Lesson 11.2: Influences on Using Tobacco Products

Overview

This lesson focuses on the internal and external positive and negative influences of using tobacco products.

Learning Targets

  • Identify who and what may influence you to use tobacco products.
  • List and briefly explain the general factors that may determine whether teens use tobacco products.
  • Explain how internal influences may determine whether teens use tobacco products.
  • Discuss how external influences may determine whether teens use tobacco products.
  • Describe how school policies can have an impact on your use of tobacco.

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 11.2 PowerPoint slides, or make copies of the Lesson 11.2 Note-Taking Guide.

For the Lesson Focus: Copy the Lesson 11.2 Who Influences Me? Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet.

Warm-Up Activity

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

  • Journal Question: Vaping has become popular with middle school and high school students. What do you think influences teens to vape? Try to brainstorm three to five influences.
    • 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 11.2 Vocabulary Review Worksheet.
  • Quiz: Have students complete the Lesson 11.2 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 11.2 PowerPoint slides to review the chapter content.

Option: Have students use the Lesson 11.2 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: Who Influences Me?

  1. Provide each student with a copy of the Who Influences Me? Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet.
  2. Students will list people or concepts who influence their decisions to smoke, chew, or vape.
  3. Students will determine whether the people or concepts they wrote down as influencing them are positive or negative influences.
  4. Students then analyze if they are making good choices as to the people or concepts they are letting influence them.
  5. Ask the students to think about what they may do if they realize some of the people or concepts on their list are not helping them to make good choices.

Challenge Activity

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

Write 10 examples of possible Twitter posts that you could use to discourage your friends from smoking or vaping. Think about the dangers and consequences of smoking and vaping as you create your posts. Include an appropriate hashtag with each example.

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…

  • Identify who and what may influence you to use tobacco products?

    Friends, family, peers, and celebrities are all examples.

  • List and briefly explain the general factors that may determine whether teens use tobacco products?
    • Age: Teens are more willing to take risks and are more influenced than adults.
    • Gender: Females tend to smoke fewer cigarettes or e-cigarettes overall than males. Males are more likely to use e-cigarettes than cigarettes.
    • Stressful events: The more stressful events a teen has experienced, the greater the risk of smoking cigarettes or e-cigarettes.
    • Perception of risk: If smoking is seen as a great risk, teens are less likely to smoke regular cigarettes.
    • Media: Movies, social media, magazines, and stores may make using tobacco, especially e-cigarettes, look cool and adultlike.
  • Explain how internal influences may determine whether teens use tobacco products?

    Internal influences are your own thoughts and opinions about something that guide your decisions. The individual student’s thoughts and opinions of tobacco products will influence whether they choose to use or not.

  • Discuss how external influences may determine whether teens use tobacco products?

    External influences can include the environment you live in; your family and friends; the clubs and organizations you belong to; and social media. The individual student’s external influences and how much influence they have on the student will influence whether they choose to use or not.

  • Describe how school policies can have an impact on your use of tobacco?

    School policies should positively influence students to continue to abstain from use if they do not use tobacco products and help them to quit if they are currently using. Schools that effectively educate their students and staff about the dangers of all types of tobacco products and enforce the rules and laws of their community on the students as well as the community members find a decrease in the overall use of tobacco products.

Assessment

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

  • Quiz: Have students take the Lesson 11.2 Quiz.
  • Vocabulary Review: Collect the Lesson 11.2 Vocabulary Review Worksheets, and evaluate them for accuracy.
  • Note-Taking Guide: Collect the completed Lesson 11.2 Note-Taking Guides, and spot check one or more items for completion and accuracy.
  • Skill-Building Worksheet: Have students submit the Lesson 11.2 Who Influences Me? Skill-Building Challenge Worksheets, and use the Analyzing Influences Holistic Rubric 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

The next few times you are in a public place, count how many people you see smoking or vaping and keep track of how old you think they are. Think about their age in groups: teens, 20- to 29-year-olds, 30- 39-year-olds, 40- to 60-year-olds, and those over 60. Discuss with a family member or friend the number of people you saw and whether that number was smaller or larger than you thought it would be. Also discuss the average age of the people who were smoking or vaping. Is smoking done by an older generation and vaping by a younger generation or is it mixed?