Lesson 1.2: Developing Skills for Healthy Living

Overview

This lesson focuses on learning about the skills for healthy living that will help you as you live the healthiest life you can. It also focuses on building healthy communication skills through understanding how to communicate health concepts in clear, plain language.

Learning Targets

  • Explain what health literacy is and why it is important.
  • Identify five major influences on health.
  • Identify the eight health skills.
  • Compare and contrast short- and long-term goals.
  • Define advocacy.

Preparation

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 1.2 PowerPoint slides, or make copies of the Lesson 1.2 Note-Taking Guide.

For the Lesson Focus: Copy the Lesson 1.2 Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet: Healthy Communication.

Warm-Up Activity

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

  • Journal Question: How much health information do you think you know? Where do you get your information about health? How do you know it is accurate?
    • Option: Write or project the question, and have students respond in their journals as they enter class.
    • Option: Have students discuss the questions with a partner or in a small group.
  • Vocabulary Review: Have students work individually, in partners, or in small groups to complete the Lesson 1.2 Vocabulary Review Worksheet.
  • Quiz: Have students complete the Lesson 1.2 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 1.2 PowerPoint slides to review the chapter content.

Option: Have students use the Lesson 1.2 Note-Taking Guide to review chapter content. Ask students to work alone, in pairs, or in small groups. Review the questions as a class if time permits.

Lesson Focus: Healthy Communication

  1. Review the concept of plain language as described in the textbook.
  2. Write the key elements of plain language on the board, or project them from the PowerPoint slides.
    • Organizing information so that the most important points come first
    • Breaking complex information into understandable chunks or parts
    • Using simple language and either avoiding or defining technical terms
  3. Provide each student with a copy of the Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet: Healthy Communication. Place students into pairs or small groups, and ask them to complete the task described in the textbook and outlined on the worksheet. Students can use their textbook or other appropriate and available sources of information.
  4. Have students present or display their work (handout, pamphlet, or other means) as time permits. Students can use the checklist (rubric) on the handout to evaluate their own or each other’s work.
  5. Assign completion of the task as homework if needed.

Challenge Activity

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

Select the one healthy living skill that you think is the most important. Write a short speech that tries to convince others that the skill you chose is the most important and include three supporting details or facts to defend your point of view.

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 what health literacy is and why it is important?

    A person with good health literacy can find and understand basic health information and can use that information to make good decisions.

  • Identify the eight health skills?

    Developing basic health knowledge, analyzing and understanding what influences your health, accessing good health information and resources, communicating your health needs, making healthy decisions, setting healthy goals, practicing healthy behaviors, and promoting good health for yourself and others.

  • Compare and contrast short- and long-term goals?

    Short-term goals create smaller targets that you can reach in a shorter amount of time. Long-term goals will take a month to six months or longer to achieve and are often bigger and more challenging than short-term goals.

  • Define advocacy?

    Advocacy is the act or process of supporting or promoting a cause or an issue.

  • Demonstrate how to explain health information using plain language?

    Using plain language means that you organize information so that important points come first, break information into understandable parts or chunks, and use simple language and avoid technical terms (students demonstrated this in the Lesson Focus).

Assessment

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

  • Quiz: Have students take the Lesson 1.2 Quiz.
  • Vocabulary Review: Collect the Lesson 1.2 Vocabulary Review Worksheets, and evaluate them for accuracy.
  • Note-Taking Guide: Collect the completed Lesson 1.2 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: Healthy Communication and use the Holistic Rubric: Healthy Communication 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

Explain the skills for healthy living to a parent or guardian and discuss how family influences each of the skills. Identify one skill that the family wants to work on, set a SMART goal together to help you reach your goal, and make an agreement with family members to support each other in reaching your goal.