Organizing Your Health Class

Live Well Middle School Health is organized according to major content areas. Because there are skill-development opportunities embedded in each lesson of each chapter (Skill-Building Challenge and Healthy Living Skills), teachers can rest assured that students will receive both functional health content and health skill practice, regardless of what content is focused on or which lessons are selected.

Starting Off on the Right Foot

The first two lessons in chapter 1 help to set the stage for the rest of the book and are the recommended starting place for any health course, regardless of the organizational structure of the course or the critical content to be covered. Lesson 1 introduces key overarching concepts and ideas relative to health and wellness, while lesson 2 introduces all of the health skills and skill cues that appear throughout the book and ancillary materials.

Organizing the Live Well Program by Skill

All of the resources in the Live Well program can be used when teaching a health class that is organized by skill. Because each lesson provides dedicated skill development, it is easy to identify lessons that address the skill you are focusing on and combine them so that students are using a variety of content to work on the identified skill.

A few examples of how this might look are provided next.

Sample Skill Unit: Analyzing Influences

Select two to four of the following Skill-Building Challenge Worksheets to develop students’ skills at analyzing influences. Evaluate student work using the holistic or analytic rubric on analyzing influences to determine an overall score for each student.

Influences on Your Wellness (after reading Lesson 1.1)
Analyzing Social and Media Influences (after reading Lesson 2.1)
Analyzing Social Norms on Vision and Hearing Behaviors (after reading Lesson 2.3)
What Influences Your Eating? (after reading Lesson 3.2)
Analyzing Influences on Body Image (after reading Lesson 4.4)
Analyzing Influences (after reading Lesson 5.3)
Analyzing Influences (after reading Lesson 9.3)
Who Influences Me? (after reading Lesson 10.3)
Analyzing Influences: Who Influences Me? (after reading Lesson 11.2)
Analyzing Influences (after reading Lesson 12.3)
Analyzing Influences on Sun-Safety Practices (after reading Lesson 13.4)
Analyzing Influences on Air and Water Pollution (after reading Lesson 14.2)

Sample Skill Unit: Goal Setting (Option A)

Select two to four of the following Skill-Building Challenge Worksheets to develop your students’ goal-setting skills.

Creating a Behavior Contract (after reading Lesson 1.5)
Goal Setting for Good Oral Health (after reading Lesson 2.2)
Setting Goals Using My Fitness Plan (after reading Lesson 5.4)
Goal Setting for Resilience and Grit (after reading Lesson 6.3)
Setting Healthy Goals (after reading Lesson 7.1)

Sample Skill Unit: Goal Setting (Option B)

Select two to four chapters from the book for students to read, and then use the My Action Plan located at the end of each chapter to have students practice goal setting and planning in the different content areas. Have students monitor their progress on one or more of the action plans they create, and have them reflect on their progress at the midpoint and end of the term. Evaluate student work using the analytic or holistic rubric (on goal setting, practicing healthy behaviors, or both.