression, or loneliness as a "safe haven" to read, play games, and help out in the media center.