Puberty Essay, Research Paper

Lesson Plan

Title: Perils of Puberty

Objective:

1. Students will be able to identify the perils of puberty Girls experience.

2. Students will be able to identify the perils of puberty Boys experience.

Pre-Teach:

I am going to introduce the lesson by having students reflect and discuss something they went through during puberty. The purpose of this activity is to activate the students background knowledge about puberty.

Peri-Teach

I will introduce the perils of puberty Girls and Boys experience, presented by David Elkind. Through open discussion with students, they will list the major changes Girls and Boys go through. A visual aid of a boy and a girl will be posted for students to look at and list the changes next the appropriate gender.

Perils for Girls include:

1. Height / Weight

2. Breast development

3. Body hair

4. Facial features and skin conditions

Perils for Boys include:

1. Height

2. Facial Hair

3. Sexual Development- Penis size, spontaneous erection, wet dreams

Why is it important to understand the perils of puberty adolescence experience?

1. As future educators it is important to know what developmental changes your students may be going through. This will help you be sensitive to their needs and if necessary, provide accurate information to their questions.

Conclusion

 I will briefly review the 4 major changes Girls experience and the 2 major changes Boys experience.

 I will ask students to think about ways they could talk to their students about the physical changes of puberty.

 Each student will take a quiz, asking them two questions on the lesson. This will assess whether the objectives were accomplished.

Lesson Plan Script

Puberty presents teenagers with a series of unknown changes, and each one constitutes a peril of puberty. David Elkind is a professor of Child Studies at Tufts University. In his book ?All Grown Up and No Place to Go?, he explains the major changes children go through with the onset of puberty. Let?s stop and think about a worry or fear you experienced while going through puberty. Take a minute to write it down and we will discuss it if you want. Discuss student?s reflection.

According to David Elkind, Girls and Boys experience different perils of puberty. Let?s review the perils for girls. What do you think some of the perils of puberty Girls experience? Discuss and guide their responses. Say good, nice and yes after someone gives a response. David Elkind says perils for girls include height, weight, breast development, menstruation, hair growth, body shape, facial features, and skin conditions.

I am going to discuss the major concerns for Girls.

Height / Weight: The first one is height and weight. Girls begin growth spurts at 10 and end around 14. Until then there is little difference between Boys and Girls. Girls begin to feel self-conscious about their height when they feel like they are above or below the average. During this growth spurt above Boys, girls are usually teased about their height, sometimes being call ?amazon? or ?beanstalk?. Girls also retain more of their baby fat than Boys, so they tend to feel self conscious of their rounded shape.

Breast Development: The first visibel sign of puberty is breast development. This begins between the ages of 8 and 13 and is completed between the ages of 13 and 18. Girls worry about their breast size and they also worry about their breast developing early or late. Either way girls are teased for have ?big boobs? or a ?flat chest?.

Body Hair: Self- consciousness about body hair is a reflection of cultural values and norms. In American society, body hair is seen as unsanitary on woman. Young girls are taught at an early age that it is undesirable and should be removed. Body hair matures during the onset of puberty, so it is during this development that young Girls begin to shave.

Menstruation: The most notorious peril of puberty is menstruation. Menstruation usually occurs about 2 years after breast development. The average age for menstruation is 12.8 years but ranges from 8 to 18. Menstruation is seen as the beginning of womanhood in our society and young girls are in competition to get it as soon as or before their friends.

What do you think are some of the changes Boys experience? Discuss and guide their responses. Say good, nice and yes after someone gives a response. David Elkind says Boys worry about how tall they will become, when they will have too shave, the size of their penis, spontaneous erections, wet dreams, and acne. Let?s look at the major concerns Boys experience.

Height: The growth spurt of adolescence for Boys begins usually around 12 or 13 and is most rapid around 14. Unlike Girls, Boys are complimented for their Heigth. The peril is for Boys who do not grow to 5?9? or above. During these years Boys express concerns about being short. Weight seems to be less of a problem for teenage Boys than Girls.

Sexual Development: Changes in a Boys? sexual apparatus begin between the ages of 10 and 13 with the enlargement of the testes. This continues for 3 years. The greatest concern of Boys is the growth in the size of the penis, which grows rapidly about a year after the growth of the testes. The average penis size is between 4 and 6 inches. Since there is so much mythical information about penis size it is important to have accurate information when easing the concerns of Boys. Let the know that the size and shape of the penis are not related to a mans ability to give and receive pleasure. Another area that increases young Boys self -consciousness is the spontaneous hardening of the penis. This incident is particularly embarrassing because of the belief of the imaginary audience

Does any one remember what the imaginary audience is? It leads a young person to feel that everybody in the room is aware of his or her conditions. Teenagers also feel this way with acne.

The physical changes associated with puberty become perils because teenagers have no way of knowing definitely how things will turn out. Can you think of more worries adolescents have?