1. Challenging
1.1. Encourages students to engage in thoughtful dialogue with peers and teacher
1.1.1. When students weren't answering questions "deep" enough, the teacher had them expand on their ideas
1.1.2. One student clarified another student's understanding of the naming of their mission
2. Integrative
2.1. Takes into account time and space: examines past and present
2.1.1. Students were encouraged to talk about their mission as it was in history as well as how it exists today
2.2. Includes meaningful use of technology
2.2.1. Students were encouraged to use technology to enhance their presentation. Examples included Video, video editing, internet research, etc.
3. Meaningful
3.1. Ensures students see how content is meaningful both in and out of school
3.1.1. Tied historic issues surrounding missions to the construction of their identities
4. Active
4.1. Encourages students to think deeply, critically about what they are learning and why they are learning it
4.1.1. Group discussion at the end of the presentations allows students to:
4.1.1.1. Share what they learned with the other students
4.1.1.2. Extend their knowledge through the asking of guiding questions
4.1.1.3. Start to think about how the events related to the founding and running of the missions have shaped their culture and individual identity today
4.2. The teacher provides guidance but also encourages more and more independence
4.2.1. Students were given a set of guidelines to operate within, but were given complete freedom with those guidelines
4.2.1.1. Who would complete what part of the assignment
4.2.1.2. What medium they could work in (some drew the pictures, some printed pictures off of the internet, some painted pictures)
4.2.1.3. How they would present the project and who would present which parts
4.2.1.4. What technologies they would include
5. Value-Based
5.1. Students learn to use democratic concepts and principles when interacting with others
5.1.1. Students were not assigned roles withing their groups. They had to decide amongst each other how they were going to subdivide the tasks