Wellness Unit

CI 407

Summer 2004

Matt

Christine

Elizabeth

Jamie

Sarah

Ryan

Crystal

Wellness Unit Rationale

This unit was designed to build awareness in middle school students about wellness. As middle school students change and develop, it is necessary to address the different aspects that positively or negatively impact their lives. Students need to understand the different factors that contribute to the development their physical, social, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual lives. After forming a foundation based on the understanding of how important wellness is, students will be able to connect their knowledge of fitness and health to other subject areas.

Each day, a topic dealing with wellness will be covered in each core subject.

·  Physical Wellness

·  Social Wellness

·  Emotional Wellness

·  Life Wellness

·  Intellectual Wellness

·  Spiritual Wellness

These topics were chosen to promote and enhance the theme of wellness at this critical stage in an adolescent’s life. Middle school students are rapidly changing physically, cognitively, and emotionally. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that students are able to recognize these changes and are aware of various strategies to help them as they make this transition. Each subject area will enforce this idea with lessons developed to assist the middle school student in making connections with his or her life and to other subject areas.

During the course of the unit, students will be introduced to the effects caused by natural disasters, how they affect the well-being of a society, and the preparations that can be done when faced with a natural disaster. Students will also have the opportunity to communicate their own experiences with natural disasters. Finally, the social sciences portion of the thematic unit represents the theme of wellness by studying the physical, social, and emotional trends and issues in wellness. Students will gain a greater knowledge of the past, present, and future wellness issues that will affect them. With this information about wellness, students will be able to live a healthy life and be aware of the health issues of themselves and of those around them. They will be prepared to face the physical, social, and emotional challenges that they as well as their peers will encounter.

Learning Goals

COMMUNICATING
Express and interpret information and ideas.

Physical activity and movement can be a medium of communication. Students learn to observe others, listen, act and react—understanding the intentions of others and making their own intentions clear. Students also need to understand written and oral communications ranging from warning labels to medical advertisements and health-related news reports. They should be able to question and analyze information to help them make individual decisions about good health.

WORKING ON TEAMS
Learn and contribute productively as individuals and as members of groups.

Students learn to recognize individual strengths, resolve differences and use teamwork as a necessary tool for working with others. Teamwork is also integral to many sports. Sports in turn teach the elements of teamwork in other fields. One overall goal of physical development is to give students the knowledge and skills necessary for working on teams to achieve specific objectives or a common goal.

MAKING CONNECTIONS
Recognize and apply connections of important information and ideas within and among learning areas.

The quality of students' physical fitness and health is an important factor in their readiness to learn. In addition to creating the physical conditions for learning, the subject areas of physical development and health directly relate to other academic content. For example, mathematics is used for measurement, scoring and statistical recordkeeping in physical activities and sports. Health principles and knowledge provide a basis for academic studies in medicine and environmental science. Knowledge of health issues is necessary to understand important historical events and social organizations studied in social science.


Health Rationale

Illinois Learning Standards met in this portion of the unit:

22.A.3a Identify and describe ways to reduce health risks common to adolescents (e.g., exercise, diet, refusal of harmful substances).

22.A.3b Identify how positive health practices and relevant health care can help reduce health risks (e.g., proper diet and exercise reduce risks of cancer and heart disease).

23.C.3 Describe the relationships among physical, mental and social health factors during adolescence (e.g., the effects of stress on physical and mental performance, effects of nutrition on growth).

24.A.3c Explain how positive communication helps to build and maintain relationships at school, at home and in the workplace.

In this unit, wellness is described through various subject areas. In my subject area, health, there are many ways to convey the various forms of wellness. The lessons I have chosen to address coincide with pertinent information middle school students should know. These areas encompass physical health problems they may endure: STD’s, skin cancer, stress, anorexia, bulimia, and obesity. I also feel it is very important when talking about wellness to discuss the need for starting and maintaining healthy eating habits. One lesson in this unit covers the food guide pyramid and what items can be found on each level. I feel this is an important concept for middle school students to learn because of their rapidly changing body systems. It is crucial to begin a healthy regimental diet at this age in order to maintain wellness that will follow into their adult years. Today, obesity plagues our American society. We, as educators, must inform our students on the proper ways of eating by demonstrating what portions are suitable and what foods should be consumed in smaller quantities.

I also discuss other wellness issues students could face during their middle school years. With the changing hormones and body structures, students their mental wellness may deteriorate and they can find themselves overwhelmed with stress and depression. During my lessons, we discuss what causes stress and depression and ways that can alleviate these problems.

Middle school students also need to learn the value of maintaining “wellness” through positive communication amongst other individuals. Working with other individuals may pose a great stress in those students who are not willing to open-up to new people and new ideas. In my social wellness lesson, I have the students discuss how a sports team works together. How do they get along? From this information, each group of students discusses how a team maintains positive relations and what techniques they must follow in order to properly function as a whole.

The learning goals for this unit (communicating, working on teams, and making connections) are significantly addressed throughout this health section. I wanted the students to continually communicate with one another, listen to other students’ thoughts and feelings, and make connections to their own lives. I wanted the students to learn about various diseases such as skin cancer in order to demonstrate that anyone can be affected, no matter what age you are. In order to live healthy adult lives, students need to make connections to their current eating habits and decide how these would affect them in the following years.

This health section provides students with information that will aid in their ability to achieve “wellness.” Valuable tools are presented to these students through cooperative, team-learning activities. Students learn how to communicate with each other through discussing the various terms presented in these lessons. The finalizing goal for these lessons is simply to allow middle school children to realize the benefits of living a healthy and “well” life.

Language Arts Rationale

A.  Locate, organize, and use information from various sources to answer questions, solve problems and communicate ideas.

5.A.4a Demonstrate a knowledge of strategies needed to prepare a credible research report (e.g., notes, planning sheets).

C. Apply acquired information, concepts and ideas to communicate in a variety of formats. 5.C.4a Plan, compose, edit and revise information (e.g., brochures, formal reports, proposals, research summaries, analyses, editorials, articles, overheads, multimedia displays) for presentation to an audience.

A. Use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization and structure.

3.C.4a Write for real or potentially real situations in academic, professional and civic contexts (e.g., college applications, job applications, business letters, petitions).

3.C.4b Using available technology, produce compositions and multimedia works for specified audiences.

The language arts section of the wellness unit provides students with the opportunities to research, reflect, write, and share what they have learned in other subject areas, as well as expanding on core topics and the theme of wellness. Every activity includes a writing activity that will be checked for comprehension in other areas, as well as be checked for the proper use of conventions and grammar. The language arts lessons are designed to effectively build upon existing knowledge and improve understanding by incorporating strategies to help students retain information.

Math Rationale

Illinois Learning Standards

6.C.3a Select computational procedures and solve problems with whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percents and proportions.

9.A.3a Draw or construct two- and three- dimensional geometric figures including prisms, pyramids, cylinders and cones.

10.A.3a Construct, read, and interpret tables, graphs and charts to organize and represent data.

8.D.3a Solve problems using numeric, graphic or symbolic representations of variables, expressions, equations and inequalities.

During the wellness integrated unit, students will be working towards conducting a health fair for the rest of the school. While working on the health fair, students will be working in groups to gather information on a specific topic. Each of the groups will construct a poster board with information about their topic. In math, the students will be performing activities that will help the students successfully create their poster board. The students will perform mathematical procedures and turn whole numbers into percentages. This will allow students to see the nutritional value of foods and the percentage of calories they are getting from fats, carbohydrates and proteins. This lesson will go along with physical wellness and the benefits of eating healthy.

The second lesson will allow students to construct a three dimensional figure and work cooperatively in groups. While constructing their structures, the students will not be able to talk, so they must communicate in other forms. This lesson will help the students to develop cooperative working skills, which they will need to assemble their posters. During the next lesson, the students will construct, interpret, and read graphs. This will give students the necessary practice needed to put graphs on their posters. The final lesson will give students the opportunity to solve real life word problems. This will allow students to analyze future data. Throughout the unit students will be making connections to other contents and practicing working together cooperatively in groups. These activities will aid students as they start to gather information and construct their posters for the health fair.

Science Rationale

Science Goals:

STATE GOAL 11: Understand the processes of scientific inquiry and technological design to investigate questions, conduct experiments and solve problems.

A. Know and apply the concepts, principles and processes of scientific inquiry.

11.A.3b Conduct scientific experiments that control all but one variable.

11.A.3c Collect and record data accurately using consistent measuring and recording techniques and media.

11.A.3d Explain the existence of unexpected results in a data set.

11.A.3f Interpret and represent results of analysis to produce findings.

11.A.3g Report and display the process and results of a scientific investigation.

STATE GOAL 12: Understand the fundamental concepts, principles and interconnections of the life, physical and earth/space sciences.

E. Know and apply concepts that describe the features and processes of the Earth and its resources.

12.E.3a Analyze and explain large-scale dynamic forces, events and processes that affect the Earth's land, water and atmospheric systems (e.g., jetstream, hurricanes, plate tectonics).

12.E.3b Describe interactions between solid earth, oceans, atmosphere and organisms that have resulted in ongoing changes of Earth (e.g., erosion, El Nino).

STATE GOAL 13: Understand the relationships among science, technology and society in historical and contemporary contexts.

A.  Know and apply the accepted practices of science.

13.A.3b Analyze historical and contemporary cases in which the work of science has been affected by both valid and biased scientific practices.

13.B.3c Describe how occupations use scientific and technological knowledge and skills.

13.B.3f Apply classroom-developed criteria to determine the effects of policies on local science and technology issues (e.g., energy consumption, landfills, water quality).

English Language Arts Goals

STATE GOAL 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.

B. Compose well-organized and coherent writing for specific purposes and audiences.

3.B.3a Produce documents that convey a clear understanding and interpretation of ideas and information and display focus, organization, elaboration and coherence.

3.B.3b Edit and revise for word choice, organization, consistent point of view and transitions among paragraphs using contemporary technology and formats suitable for submission and/or publication.

STATE GOAL 4: Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations.

B. Listen effectively in formal and informal situations.

4.A.3a Demonstrate ways (e.g., ask probing questions, provide feedback to a speaker, summarize and paraphrase complex spoken messages) that listening attentively can improve comprehension.

B. Speak effectively using language appropriate to the situation and audience.

4.B.3a Deliver planned oral presentations, using language and vocabulary appropriate to the purpose, message and audience; provide details and supporting information that clarify main ideas; and use visual aids and contemporary technology as support.

4.B.3b Design and produce reports and multi-media compositions that represent group projects.

These science standards will be addressed by students completing various activities and experiments listed in the lessons. Students will be completing the sunscreen activity where they will collect and analyze data, discussing and doing activities that center around the Earth’s natural processes and disasters including case studies, and create posters explaining natural process connected to their own communities. Students will also be participating in listening and writing activities as well as peer-editing which connects to the language arts goals.

Throughout the science class periods, students will be communicating their ideas and information they have learned through research and experimentation. They will be interpreting their findings and explaining natural process while they are learning. Students will listen to others to gather information and learn procedures to follow during natural disasters. In groups students will need to organize their thoughts and combine information to prepare a project. Students will be working in groups to prepare posters, do experiments, peer-edit and participate in activities. By focusing on natural disasters that students have encountered, students will make connections to their own lives and other people in their environment.