Lesson 1.1: Exploring Health and Wellness

Overview

This lesson focuses on understanding health, wellness, and illness and develops the skill of identifying and analyzing influences on wellness.

Learning Targets

  • Explain the difference between health, wellness, illness, and disability.
  • Identify common forms of impairments.
  • Provide examples of how individual, social, environmental, and genetic influences influence health.
  • Identify healthy lifestyle choices and their impact on health.
  • Explain what is meant by quality of life.

Preparation

Chapter Opener: Use the My Well-Being self-assessment to introduce the chapter before moving on to Lesson 1.1, or assign the worksheet as a homework task before starting this lesson.

For the Warm-Up Activity: Write the journal question on the board, or identify (and copy as needed) the worksheets you plan to use:

For the Content Focus: Open the Lesson 1.1 PowerPoint slides, or make copies of the Lesson 1.1 Note-Taking Guide.

For the Lesson Focus: Copy the Lesson 1.1 Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet: Influences on Your Wellness.

Warm-Up Activity

Select a warm-up activity to help get your class focused and on-task.

  • Self-Assessment: Have students complete the My Well-Being self-assessment as a chapter opener.
  • Journal Question: Do you think that a person who has a disability can be healthy? Why or why not?
    • Option: Write or project the question, and have students respond in their journals as they enter class.
    • Option: Have students discuss the question with a partner or in a small group.
  • Vocabulary Review: Have students work individually, in partners, or in small groups to complete the Lesson 1.1 Vocabulary Review Worksheet.
  • Quiz: Have students complete the Lesson 1.1 Quiz to assess their prior knowledge.
    • Option: Collect the quizzes, and use them alongside posttests to demonstrate student learning.
    • Option: Have students share their answers with a partner and then go over the answers together as a class.

Lesson Content

Review the content from the textbook lesson.

  • Option: Use the Lesson 1.1 PowerPoint slides to review the chapter content.
  • Option: Have students use the Lesson 1.1 Note-Taking Guide to review the chapter content. Ask students to work alone, in pairs, or in small groups. Review the questions as a class if time permits.

Lesson Focus: Influences on Your Wellness

  1. Give each student a copy of the Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet: Influences on Your Wellness.
  2. Have students work individually to complete the worksheet.
  3. Ask students to pair up and share their responses. Have each pair identify which influences they have in common and which are different.
  4. Ask students to report on some of the influences they identified. Write them on the board. As each influence is listed, ask the other students in the class to raise their hands if they listed the same or a similar influence. Ask a volunteer to explain whether the influence is positive or negative and why.

Challenge Activity

Have students who need an additional challenge work on the following critical-thinking task.

At the start of this chapter, you were asked to write about whether you think that a person with a disability can be healthy. After reading this chapter, rewrite your answer. Expand on your answer by selecting one form of disability (visual, hearing, mobility, or cognitive) and explaining how a person with that disability can still have a good quality of life.

Reflection and Summary

Review the critical content from today’s lesson. Review the learning targets, and ask students to answer each question posed.

Can you…

  • Explain the difference between health, wellness, illness, and disability?

    Health means that you are free of disease. Wellness is the active pursuit of making healthy choices in all parts of your life. Illness is a general word that refers to not feeling well or not being fully healthy. A person with a disability has some loss of function somewhere in the body.

  • Identify common forms of impairments?

    Impairments can affect vision, movement, thinking, remembering, learning, communicating, hearing, mental health, and social relationships.

  • Provide examples of how individual, social, environmental, and genetic influences influence health?

    Individual influences on health include heredity (genetics), age, and sex. People are more at risk for illness and disability as they age. Environmental influences on health can include things like air pollution, noise pollution, and the amount of sunlight your skin is exposed to. Your social environment also influences your health. Friends and family are particularly influential.

  • Identify healthy lifestyle choices and their impact on health?

    Getting regular physical activity, eating a well-balanced diet, managing stress, getting adequate sleep, practicing good hygiene and personal health, and avoiding risky behaviors are all part of being healthy.

  • Explain what is meant by quality of life?

    Quality of life is how healthy, happy, and fulfilling your daily life is.

Assessment

Complete one or more of the following assessment tasks for this lesson.

  • Quiz: Have students take the Lesson 1.1 Quiz.
  • Vocabulary Review: Collect the Lesson 1.1 Vocabulary Review Worksheets, and evaluate them for accuracy.
  • Note-Taking Guide: Collect the completed Lesson 1.1 Note-Taking Guides, and spot check one or more items for completion and accuracy.
  • Skill-Building Worksheet: Have students submit the Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet: Influences on Wellness and use the Holistic Rubric: Analyzing Influences to evaluate their skill development.
  • Journal Question: Ask students to respond to the journal question again, adding information they learned from today’s class. Require a one-paragraph response that uses proper grammar.

Take It Home

Make a small poster or art project that includes images of all the healthy lifestyle choices identified in this chapter. Don’t label the images or pictures you use. Show your poster or artwork to a parent or guardian and have them identify what the behaviors are. Ask whether you can display the poster or art at home as a reminder to practice healthy behaviors.

Option: Assign the My Well-Being Self-Assessment Worksheet as a homework task if it was not used at the start of this lesson.