Teacher Tips—What Works!

So Much to Do—So Little Time! How Can a Teacher Help Students Become Health Literate?

Betty Hubbard, Ed.D., C.H.E.S., Professor, Department of Health Sciences, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Arkansas; contributing author, Teen Health

This is a logical and important question, considering the barriers health teachers must overcome. Within a short amount of time and with limited resources, we must cover a subject that can have an enormous influence on the wellness of our students and communities. Given this dilemma, we must decide what is the best use of class time and what learning is most important for students.

I am convinced that teaching skills is the answer. The wellness of students is directly related to their ability to apply health skills to everyday living. These skills are identified in the National Health Education Standards: comprehending concepts, analyzing influences, accessing information, interpersonal communication, making good decisions, setting goals, practicing healthful behaviors, and learning advocacy.

Research has demonstrated that effective health education programs focus on skills. Given this knowledge, we can spend less time on content (e.g., body systems and descriptions of diseases) and more time on skills development. This allows us to teach skills in a thorough and useful way. Simply explaining skills is no guarantee that students will be able to use them in their daily lives. Effective teaching of a skill is more than providing an explanation. It involves a step-by-step approach in which the skill is modeled, practiced, applied, and assessed.

This step-by-step approach is the foundation for Glencoe's Teen Health program. In the Student Edition, "Health Skills Activities" help students learn to choose behaviors that promote their health and to avoid high-risk behaviors. Each activity is designed to provide students with an opportunity to practice a skill. "Hands-On Health" gives students a chance to personalize the skills presented in each of the chapters. However, the most complete skill-building tool is found at the end of each chapter. Each "Building Health Skills" feature focuses on a specific skill and clearly follows the "model, practice, apply/assess" format. This feature can be teacher directed or taught independently as a hands-on skills lesson.

A focus on skills development is the most effective framework for health education because it enables us to address the underlying causes and solutions for health problems. For example, in order for students to deal with the numerous health issues they face—such as tobacco use—they must have not only accurate information but, more important, the skills necessary to make and follow through on healthy choices. Providing only information about health is like treating a patient for type 2 diabetes (the symptom) without addressing the individual's dietary and exercise practices (the underlying causes). When health teachers focus on teaching skills, we are making the most of our opportunity to influence students' present and future health.

See related articles in this issue: Learning to Love Assessment and Teaching to the Assessment

Health Education in the Twenty-first Century: What Does Your Classroom Look Like?

Deborah L. Tackmann, B.S., M.E.P.D., Health Education Instructor, North High School, Eau Claire, Wisconsin

The children of today live in a world vastly different from that of only a few years ago. The risks of teen suicide, pregnancy, experimentation with drugs and alcohol, and school violence are but a few of the issues facing today's adolescents. Knowing that 70 percent of all deaths among youth ages 10-24 result from lifestyle choices, we recognize the need for solutions, one of which lies just inside the doors of our schools: your classroom.

As health education instructors in the twenty-first century, we find that our curriculum addresses extremely important and very sensitive topics. We are given an amazing opportunity every day to make a positive difference in the lives of teens by empowering them with the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy decisions. However, even the most creative lesson will "die in the water" if a positive classroom climate has not been collaboratively created by the teacher and his or her students. Here are a few suggestions to help you establish a positive classroom climate that is conducive to academic success:

1. Classroom Design
a. Students who can see one another during classroom instruction are better able to make a personal connection with their peers. Try arranging the desks in a semicircle or horseshoe design rather than in straight rows.

b. Change your seating charts every two to three weeks. This will allow students to work with a variety of peers in the classroom and will result in discussions that have more depth and meaning.

c. Arrange the desks so that five or six students sit next to one another to form a base group. Cooperating base groups can be used for activities that increase peer-to-peer interaction, thus increasing opportunities to learn.

d. Collect posters related to different health education topics. With each health topic, place posters on the wall related to that topic. One week before you begin a new topic/unit, remove the old posters and put new ones up. This changes the atmosphere in the classroom and stimulates interest in the next health topic/unit.

2. Classroom Expectations
a. On the first day of school, work with your students collaboratively to set classroom expectations and guidelines that everyone agrees on. Examples: Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Courage, Honesty, and so on. Post these expectations in large print on your classroom wall. Classroom climate improves when students take ownership of the way the class is managed.

b. Suggest "No Put-Downs Allowed" as a classroom expectation. This means that no one is allowed to put themselves or anyone else down. If someone does, that person is required to give himself, herself, or the other person two "put-ups"—sincere compliments.

3. Classroom Climate
a. Emotions. Emotions drive attention, and attention drives learning. Therefore, lessons that engage the learner's emotions are intrinsically or extrinsically motivational and will result in stronger memory! Make an emotional connection with every lesson.

b. Humor. Start each lesson with an endorphin-releasing activity. Tell a funny story, show a humorous video clip, or put a cartoon on an overhead. This motivates students to get to class on time, since they don't want to miss an opportunity to laugh and feel good. Setting a positive climate in the first two minutes of any classroom is critical and can have a positive impact on academic success!

Remember: "Teens don't care how much you know, until they know that you care!" Building a positive classroom climate is the cornerstone to effective health education, so take the time to create a safe and fun place to learn. You will be amazed at the impact that it will have on academic success for both you and your learners!

Learning to Love Assessment

Kathleen Middleton, M.S., C.H.E.S., Health Education Consultant for CCSSO-SCASS Health Education Assessment Project; contributing author, Glencoe Health

The word "assessment" often engenders a groan from the average teacher. I remember that evaluation and grading was my least favorite task as a teacher. I loved the interaction with eager (and sometimes not-so-eager) students and the ability to inspire young people to make positive choices that affected their health. In fact, good health instruction can enhance the quality of their lives. However, the assessment aspect of the job was not what attracted me to the profession; in fact, I hated that part.

How then could a teacher like myself end up doing training in assessment—and loving it? I had a head-turning experience with assessment. I saw how clear goals and expectations for students could focus instruction. In a nutshell, I discovered rubrics. Once I was clear on what my students needed to produce in an assessment, I was able to skillfully guide them.

Knowing what students are expected to show you as evidence of learning will clarify what you teach and how you teach it. This is especially important in health education, because skill development is a critical component. As the teacher, you need to understand what evidence of skill development "looks like" from the students' point of view. This is where rubrics come in. Rubrics establish the criteria that help you measure students' proficiency in the skill.

We all know how important the decision-making skill is when it comes to health education. But how do you assess that skill? You use a rubric that clarifies the steps in the decision-making process. And you use one of the many featured activities in Glencoe Health and Teen Health that integrate the content in the chapter with the skill. Each feature activity provides criteria that can be used as a rubric to judge student work. In the case of decision making, student work should show the following:

• A clear description of the situation (the decision to be made)
• Several options and the outcome of each option
• The influence of values on possible decisions
• A health-enhancing decision and an evaluation of that decision (i.e., "It is a good decision because...")

Throughout both Glencoe Health and Teen Health, the Teacher Wraparound Edition provides the teacher and student the criteria that demonstrate health skills. These criteria can be used to formulate the assessment rubric.

Good assessment does not ambush or trick students. Good assessment is the same as good instruction. Students should be provided instruction in what is to be assessed; they should be provided practice in what is to be assessed; and they should be given an opportunity to evaluate themselves using the same criteria that will be used in a formal assessment.

Assessment—knowing how students will demonstrate mastery of the content and skills—helps teachers focus and use their time wisely and more productively. With the assessment tools available in Glencoe Health and Teen Health, you too can learn to love assessment!

See related articles in this issue: How Can a Teacher Help Students Become Health Literate? and Teaching to the Assessment

Teaching to the Assessment: How to Prepare a Health-Literate Student

Michael Cleary, Ed.D., C.H.E.S., Professor and School Health Education Coordinator, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania; contributing author, Glencoe Health

To meet the National Health Education Standards, health teachers must emphasize skill development and provide performance assessment opportunities whereby students demonstrate knowledge and health skills. Teen Health provides a high-quality performance assessment titled "Building Health Skills" that includes a rubric for both content and skill acquisition at the conclusion of each chapter. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have students complete this feature!

Teaching to this assessment, however, requires a fundamental shift in how the teacher introduces students to the new chapter. Specifically, the teacher would begin each new chapter by initially focusing on the end-of-chapter Building Health Skills feature. Using the Teen Health Course 3 Building Health Skills feature on pages 292-93 as an example, the recommended dialog might go something like this:

"Class, before we start on the new chapter [Medicine and Drugs], I want you to turn in your books to pages 292-93. Notice how the skill emphasized here is advocacy. I want someone to read the definition of advocacy on this page."
(Student reads advocacy skill definition aloud.)

"Now, I want all of you to read the box called 'Apply/Assess' on page 293, which describes a brochure that you, in your learning groups, will eventually create. Look at how many elements your brochure should contain. What knowledge and health skills will you need to learn during this chapter that will prepare you and your group to successfully develop a high-quality brochure?"
(Teacher should list student responses on the board or on an overhead transparency and review each response with the class.)

"Class, as we move through the lessons in this chapter, I want you to be especially watchful for these elements. I will also call them to your attention. You will want to write this information down in your journals."

Summary
By focusing on the Building Health Skills feature initially, students are sensitized early to the importance of the performance assessment awaiting them at the chapter's conclusion. The teacher (also sensitized) is now able to better align instruction to ensure that students will successfully demonstrate a high level of health literacy.

See related articles in this issue: Learning to Love Assessment, and How Can a Teacher Help Students Become Health Literate?