7 Questions You Can Ask Yourself
After countless hours of reading and experimenting, I’ve concluded that the best teachers are master MCs.
To do an evaluation of teaching methods, ask yourself these 7 questions. Do my lessons regularly…
- …get students working Cooperatively?
- …provide optimal levels of Challenge?
- …reflect on Current trends or events?
- …allow students to make Choices?
- …require students to get up and Move?
- …harness the power of Music?
- …place value on Mastery?
Working Cooperatively
Research has regularly shown that cooperative learning helps to actively engage students, increase motivation and boost social support. So how can you use cooperative learning in your skills-based classroom?
Use Games
I created “The Puberty Games” as a way for my middle school students to learn about puberty and communication skills. Students have to work cooperatively to complete 3 challenges, each of which requires collaboration, creativity and communication.
It’s one of my favorite lessons because students are actively engaged with each other and with content that is often uncomfortable for them to discuss. I often pair sexual health with communication skills for that reason. I see communication as one of the most effective ways to preserve, protect and improve sexual health.
Use Scenarios
To teach my high school students how to access valid information and services, I have them work in teams to analyze a scenario. Each scenario includes a symptom set. Their task as a team is to determine what condition the symptom set describes, whether or not they should consult a doctor, and what doctor (in our area) they could visit for an actual diagnosis.
Have you ever googled your own symptoms? This authentic task encourages students to work together as each student has to find their own source. It’s by comparing the information from all of the sources that the students are best able to answer the questions.
Optimal Levels of Challenge
Flow Theory, developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, proposes that motivation and satisfaction are at their greatest when we are participating in activities that provide an optimal level of challenge. Daniel Pink, in his book Drive, describes Goldilocks Tasks. They have just the right amount of challenge…not too much or too little. Here are some ideas for creating optimal challenge in your skills-based health classroom.
Use Card Sorts & Match Cards
One way to introduce a skill is by having students work in groups to complete a card sorting or match card challenge. For example, you can deepen students’ understanding of SMART Goals by having them sort goal cards into two piles: SMART goals and not-so-SMART goals.
I up the “fun-factor” with a code word challenge. Each card has a code letter. When the cards are correctly sorted, students are able to unscramble the letters to determine the code word.
I use the same strategy to introduce drug facts to my students. They complete a slide sort challenge to identify commonly abused and headline-making drugs. Again, if they are successful, they’ll get a code word to complete the final challenge.
Repurpose Quizzes & Tests
I introduce sexual health and communication to my high school students by having them take a sexual health quiz in a rather unique way. They have to work together and agree on all of the answers. Scoring a 100% will earn them a movie day in class and anything less than that will result in a DBQ. While they work together, I keep notes about how they communicate. I use my observations to help teach communication skills in the lessons that follow.
Repurposing a quiz or test as a group pretest is a great way to assess current knowledge and build student engagement. I’d argue that tests/quizzes are much more valuable when completed in groups.
Current Trends & Events
Curriculum becomes compelling when students can easily relate to it. This can be achieved by using current/local trends and events in your lessons. I use local and national news stories to help interest my students.
Use Local & National News Stories
In both my middle school and high school classes I use news stories to help teach the importance of personal decision making.
In high school, I use the tragic story of Timothy Piazza, a Penn State student who died from injuries sustained at a fraternity event. This particular story helps students learn about BAC, the Good Samaritan Law, and signs of alcohol poisoning.
In middle school, I use a local news story in which a 16-year-old driver, under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, loses control of his vehicle resulting in the deaths of two young girls. Students learn about driver safety, seatbelt use, social hosting laws and in a heart-wrenching twist, gun-safety and suicide.
At both levels, these are some of the most talked about lessons. Students get absorbed in the story and that interest allows for excellent discussions about personal versus collective decision making and the things that influence those decisions.
Use Current Information & Statistics
To introduce students to health skills and adolescent risk behaviors, I have students complete an activity called Shelter from the Storm in which they guess what percent of students engage in certain risk behaviors. We compare their guesses with current Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data.
In my middle school classes, students use the social norms approach to correct normative beliefs about drug use. Students use results from our school’s YRBS to prove that most students make healthy choices.
Student Choice
Allowing students to choose what and how they learn helps to develop autonomy and motivation. It also creates opportunities for personalized learning.
Use a Matrix
When teaching stress management, it’s important that students match their stressor with an appropriate strategy. Too often, students choose a diversion strategy which in the long run amplifies their stress.
I created an online stress management matrix for students to navigate. It helped them pair common stressors with appropriate stress management strategies. Then students could choose which strategies they actually wanted to try. When I asked students for feedback on the lesson, the most common response was one related to having choice. Students liked that they could guide their own learning and choose which strategies to explore deeper.
Use a Choice Board
I use a VBQ (video based question) to introduce communication skills to my high school students. Students choose from a video choice board. Each video teaches an important lesson about assertive communication, empathy, body language, etc. Not surprisingly, students are much more engaged with this VBQ than the DBQs (document based questions) of years past.
Incorporate Movement
Movement necessarily ups engagement. Students cannot sit passively in their seats, if the activity requires that they get up and move. I try to incorporate movement in every lesson.
Use Your Walls
I teach a very holistic approach to nutrition, teaching students about a series of criteria that will help them to identify Go, Slow and Whoa foods. Students go “shopping” in my classroom to help practice identifying foods. To check for understanding, we play Where Do You Stand, in which a food is shown and then students move to the wall that best represents it.
Use Stations
I avoid lectures by creating stations for students to gather information. Students use guided notes as they travel throughout the classroom to cover the basics. Then they can use the information they’ve gathered to complete a self-assessment. These self-assessments form the foundation of our learning experience on planning and goal-setting.
Use Music
Music can change our moods. Use music to help introduce topics or merely to boost students’ moods.
Use Student DJs
At the start of the year, survey your students. Use a Google Form to collect your students favorite upbeat songs and artists. Start each class with one of their songs. It’s a surefire way to earn some smiles. Be sure to preview songs before you play them.
Use Music With a Message
Start class with a song related to your topic. Talking about stress? Use Stressed Out by Twenty-One Pilots. Accessing information? Try Too Much Information by Duran Duran. Introducing the social determinants of health? What about Changes by 2 Pac. Play the Hotline Song by Logic when you’re teaching about suicide prevention. Music can help hook students and start important conversations.
Mastery
Self-efficacy plays a role in behavior change. If I think I am capable of doing something, I’m much more likely to do it. How can we help our students develop mastery?
The easiest way to do this is by allowing students multiple opportunities to practice a skill or learn a concept. I use checklists to grade student work, breaking down assignments into the performance indicators they are supposed to assess. When assessing students I check off one of three options.
- Yes, the student can do this.
- The student made an attempt.
- No attempt was made.
If a student makes an attempt, I always allow them to try again. In this way, I help foster a growth mindset and mastery.
Recap
Great teachers are great MCs. They seek mastery and incorporate music, movement, choice, challenge, collaboration and current trends/events. We can evaluate our own practices by asking ourselves if we do the same.
