Middle School Health Education Unit Plan: Tobacco, Alcohol, and other drugs (ATODs)

Part I. Overview of the Unit

Tobacco, alcohol, and drug use are consistent issues that young people will have to deal with in and out of school.  They may find themselves in situations where they are pressured by friends or even exposed to these substances by family members.  It is important that Health Teachers educate young people on the dangers associated with ATODs as an effort to prevent substance use/abuse.  This unit is designed to last at least 2 or 4 weeks depending on the schedule of when students meet for health education (1x a week vs. 2x a week).  Each lesson is designed for 45 minutes of instruction and the variety of learning activities are designed to meet the needs of all the learners in each class.  This unit is designed to teach students about substance abuse by examining risky behaviors associated with tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs and their effects on the individual’s health.  Over the course of this unit, students will learn about the short and long term effects of substance abuse, the social, economic, and personal impacts of addiction and how to support others who may already be experimenting with ATOD (friends and family members).    

            The first lesson will focus on the short and long term effects of tobacco use on the human body.  Students will also explore the financial burden tobacco products can have and then students will practice their refusal skills with a partner based on the information that they have just learned.  The second lesson will have students explore alcohol use and its effects on the human body.  Students will also look at alcohol advertisements and explain one way the alcohol company is trying to appeal to young people.  In the third lesson students will learn about “other drugs”; medicine and drug misuse and abuse, side effects, consequences of medicine and drug misuse and abuse.  Students will also explore how peers, family, role models, and the media can influence and sway people to poor decision making regarding medicine and drug misuse and abuse.  In the fourth and final lesson students will learn and have the opportunity to practice refusal skills both verbally and non-verbally. Students will do this by creating their own scenarios and performing them for each other.

Part II. Identification of Population

The population that this unit is designed for 8^th grade students or 7^th graders getting ready to move up to the 8^th grade.  The middle school currently consists of three grades (6^th to 8^th grade) and is located in Harlem, New York.  The majority of students live in Harlem and the Bronx, with a very small population coming from other boroughs.  These 8^th graders are getting ready to move on to high school and living in a very urban are consistently and in some cases persistently exposed to ATODs on a daily basis; in neighborhood stores, media, and unfortunately on the streets that they travel to get to school and in some cases their homes.  It is important that students are educated properly on ATODs and the consequences associated with use, misuse, and abuse.  Students should also be taught the appropriate refusal skills if they should ever find themselves in a situation involving ATODs. 

Part III. Goals of the Unit and Objectives of the Unit

Goals:

1. By the end of this unit, students will know the social, economic, health, consequences of ATODs.
2. Students will recognize the role of the media in ATODs use, misuse, and abuse.
3. Students will recognize the need to use refusal skill strategies in relatable real life scenarios.
4. Students will be able to identify the short and long term effects of ATODs on the human body.
5. Understand how healthy habits prevent risky behaviors and promote decisions to maintain a healthy lifestyle through abstinence.

Objectives

Lesson 1

1. Students will be able to identify 3 short term and 3 long term effects of tobacco use on the human body.
   • Health Standard indicator: 1.8.9 Examine the potential seriousness of injury or illness if engaging in unhealthy behaviors.
2. By the end of the lesson students will be able list the potential monetary cost of a year’s worth of tobacco use.
   • Health Standard indicator: 5.8.2 Determine when health-related situations require the application of a thoughtful decision-making process.
   • Health Standard Indicator: 6.8.3 Apply strategies and skills needed to attain a personal health goal.
3. During the role play, students will be able to apply affirmative refusal skills in real life scenarios.
   • Health Standard indicator: 7.8.3 Demonstrate behaviors to avoid or reduce health risks to self and others.
   • Health Standard indicator: 8.8.2 Demonstrate how to influence and support others to make positive health choices.

Lesson 2

1. During the lesson, students will be able to identify at least 3 myths about alcohol use, misuse, and abuse.
   • Health Standard indicator: 1.8.9 Examine the potential seriousness of injury or illness if engaging in unhealthy behaviors.
2. By the end of the lesson, students will be able to list 4 effects of alcohol use (2 short term and 2 long term) on the human body.
   • Health Standard indicator: 1.8.8 Examine the likelihood of injury or illness if engaging in unhealthy behaviors.
3. During the lesson, students will be able to examine alcohol advertisements and explain at least 1 way alcohol companies attempt to appeal to young people.
   • Health Standard indicator: 2.8.5 Analyze how messages from media influence health behaviors.

Lesson 3

1. By the end of the first activity will be able to list at least 3 health risks associated with other drug use.
   • Health Standard indicator: 1.8.9 Examine the potential seriousness of injury or illness if engaging in unhealthy behaviors.
2. Students will explore how peers, family, role models, and the media can influence people in their decision making regarding medicine and drug use, misuse, and abuse.
   • Health Standard indicator: 2.8.1Examine how the family influences the health of adolescents.
   • Health Standard indicator: 2.8.4 Analyze how the school and community can affect personal health practices and behaviors.
   • Health Standard Indicator: 2.8.5 Analyze how messages from media influence health behaviors.
3. By the end of the lesson, students will write a letter to students in the 5^th and 6^th grades explaining why they should not experiment with any ATODs.
   • Health Standard Indicator:  8.8.2 Demonstrate how to influence and support others to make positive health choices.

Lesson 4

1. By the end of the fact finding activity, students will be able to report 10 facts that they learned when examining the website on ATODs.
   • Health Standard Indicator: 3.8.5 Locate valid and reliable health products and services.
2. Students will be able to demonstrate affirmative non-verbal and verbal communication and refusal skills as they participate in “real life” scenarios. 
   • Health Standard Indicator: 4.8.1 Apply effective verbal and nonverbal communication skills to enhance health.

Part IV. National Health Education Standards

Explanation of how curriculum alignment with the National Health Education Standards:

Standard 1: Throughout the unit students will be learning about how ATODs can negatively affect the human body physically, mentally, and socially.  The activities have been chosen so that students are given the opportunity to learn health enhancing information and health enhancing skills.

Standard 2: Students will have the opportunity to explore how peers, family, role models, and the media can influence people in their decision making regarding ATODs in lesson #2.  While the focus will be on “other drugs”, students will learn that these same factors can influence people with alcohol and tobacco use, misuse, and abuse as well.  We will look at advertisements and commercials that will demonstrate this.

Standard 3: Although students will be able to participate in a fact finding activity, they will be expose to various resources where they can access information on ATODs use, misuse, and abuse.  Students will know that they can use this information for themselves or peers, family members etc.

Standard 4: It is important for students to develop affirmative effective refusal skills that they can use in “real life” situations.  Students will have the opportunity to learn these skills and practice them in scenarios created by them.  In these activities students will work in partners or small groups to create and practice the scenarios.

Standard 5: As student(s) progress throughout this unit, they will continue to develop their knowledge of ATODs.  Ideally students will learn about the dangers associated with these unhealthy behaviors and will be able to demonstrate their ability to apply their decision making process in the scenarios and in when writing the letters to the younger grades. 

Standard 6: When students are tasked with calculating how expensive of a habit smoking can be.  After students calculate how much this habit could potentially cost them, they will reflect and think of other things that they could possible spend this money on.

Standard 7: Understanding ATODs and how they can negatively impact a healthy lifestyle is crucial and must be included in any health education program.  Students will also have the skills needed to make informed decisions regarding ATODs.

Standard 8: By writing the letters to students in younger grades, these students will be demonstrating the ability to advocate for their school community.

Part V. Differentiated instruction

While there are many different types of learners in every learning environment, I think that the first type of learner that I will need to be mindful of is the student with attention and focus issues (ADHD).  While there are a plethora of teaching strategies to use for students who fall into this “bucket”, it would be most ideal to let them have access to the lesson plan so that they know what is coming up, allow them to move their learning space throughout the lesson to avoid restlessness, and in some situations allow them the opportunity to work with a partner that will help them stay on task for certain activities.  Learning materials will also have to be differentiate in that article would need to be broken up into smaller chunks; too many words on the page with not be ideal for this type of student-would make it incredibly hard for them to focus.  Noise cancelling headphones would be helpful as well during times of independent work and assessment; this would help eliminate many distractions as well.  Consistent check-ins with these students to monitor their learning progress and on-going positive reinforcement would be ideal as well.

Another student that I would have to take into account would be the student who may have had some experience or trauma with ATODs.  Statistics would show that in any classroom there would be a student who has been exposed to the trauma associated with ATODs use, misuse, and abuse.  I would have to be mindful of how information was delivered and be prepared if students disclosed sensitive information.  In that type of situation I would have to be diligent in reporting it to school administration because by law I am a mandated reporter.  This would mean that at the beginning of the unit I would need to set all students up for success by having a class meeting where norms were created and set by students in the class; this would help in holding students accountable for their words and actions.

Part VI. Coordinated School Health Program

ATODs education is a crucial part of health education and should be included in an health education curriculum.  While this topic could make some individuals uncomfortable, it is the job of the health educator to advocate for the students that they serve in their learning community.  As I mentioned before students in 8^th grade are getting ready to leave for high school and with that transition students will also gain an incredible amount of independence and freedom.  With that being said it is easy to see how some students may be exposed to ATODs whether through friends and peers in and out of school, through the media, and in some cases their households.

In a coordinated school health program, the health educator should seek out school administration to present them factual information that would support the need for ATODs education.  One of the first individuals I might meet with or seek the support of would most likely be the dean of students who would most likely be dealing with these incidents throughout the school.  Explaining and proving to them why ATOD education would help decrease the amount of these incidents would be a big first step in getting what might be an important person in the school community on board for this type of instruction.  The second person I would most like seek out would be the school social worker or counsellor.  Without asking them to disclose student information, I would ask them if ATOD use was an issue at our school and whether or not they believed that this type of instruction should be included in the coordinated health program. 

Hopefully with these two individuals on board it would be easy for me to get other school officials to see why we would need this type of instruction for students who were getting ready to lead much more independent lives as high schoolers.  If all of those pieces were to fall in place, I would then ask for permission to do some sort of outreach with parents and families to get on board as well.  A paper survey could go out attached to a letter that had factual information about ATODs use and adolescents in an effort to get families on board for this type of education.

Part VII. Unit Plan Map