Nature vs. Nurture/Selective Breeding Article With Questions.

This is an interesting reading written by me (but based on true events) about a case of selective breeding and how it attempted to prove whether personality is genetically determined or if it depends on how one was raised. It is about a real experiment with Siberian silver foxes that started about 50 years ago and is still going on to this day. This reading is image rich with annotation prompts, and higher order thinking questions at the end of the article. This article can be paired well with my PowerPoint on selective breeding (but doesn’t need to be).

Suggested uses for this reading:

-Assignment over the break

-Substitute lesson plan

-An in class assignment while doing a unit on artificial selection or selective breeding.

Suggested population:

-English language learners

-Special education students

-General education students who can benefit from larger print, images, easy to understand sentences.

Suggestion on how not to use:

-I don’t think this assignment is rigorous enough to be used for an AP class.

Keywords: psychology, foxes, personality, heredity, gene, adoption, genetics, artificial selection, traits, pets, substitute work, homework, literacy, ELL.