Content Area: Health and Physical Education

 

Index: 2.2A Grade 8 CPI 3

 

Standard: 2.2 - Integrated Skills

 

Strand: A -   Communication 

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 3 -  The student will assess the use of refusal, negotiation, and assertiveness skills and recommend strategies for improvement.

 

Grade: 8

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION - Brainstorm criteria for effective communication and list the responses on the board. Divide the class into six groups. Each group creates an effective criteria checklist that can be used to rate role-plays for the following skills:
-        Being assertive versus being aggressive
-        Clear communication skills
-        Good listening skills
-        Decision-making skills
-        Refusal skills
-        Negotiation skills

Provide each group with a situation requiring the use of one or more of the skills. Students role-play the situation, and classmates rate the use of the skills using the checklists. Classmates offer suggestions for improvement. Each group repeats the process, practicing a second set of skills. Rotate the situations so each group is able to address all the skills.

Variation: Videotape the performances. Students rate their performances using the checklists.
 

·        TEAM PROBLEM SOLVING - Write the following statement on the board: “Two heads are better than one.” Ask students what the statement means. Explain that they will “put their heads together” to solve a problem. Show an open-ended video vignette (e.g., “Cooling a Hot Situation” or “Triggering Positive Health Choices” from Met Life or any of several Project Alert videos). After the video, divide the class into small groups, and allow approximately 20 minutes for each group to discuss and solve the problem portrayed in the vignette. Students write an ending to the vignette based on group discussion. View the ending of the original video and discuss the following:
-        What criteria were used to write the ending?
-        Was the group’s ending similar to the commercial video ending? Why or why not?
-        What other choices did the character(s) have?
-        Was problem solving easier with a group? Why?
-        How did you reach a decision?

 

      Variation: Provide students with an unfinished story. Students create an ending to the story, showing how the teen used effective decision-making and communication skills to solve the problem.

 

·        LEARNING TO REFUSE - Students brainstorm situations that may require the use of refusal skills. Assign one situation to each pair of students. The partners develop a list of strategies that support refusal skills and assertive behavior in the given situation. Pairs develop a role-play that involves three characters with one character pressuring the others to do something. The teacher applies the pressure in the skit and the students must demonstrate the necessary skills. Classmates offer alternatives and coach the players in the use of the skills. Students complete the lesson by writing “Ten Tips to Say No and Mean It.”

 

·        PEER PRESSURE INTERVIEW - Students interview a parent, guardian, or other adult about peer pressure they experienced as a teenager. Students ask the following questions:
-        When you were a teenager, do you remember feeling peer pressure? What was it like?
-        In what areas and at what age did you worry most about what your friends thought?
-        How did you resist peer pressure?
-       Did you ever have an embarrassing moment as a teen as a result of any of this? Tell me about it.

Students share the responses and develop a list of peer resistance strategies used by the adults. Ask: “Are some of the strategies used in the past still effective today?” Meeting in small groups, students develop a list of at least five refusal strategies to use when confronted with peer pressure. Students
create and perform a role-play illustrating one of the strategies. Students complete the exercise by developing a class list of “100 Ways to Say No” and create a poster, mural, or bulletin board illustrating the list.

 

·        RESISTING PEER PRESSURE - Sooner or later most teens are faced with making an important decision about alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. In order to be prepared to make the right decision, students need to practice how to handle a variety of real-life situations. Use a video or laser disc about teens making tough choices to focus attention on the situations the characters faced, factors considered in making a choice, and how the choice was made. (Sample titles for this exercise might include Project Alert videos available from the Best Foundation, 1-800-ALERT 10 or Triggering Positive Health Choices from Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.) Divide the class into small groups to write their own screenplay called “The Party.” The script must emphasize the effective use of resistance skills. Allow time for students to develop the script, practice, and then present their original screenplay to the class. After each skit, allow time for discussion about the use of skills. The class votes on the best script/performance. Videotape the winning group performing its screenplay.

Variation: Students use the video as a peer teaching tool or develop a parent/community education program on teenage substance use.

Variation: Each student writes a letter to an anonymous teenager, offering the teen advice on how to deal with pressures to use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.

 

·        BE SAFE, NOT SORRY: SAY NO! - Students may find themselves in situations that pose a threat to their safety. Other situations may ultimately get them into trouble with authority figures (e.g., parents, school officials, police). Divide the class into small groups. Each group develops a role-play that addresses one of the following situations:

      -        You’re at a party where the parents serve alcoholic drinks to the teenagers.
-        You need a ride home from a party. The only person who offers you a ride is drunk.
-        You get a ride home with one of your brother’s friends. You notice several empty liquor bottles on the floor of the car.
-        At a party, you accidentally knock over a vase and find a stash of marijuana.

Students rate each role-play for the effective use of decision-making, refusal, or negotiation skills or the appropriate use of assertiveness. (Students use a teacher-designed rating chart for this part of the activity.) Each student writes a short story about a potentially threatening situation focusing on the character’s use of skills to safely diffuse or resolve the situation.

Variation: Videotape the role-plays and have each group critique its own skill performance. Groups rewrite the role-plays to more effectively demonstrate the skills, then tape the revised version. Students critique the second version using the same criteria and compare the two versions.

 

·        BEING ASSERTIVE - Pose the following question: “How many times has someone tried to persuade you to do something and you almost did it?” Give students examples of persuasive techniques used to sell products. Explain that these same kinds of “lines” can be used to persuade you to participate in sexual activity when you are not ready. Students must be prepared to resist the sell. Divide the class into groups of four, and give each group a situation. Two students respond to the situation via role-play while the other two students observe the interaction and record their observation on a checklist. The observers provide feedback and then switch roles for a second situation. Sample situations and a checklist appear below.

 

      SAMPLE SITUATIONS: BE ASSERTIVE
-        Going back to an empty house with a date.
-        Being pressured to drink a few beers to loosen up for sex.
-        Stopping along a lonely road for some “peace and quiet”.
-        Being told you’re not a man until you’ve had sex.
-        Being pressured to have sex since “you can’t get pregnant the first time”.
-        Feeling pressured to have sexual intercourse because your date paid for dinner and a movie.
-        Going to a party of older teenagers and feeling like you have to have sex to fit in.

 

 

 

      Variation: Ask students: “How do you respond to a line? How can you tell if a person is just being nice because he/she wants to have sexual intercourse? How can you distinguish between myths and facts? (e.g., you can’t get pregnant the first time you have intercourse, you won’t get an STD if you have sex in the shower).” Students interview a parent or trusted adult about lines they may have heard when they were a teenager. Students discuss ways to how to handle such situations and contribute one suggestion to a class list that is developed into a poster or pamphlet.