Content Area: Health and Physical Education

 

Index: 2.4A Grade 12 CPI 3

 

Standard: 2.4 - Human Relationships & Sexuality

 

Strand: A - Relationship

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator:  3 - The student will recommend strategies to enhance and maintain mature, loving, respectful, and healthy relationships.

 

Grade: 12

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        IS THIS REALLY LOVE? - For this activity, create three signs (“AGREE”, “DISAGREE”, and “NOT SURE”) and post in corners of the room. Write on the board, “If you’re in love, you...” and brainstorm endings to the statement. Divide the class into small groups. Give each group five minutes to develop a definition of love. Students share the definitions and then list the different kinds of love (e.g., love of parents, brothers, and sisters; love of friends; love of a pet). Read a statement about “being in love.” For each statement, students move to the corner of the room that reflects their thinking about the statement. Students justify their answers and then read the next statement. (If students always play it safe by saying they are not sure, remove that sign and require all students to commit.) Conclude the session with students writing a brief definition of love. Students should state if they agree or disagree with their group’s original definition.

SAMPLE STATEMENTS: BEING IN LOVE
-        Jealousy is a sign that someone really loves you or you really love that person.
-        A person can fall in love many times.
-        A person can prove they are in love by having sexual intercourse.
-        The best lover is some one who is also a good friend.

Variation: Divide the class into small groups and assign each group a common phrase or line of poetry related to love. Each group explains what the saying means, decides whether they agree with it, and then creates a new phrase that describes its definition of love. Groups share their ideas. Sayings might include:
-        Love means never having to say you’re sorry.
-        Love conquers all.
-        Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
-        Love is all you need.

 

·        PARTNERS IN LIFE - Write the following quotes on the board and ask volunteers to explain each.

 

      "Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives." Shakespeare, As You Like It

"As a general thing, people marry most happily with their own kind. The trouble lies in the fact that people usually marry at an age when they do not really know what their own kind is."
Robert Davies

After discussing the statements, students develop an essay on one of the seven things to think about when contemplating commitment such as marriage or lifetime partnership. The essay must provide a rationale for discussion and include a response to the following questions:
-        If there is a conflict in expectations with your partner, how would you deal with that conflict? Give examples.
-        In what circumstances or situations would you refuse to compromise your expectations in this area? Give examples and explain why.
-        What influences helped to determine your expectations and beliefs—your parents, other relatives, culture, religion, and/or other significant influences in your life?

 

·        FROM COURTSHIP TO MARRIAGE - Create 8” x 11” cards, each with one of the steps that may lead from courtship to marriage. (Steps might include attraction, infatuation, getting to know the other person, disagreement, meeting friends/family, decision to have intercourse or not, dating, engagement, etc.) Enlist volunteers to take a card. Students holding a card line up in the correct order of events. (This will ensure lively debate because there is no correct order!) After students have come to some agreement, divide the class into pairs. Each pair role-plays a situation related to one of the events.

Variation: Discuss courtship within the context of various cultures and religions.