HEALTH EDUCATION
HA. HEALTH CONCEPTS
Students will understand health promotion and disease prevention concepts. Knowledge of how disease and injury affect the body and learning about the health benefits of preventive care, timely treatment, and appropriate personal behaviors are at the heart of health education. Students who protect their health have a better chance of remaining healthy and productive throughout their lives. Students will be able to:
MIDDLE GRADES 5-8
1. Explain the relationship between healthy behaviors and the prevention of injury, illness, and disease.
2. Describe the relationship among physical, mental, emotional, and social health.
3. Analyze the effects that risky behaviors have on personal health (e.g., tobacco, drugs, poor nutrition, sexual activity, sedentary life-style, and behaviors resulting in injury).
4. Evaluate how health is influenced by the interaction of body systems (e.g., physical fitness and the respiratory and circulatory systems).
5. Analyze how the environment relates to personal health.
6. Explain how appropriate health care can prevent premature death and disability.
7. Identify the characteristics and stages of human growth and development.
8. Demonstrate thorough understanding of key health concepts.
EXAMPLES
Write a short essay describing how a broken leg, riding a bike with a friend, or other activities would affect all four components of adolescent's health.
Explain why tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana are called gateway drugs.
Analyze the health effects of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs.
Discuss the relationship between the endocrine and reproductive systems.
HB. HEALTH INFORMATION, SERVICES, AND PRODUCTS
Students will know how to acquire valid information about health issues, services, and products. People need good information about prevention, early detection, and treatment of health problems. An important step in learning to protect health is developing the skills to find and analyze information about health issues. Students will be able to:
MIDDLE GRADES 5-8
1. Analyze the validity of health information, products, and services and describe situations requiring their use.
2. Identify resources from home, school, and community that provide valid health information and services.
EXAMPLE
Prepare a healthful menu using the Food Guide Pyramid.
HC. HEALTH PROMOTION AND RISK REDUCTION
Students will understand how to reduce their health risks through the practice of healthy behaviors. In taking responsibility for personal health, students lay a foundation for a healthy, productive life. Many diseases and injuries can be prevented by avoiding harmful behaviors and taking fewer risks. More importantly, students can take steps to improve their health such as eating better foods, exercising regularly, and paying attention to preventive care. Students will be able to:
MIDDLE GRADES 5-8
1. Explain the importance of assuming responsibility for personal health.
2. Analyze a personal health assessment to determine health strengths and risks.
3. Develop strategies to improve or maintain personal and family health.
4. Develop injury prevention and response strategies for personal safety, including first aid.
5. Demonstrate ways to avoid or change situations that threaten personal safety.
6. Distinguish between healthy and unhealthy stress management techniques.
EXAMPLES
Discuss physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
Demonstrate the proper technique used to administer the Heimlich maneuver.
Conduct a self-examination of health practices using an inventory or self-appraisal.
HD. INFLUENCES ON HEALTH
Students will understand how media techniques, cultural perspectives, technology, peers, and family influence behaviors that affect health. Students receive an almost constant stream of information about their health and behavior. As a first step to making decisions that protect health, students need to recognize how different messages influence their actions. Students will be able to:
MIDDLE GRADES 5-8
1. Investigate the influence of cultural beliefs on health behaviors and the use of health services.
2. Analyze how messages from the media influence both health behaviors and the selection of health information, products, and services (e.g., eating disorders, teen magazines, acne products, dental care).
3. Analyze the effect of technology on personal and family health.
4. Describe how school, family, and peers influence the health of adolescents.
EXAMPLE
Discuss, from a historical perspective, the use of alternative medical practices in the Native American culture.
HE. COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Students will understand that skillful communication can contribute to better health for them, their families, and the community. Students need effective communication skills to develop and maintain healthy personal relationships. The ability to organize and convey information, beliefs, opinions, and feelings is a skill that can reduce and avoid conflict. Communication skills enable individuals to be advocates for a healthy school, home, workplace, and community. Students will be able to:
MIDDLE GRADES 5-8
1. Demonstrate effective verbal and non-verbal communication skills to enhance health and to build and maintain healthy relationships (e.g., positive peer pressure).
2. Demonstrate refusal and negotiation skills which can enhance health by enabling them to deal with negative peer pressure.
3. Demonstrate conflict resolution strategies.
4. Analyze various communication methods which can be used to give information, ideas, and opinions about health issues.
EXAMPLES
Select a newspaper story about a conflict involving violence and discuss the issues involved on all sides. Describe how conflict resolution and negotiation skills could be used to defuse the violence.
Write a fictitious or real letter to someone who is trying to change a health behavior (e.g., stop smoking, start exercising), and give them encouragement by citing the benefits of the change (e.g., reduced risk of lung cancer and heart disease).
HF. DECISION-MAKING AND GOAL SETTING
Students will learn how to set personal goals and make decisions that lead to better health. Knowledge of good health practices will not help students unless they have the foresight and discipline to act on that knowledge. The practical application of knowledge requires students to develop skills such as goal setting and decision making. Students who have the right combination of knowledge and skills can begin to contribute to their own good health, to healthy families, and to safer communities. Students will be able to:
MIDDLE GRADES 5-8
1. Demonstrate individual and collaborative decision-making processes to resolve health problems.
2. Analyze how health-related decisions are influenced by individuals, families, and community values.
3. Explain how decisions regarding health behaviors have consequences for them and others.
4. Describe how personal health goals are influenced by changing information, abilities, priorities, and responsibilities.
5. Develop a plan to attain personal health goals by employing personal strengths and addressing needs and health risks.
EXAMPLE
Write a story for the school newspaper explaining how teenage smoking is positively and negatively influenced by friends, role models, and community norms.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
PA. PHYSICAL FITNESS
Students will acquire the knowledge needed to be physically fit and take part in healthful physical activity on a regular basis. Students who develop healthful patterns of physical activity and enjoyment are more likely to stay physically fit and active in their adult lives. Students will be able to:
MIDDLE GRADES 5-8
1. Define the components of skill-related fitness (agility, balance, coordination, power, reaction time, and speed) and health-related fitness, and identify activities which contribute to the development of each component.
2. Participate in and distinguish among a variety of health-related fitness activities.
3. Assess health-related fitness levels and develop personal fitness goals.
4. Establish personal physical activity goals and participate regularly in health-enhancing activities to accomplish these goals.
5. Demonstrate understanding of and apply the following principles of training: specificity (use of a specific exercise to develop skill in a particular activity); progression (increasing the level of intensity); and overload (e.g., increasing the weights used in an exercise in order to build muscle more quickly, rather than increasing the speed of the exercise).
6. Assess physiological indicators of exercise during and after physical activity (e.g., pulse rate, sweating).
7. Demonstrate appropriate stretching and warm-up exercises that enhance the learning and performance of activities.
8. Identify and apply rules and procedures designed for safe participation.
EXAMPLE
Participate, at least three times a week, in a multi-week program of walking, jogging, and running in which the time spent increases each week (2 minutes per session in the first week, 5 minutes in the second, and 7 minutes in the third). Students will keep a log and will record, for each session, the time spent, distance covered, and perceived level of exertion.
PB. MOTOR SKILLS
Students will develop motor skills and apply these to enhance their movement and physical performance. Successful development of motor skills provides an opportunity to enjoy participation in physical activities, and reach advanced levels of performance, which in turn, increases the likelihood of continued participation. Students will be able to:
MIDDLE GRADES 5-8
1. Demonstrate the correct use of skills in simplified versions of a variety of physical activities (e.g., a 3-on-3 basketball game, a simple folk or square dance).
2. Identify the critical elements of more advanced movement skills (e.g., describe elements of a sprinter's stance in track).
3. Describe and apply principles of practice and conditioning that enhance performance (e.g., warm-up before and cool-down after an activity).
4. Recognize general characteristics of movement that can be applied to specific settings (e.g., the "ready" position is similar for volleyball and softball or baseball).
5. Use offensive and defensive strategies in simple games and in non-complex settings (e.g., strategies for a singles or doubles tennis match).
6. Differentiate among the characteristics of highly skilled performances in different movement forms (e.g., explain the difference between a long-distance run and a sprint).
7. Explain and apply more advanced knowledge of sport/activities (e.g., positional play in a game of basketball).
8. Use feedback from others to improve a skill by focusing on critical elements of the skill.
9. Create a safe environment for skill practice.
EXAMPLES
Use their hands to "set" the volleyball above the height of the net several times, consecutively (i.e., push the ball in the air or advance it so another player can hit it).
Perform a country line dance.
PC. PERSONAL AND SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
Students will demonstrate responsible personal and social behaviors in physical activity settings. Whether working alone, with another individual, or with a group, students engaged in physical activities are expected to demonstrate self-respect and consideration of others as they seek to meet a challenge or solve a problem. Students will be able to:
MIDDLE GRADES 5-8
1. Describe ways in which respect for individual similarities and differences among people is demonstrated in physical activity settings.
2. Participate safely and cooperatively with others to achieve group goals in competitive and cooperative physical activities.
3. Recognize the influence of peer pressure on individuals during physical activities.
4. Solve problems which occur in physical activities by analyzing causes and potential solutions.
5. Identify behaviors that are supportive and inclusive in physical activity.
6. Demonstrate appropriate etiquette, ways of interacting, care of equipment, and safety in the setting of an activity.
7. Apply a decision-making process to the safety of themselves and others in activity settings.
EXAMPLES
Exclusionary behavior during physical activity can be very subtle. Students are asked to observe activity during a physical education class or on the playground and record instances of perceived exclusionary behavior. For example, the methods used to choose teams, differences in ability level, and gender or cultural/ethnic differences, can lead to exclusionary behaviors. In addition, students are asked to suggest strategies for maximizing inclusion.
Choose two famous athletes, one who is generally admired for positive behavior and one who is known generally for negative behavior. Compare and contrast the image portrayed by each athlete and comment on the effect the images have on their own behavior or behavior of others their age.