Curriculum Project

Filling our Plate: Concepts of Wellness in Urban Communities

What does it mean to really live a healthy lifestyle? Our curriculum will focus on all aspects of
healthy living in different cultures including: mental health, nutrition, and social interactions.
Keeping in mind that our students are from an urban area, our lessons and activities will be
connected by their community experience.

Team Organization:
Organizational Structure of Middle School

Belief Statement- We believe everyone has the ability to learn and should strive to
become lifelong learners. Each person deserves respect and to grow in a safe learning
environment where they are given the opportunity to express their many talents. Students
are held to high expectations and will use community connections to prepare to become
active citizens in our democracy. We will empower students and foster personal
excellence by creating a collaborative learning culture that inspires innovation, leadership
and global connection.

Team Expectationso

Students Will:

Respect Ourselves By:

Behave properly in their speech and actions, respecting differences in race,

gender, color, religion, national origin, ethnic group, marital or parental
status, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability or any other
unlawful consideration.
Respect everyone as a unique individual and be responsive to his or her
needs.
Try their hardest to succeed.
Not show public displays of affection.
Follow directions of all school personnel without arguing.
Dress in a manner that promotes a positive learning environment and is not
disruptive to learning.
Respect others' personal property and school property.
Come to school prepared.

Doing our best

Being responsible for our own actions, assignments and property
Coming to school on time and prepared
Using words and language that are not mean, vulgar or offensive
Being honest and fair
Bringing only appropriate items to school
Behaving safely

Respect Others By:

Accepting everyones differences

Observing lunchroom and yard rules
Being polite, courteous and cooperative
Making sure games and activities are open to everyone
Not pushing, kicking, fighting or engaging in horseplay
Walking at all times in the halls and cafeteria
Following directions from all staff
Not throwing rocks, spitballs, food or other items

Respect Property By:

Keeping all areas of the school neat and orderly

Using materials in ways that dont waste, litter or damage

**Students will develop what they think should be rules to follow.

*They will be hung in every class and signed by each student. (Class Norms)
o

Teachers Will:

Respect each other

collaborate with each other
Dressing and act professionally
come up with rules in the classroom with the students
be a role model
school and community working together

Organizational Structure of the Team- This 7th grade team will consist of four general
education teachers and one intervention specialist. All teachers will work together and
assist instruction during seminar as well as during break-out sessions to ensure all
students are receiving the best help and support they can. Students a part of the team will
attend seminar together as a large group and will rotate to different teachers during the
break-out session depending on what day of the week it is and according to their given
schedule. This breakout session is not individual subjects. The teachers come up with a
plan of action together and implement it in the groups.

Here is a sample of a 7th grade Students weekly schedule:

Times

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

8:009:16

Morning
Seminar

Morning
Seminar

Morning
Seminar

Morning
Seminar

Morning
Seminar

9:2010:16

Break-out
Session #1

Break-out
Session #3

Break-out
Session #1

Break-out
Session #3

Break-out
Session #1

10:2011:06

Special (Music)

Special (Art)

Special (Music)

Special (Art)

Special (Music)

11:1011:46

Lunch/Recess

Lunch/Recess

Lunch/Recess

Lunch/Recess

Lunch/Recess

11:5012:36

Special
(Gym/health)

Special
(Language)

Special
(Gym/health)

Special
(Language)

Special
(Gym/health)

12:401:36

Afternoon
Seminar

Afternoon
Seminar

Afternoon
Seminar

Afternoon
Seminar

Afternoon
Seminar

1:403:00

Break-out
Session #2

Break-out
Session #4

Break-out
Session #2

Break-out
Session #4

Break-out
Session #2

Programs and policies that foster health, wellness, and safetyo

Services:

Lunch menu: healthy (moderation):

Health and gym class

School nurse
Intervention specialist
Occupational therapist/ physical therapy
Speech pathologist
ELL teacher support
Translator

fresh food from urban garden

Once a month volunteers and parents cook lunch (homemade)
provide free breakfast in the classroom for anyone who wants it

Safety:

ALICE program (modified)

lockdown procedure
doors lock automatically on inside
tornado/ fire drills once a month known and unknown

School security officers

Visitors let in through office (ID sign in/out)
All building doors locked (except the front in the morning and afternoon)
Teachers in the hallway before/after school

Guidance and Support Serviceso

Guidance counselors
open sessions (morning/ after school)
scheduled/ emergency appointments
Peer Listening group ran by students (lunch and after school)
anti bullying/cyber bullying (internet safety)
depression awareness/ suicide prevention
peer mentoring/ tutoring
Community Center
Open to all student
Tutoring in all areas
After school safe space
Activities, sports, music, and art
Role models of all ages

Background of Students and Community

We chose to place our school in an area similar to Over the Rhine in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Our students will generally be half male, half female with a diverse population consisting of 27%
white students, 27% black students, 23% Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 23% Hispanic. The
socioeconomic status of the families of our students will consist of a wide range of incomes,
varying from families in poverty to families in the middle class. Concerning the ability levels of
our students, we will have a variety of abilities and learning modalities among them. We are
equipped to give the best education possible to our students with special needs to our most
advanced students. We will aim to have about 15 students per teacher, for a total of 60 students
in the seventh grade. About 15% of our students will be on IEPs and/or 504s, and we strive to go
above and beyond the needs of all of our students. We also have a small percentage of our

student population needing enrichment during the school day, and we will implement gifted
programs for these students. We place a large emphasis on community support and have many
opportunities and after school programs for students at a neighborhood community center run by
volunteers. This will be close to our school to allow students a place to go after school that will
help with homework and give them a place to go if their parents are still at work. We expect our
teachers to maintain contact with the community center so they can check in on students who
commonly use it. We also expect our teachers to commonly meet with or maintain contact with
students parents/guardians to track student progress and talk about whats going on in the
classroom. We also expect teachers to send home a monthly newsletter that shows pictures of the
students working in the classroom. A community garden will be used in the classrooms for
students to learn about growing healthy, nutritious foods and making smart food choices, i.e.
eating fresh fruit and vegetables instead of fried or greasy foods. The garden will also be open to
members of the community interested in growing fruits and vegetables that can be shared among
the neighborhood. We want ourselves, as teachers, to be an active part of the community by
helping to maintain the community garden. We will encourage the community members to spend
time together and work to maintain a positive environment for their friends, neighbors, and
children.

Lesson Plan Organizers (Culturally relevant teaching unit plans)

1. Lesson Plan - Fast Food (1day seminar/break-out sessions)

Student Objectives:
o
o
o

Students will be able to explain the health benefits and deficits of fast food.
Students will be able to predict what eating unhealthy will do to their overall
health.
Students will be able to analyze food labels of fast food and determine foods that
are better for their bodies from restaurants.

Literacy rationale and Component:

o

Nutrition
Percentages
Vitamins/Minerals
Portion Size
Moderation

Materials:
o
o
o
o
o

Supersize me is a movie that students will watch and critique through discussions
in their breakout sessions. This movie shows the students what can happen if you
do not eat healthy foods and exercise properly. Through this lesson, we want to
teach students that cheaper is not always healthier. We want to show them that
eating health foods is a possibility even when on a budget by taking them to a
local grocery store to show them the possibilities. We also want to teach them
about growing their own vegetables by taking them to our community garden. We
want to show our students they can still eat healthy within their cultures by talking
about how different cultures use food and what food means in that specific
culture. We want to empower our students to make a change in their lives and the
lives of others. All you need is one voice to start a chain reaction. This is
culturally relevant and empowers our students because they are given a great
amount of responsibility to contribute to their community garden and improve the
quality of meals for the people they care for.

Key Academic Language:

o
o
o
o
o

Students will have the understanding of these concepts and the ability to inspire
others to make a change.

Supersize Me documentary
Access to computers
Food labels (students bring in multiple packaged food items)
notebook/ writing utensils
any props used for fast food choices project

Procedure (1 day seminar/break-out sessions):

o

o
o
o

Begin with class discussion

What do you know about healthy and unhealthy foods?
Are fast food restaurants healthy?
Watch Supersize Me documentary (seminar - may take more than 1 day)
break-out groups will analyze documentary, looking at cause and effect,
Research using school computers/library access fast food menus online (nutrition
facts of the meals)
In groups, create a daily meal plan for a traveling basketball team

Differentiations:
o

Intelligences:
Verbal/linguistic - Discussion, asking questions
Musical - Fast food jingles recognition
Logic/mathematical - Percentages on food labels, adding amounts
Spatial- fast food commercials and calorie charts
Kinesthetic - hands on activity with the fast food field trip
Interpersonal- group work and discussions
Intrapersonal- reflection journal and creative projects
Naturalistic- learning new ways to be healthy
Learning Modalities:
Visual - Supersize me,
Auditory - Discussions between students and teacher
Kinesthetic/Tactile - taking a trip to fast food place/restaurant

Assessment:
o
o
o

2.

The food has to be fast since they are on the go

The food has to be healthy for them to play games
What are some challenges you faced with this assignment?
What new choices did you discover?
Finish with a think-pair-share activity where students discuss how they can
implement these changes to their diet.

Fast food project (breakfast/ lunch/ dinner) assessed based on creativity and clear
awareness of issues.
Student reflection to gauge growth
Frequent check-ins with individual students to give feedback on completion of the
assignments.

Lesson Plan - Eating disorders

Student Objectives:
o
o
o

Students will be able to identify different types of eating disorders and their
consequences
Students will be able to recognize the warning signs of eating disorders
Students will be able to apply their knowledge and take action in real life
situations

Literacy Rational and Component:

Key Academic Language:

o
o
o
o

Prevention
methods
Anorexia/binge eating
disorders

Materials:
o
o
o
o

National Eating Disorder Association Website is a helpful website for the students
to explore eating disorders. This website provides information to an organization
that the students can join if they want to, but we are using it to educate the
students on what eating disorders are and what we can do to take action. This will
make our students informed about this topic and apply it to their daily lives. This
website also allows for easy access at any given time. We are having the students
watch NBCs Perfect body to see what can happen when you have an eating
disorder. The students will critique this movie through a discussion in the breakout sessions. Many students their age and in their community are struggling with
self-image and identity. They are given perceived expectations from the media
and these are usually unrealistic, which can lead to eating disorders.

Computers
NBCs Perfect Body
Notebook/ pencil
Perfect Body worksheet

Procedure:
o

Begin class with discussion questions

What are eating disorders?
What do you know about them?
Name some?
Watch NBCs Perfect Body
personal reflection of thoughts and comments of the movie
guided question worksheet
Visit the National Eating Disorder Association website and let the students
explore
Have each group explore different elements of website to share with class
Have a school counselor talk to seminar about warning signs of eating disorders
and the proper way to take action
Review warning signs of eating disorders
What to do when noticing warning signs
Know school and community resources
Discuss how to take action and what to do
Safe places for struggling teens
How to ask for help

Differentiations:
o

Intelligences:
Verbal/linguistic- discussions in class
Musical- Music in movie
Logic/mathematical- percentage of people who have eating disorders/
reasoning behind the eating disorders
Spatial- National Eating Disorder Association website
Kinesthetic- Being able to explore the website on their own
Interpersonal- How to take action
Intrapersonal- Awareness Pamphlet
Naturalistic-National Eating Disorder Association website
Learning Modalities:
Visual- Perfect Body Movie
Auditory- Discussions in class
Kinesthetic- Exploring the website

Assessment:
o
o
o

Awareness Pamphlet based on creativity and clear knowledge about the issue
selected by the students
Student reflection to gauge growth
Frequent check-ins for feedback on progress

Text Set
Anchor text:
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Related text:
Supersize Me documentary
The Clique series by Lisi Harrison
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
ABC Familys Cyber Bully
Rules by Cynthia Lord
The House of Liberty by Joyce Brown (Age 16)
Fast food calorie charts
Cyberbullying blogs/ real stories
Mcdonald Commercial, Wendys Commercial
Please help her get this load off her mind (advertisement)
Pretzel Crisps You can never be too thin (advertisement)
National Eating Disorder Association
Center for Disease Control and Prevention
NBCs Perfect Body

Ohio Standards for Educators

Standard 1: Teachers understand student learning and development and respect the
diversity of the students they teach.
o

Standard 2: Teachers know and understand the content area for which they have
instructional responsibility.
o

Our teachers each have a degree in each content area. This allows the teachers to
collaborate and team-teach. Even though the teachers split up in our break-out
sessions, they still work together throughout the day. The seminar is where the
team teaching takes place throughout the day. In the morning, the entire 7th grade
class comes together for a seminar. This is where they get their instruction for the
day and do group activities. There is also an intervention specialist that will be in
the seminar. He/she will pull students throughout the day to work with a small
group. This allows the students to get the extra support that they need, when they
need it.

Standard 3: Teachers understand and use varied assessments to inform instruction,

evaluate and ensure student learning.
o

Our teachers know that students learn through different learning modalities and at
different paces. This is why we suggested lesson plans that contribute strengths
from each type of learning modality and intelligence. We want our students to feel
safe and secure in our classrooms, therefore giving them the confidence to
achieve anything. The different intelligences and learning modalities used in our
lesson plans allows each student to learn at their own pace. The development of
students is another big concept that we looked at when making our lesson plans.
The students are the most important part of our school and as teachers we want
them to know that they did their best. We also have teachers that implement
culturally relevant lessons and texts into their classroom. They understand that the
diversity of their students is something that must not be ignored. As stated before,
we want our students to feel safe and secure, and showing them how much we
value their diversity by giving them texts that they can connect will do this.

Our teachers know that each student learns differently and absorbs different
information based on their learning modalities and intelligences. Our teachers will
help strengthen the students weaknesses in class as well as their strengths. At
New Horizon, we are lifelong learners as teacher and students. We will have
different assessments for each unit, and we will let the students decide how they
would like to be assessed, whether it is through an art project, paper, etc. This
gives the students choice and gives them the opportunity to be a part of the
grading process. The students will be graded on their creativity and knowledge
about their topic.

Standard 4: Teachers plan and deliver effective instruction that advances the learning of
each individual student.

Standard 5: Teachers create learning environments that promote high levels of learning
and achievement for all students
o

Our teachers come to school every morning at 7:30 to plan for the day and week.
The lessons are done a week ahead of time, so all the teachers can collaborate.
The lesson plans are geared towards every learning modality and intelligences,
that way every student can learn at the best of their abilities. Our teachers know
that each student learns in different ways and we want to bring out their strengths
and weaknesses. This way the students can work on both to make them stronger.

Our teachers will create positive learning environments and be sure to promote
academic achievement for all students by creating community within their
classroom, encouraging a student-led classroom, and having high expectations for
every student. It is important for every student to feel safe both physically and
emotionally and our educators will create a classroom where students may
communicate their feelings without feeling like they will be ridiculed or judged.
they will do this by establishing a list of rules or guidelines at the beginning of the
year (constructed by the students) and will make sure all students know the
consequences of not following the classroom rules. Our educators will ensure
their students academic success by listening when their students vocalize their
concerns about the lessons or activities. We want students to have a say in their
education and for our every-day lessons to be student led to promote excitement
about learning. Finally, teachers will hold every one of their students to high
expectations to learn and grow throughout the year. We want to see students
giving their best effort for everything they do and are there for assistance
whenever needed.

Standard 6: Teachers collaborate and communicate with students, parents, other

educators, administrators and the community to support student learning.
o

One of the most important aspects of a successful school is communication and

collaboration. Our school encourages this between educators and students,
parents, the community, and especially other educators to create the best
curriculum possible. Our school will work closely with the community and
its resources to use the plentiful advantages of its urban environment. We will
take field trips, plan events, and invite speakers from the area. We also see the
importance of keeping close contact with the parents of our students. Educators
will create newsletters to keep parents updated on lessons, projects, and upcoming
events. They will also be sure to be available through email if anything should
come up. Finally, we have organized our school day so that teachers may
collaborate easily with other teachers. We will have them working together not
only during the two seminars throughout the day, but they will also team-teach
during the break out sessions. Our educators understand the benefits of
collaborating a lesson with fellow educators and working to create the best
possible lessons and curriculum for their students.

Standard 7: Teachers assume responsibility for professional growth, performance and

involvement as individuals and as members of a learning community.
o

As a school, we strive to hire teachers we feel best understand their responsibility

as an educator. We recognize the impact we will have on our students and their
futures when we are with them every day. Our educators are agents of change and
plan to keep that in mind when interacting with their students. They will make it
very clear to them that if they ever need to talk about something whether it is at
school, home, with friends, or family, they can always confide in their teachers.

Curriculum Development:

Course Concept map

Curriculum Rationale
This course is designed to encourage students to question and analyze their own
experiences as well as broaden their ideas about the world by community involvement. Too often
in schools students are only gaining the skills to be able to successfully answer questions exactly
how they know their teacher would want it. Students have mastered the art of not thinking for
themselves but producing similar material accepted by the teachers and administrators. The
purpose of education is much more than this. We want our students to understand the outside
connections to their personal growth in learning.
We are hoping to help reach this goal through a course focusing on the question What
does it mean to live a healthy lifestyle?. Within each of the units (Mental health, nutrition, and
social wellness) we are guiding our students to think critically and see our world in a new light.
This is a topic that everyone can connect with and everyone will bring different ideas to what
they view as a healthy lifestyle from their own lives. The interesting thing about each unit is that
living healthy in these areas is going to differ for students. In general there are ideas that are
thought for everyone to use and practice when striving to truly live a healthy life, but this can
also be extremely different based on culture. Social interactions and food are definitely things
that vary due to family background.
Our mental health unit has a strong focus on self-image and results of negative behavior.
Students are exposed to many of the standards of the 7th grade through reading and writing
assignments, science through terms and chemistry of the brain, history by researching past cases
of mental illness and how it was treated as well as looking at war and the mental effects of the
soldiers, and this unit also includes math through chart reading and analysis of national statistics.
The key, however, is that through this lesson the students will be learning valuable life lessons of
how to become more self-aware, healthy ways to cope with stress, maybe a deeper understanding

of how their peers may be feeling, and to be more aware of how people have different reactions
to situations. The point is to guide them in finding the knowledge they can use in their future.
Nutrition can most definitely affect a persons mental health as well. Certain foods we eat
will help us to feel more energetic and happy while others only give us short-term happiness.
All subjects will again be intertwined in the lessons to practice and improve those skills, but we
really want our students to gain awareness of the potential harm they can be doing to their bodies
by everyday decisions. Fast food is a big choice when deciding a meal since it is cheap, fast and
easy option for a busy family it is a choice made by people frequently. However, there are some
grab-and- go options that are great for a fast pace lifestyle. In urban areas there is also an issue of
grocery options and prices. The case most of the time is that since in urban communities people
count of walking places most of the time the grocery prices are high because people cant just
drive to the next town over. In addition to that the quality of the food is disrespectful and they
can do it for the same reason. Within this unit we are able to guide students in showing how they
can take action in their community. We are implementing projects like the urban garden so help
show a large role they can play in a community.
Social wellness is discussion throughout all units because through each project,
assignment and community involvement students are constantly interacting with other people.
Communication is needed to succeed in so many aspects of life and we strive to give our
students plenty of practice interacting with others. Students should be about to handle themselves
in an appropriate manner when communication with all different people. They also should be
able to bring awareness to community on crucial issues the people need to know. We believe that
our students are not too young to make a difference and are perfectly capable of using their

resources to make a change. It is the small steps like these that will help our student continue o
get closer to figuring out where they fit in this world.
We believe a main purpose of education is to help prepare our students to learn how to be
informed and active citizens in our democracy. This course incorporates all-important leaning
aspects of a school community in order to continue the childs personal growth as well as their
academic and social growth. Our own students and community members are the key factors in
the success of young adults.

Course Description
In this course we are taking one quarter (nine weeks) and focusing on the question,
What does it mean to live a healthy lifestyle?. Our 7th grade team consists of 60 students, 4
general education teachers, and one intervention specialist . Instruction will include meeting two
times per day in a large seminar-type class with all students and two break-out sessions a day
where students will be collaborating in a group of about 15. Seminar will directed using team
teaching between the general education teachers and intervention specialist. The break-out
sessions will have one teacher with each group of students and the intervention specialist will
float to wherever extra help is needed in the classes as well as individually help those according
to IEPs. Students will have two different specials each day (art, music, health/gym, or a
language). The provided example schedule in the organization section gives an example of what
one 7th grade students week might look like. As you can see students will be working with
different teachers throughout the week and have the freedom to choose what kind of music class,
art, or language they would like to explore. As far as what is discussed in seminars and small
session it is broken up into our three units also incorporated in the concept map.

Unit 1 Mental Health (3 weeks)

This unit will be about mental health and will last for three weeks. Each week will be
about a different chapter of mental health. The first chapter will be discussing self-image. We
will have the students look at what influences their feelings about themselves. We want to know
what influences the stereotypes that students are surrounded by in their daily lives.

Parents, media, friends, magazines, and TV

We want to examine the causes of self-esteem issues in middle school students and show

them how to be confident in their own skin. We plan to do an activity called a pick me up cup.
This is where the students will write one nice thing about each of their peers in the class, then
they will place that comment in the jar with that person's name on it. Later in the year, when a
student is having a bad day, we will pull a comment out of their jar and read it to them. This will
hopefully help make their day a little brighter. Also, we want to do an activity to raise selfesteem. The students will receive a worksheet where they will answer questions like this:

What is one thing that you like about yourself?

Im good at this...

I like this...

This is one of my strengths...

I proud of this...

This is my goal
The next chapter will be about eating disorders. We believe that being informed about

this is very important and to know the signs. We will read about how the media influences this
through self-image and the stereotypes of how people(both women and men) are suppose to look
versus how they actually look. We will also have the students watch NBCs Perfect Body to

show them what can happen when people are pressured to look a certain way and the ways
around these stereotypes.
The second chapter will be about depression and suicide. This is a big problem in the
world today and it is important to discuss this with our students. We will talk about to the
symptoms of this and how the chemical imbalance that causes this. Family history is an activity
that they can do to be informed about what is in your family and some ways we can prevent
these from happening to us. Then we will have the students watch a Beavercreek video that was
shown at one of the schools. We also want the students to learn about some coping mechanisms
that could help them out in stressful times. What do you do when you are stressed?
The final chapter, we will talk about how to take action when depression, suicide and self
image happens because we can all help each other out. We should know what all the warning
signs are, where to seek help (teachers, counselors, parents, and friends). Also how to eat right
and exercise to help release some of the bad energy that you are having.
The way that we are going to assess them for this unit will be a group project. The
students will be in a group of fours and make an awareness pamphlet. This pamphlet will talk
about either the different types of eating disorders that there are or depression and suicide. We
want to know what it is, the signs, and what can be done for these. We will have an awareness
week at the school for these different types of disorders in the hallway and throughout the
community so the community is informed as well. The project will be graded half by the
teachers and the other half the student evaluation.
Unit 2 Nutrition (3 weeks)
For our nutrition unit, we chose to divide it into three chapters, each lasting one week
long. Our first section focuses on healthy eating and reading food labels. We want to teach our

students how to eat nutritious, healthy food and moderate their food intake. We want to teach
them how to read food labels so they know what actually goes into their food. We want them to
understand the concept of serving size, calorie intake, and vitamin needs. Our second week, we
will talk about eating on a budget. We will incorporate lessons about fast food, visit our urban
garden, and we want to incorporate students knowledge on food labels to instruct them on how
to buy food. Our third week, we will be talking about disease prevention and awareness. We
want to talk about behaviors that relate to disease, how to prevent disease if possible, and how to
be aware of common symptoms of diseases. We also want to hit on moderation, especially for
disease like diabetes. Yes, sugary foods can contribute to diabetes, but if you practice moderation
correctly, it is preventable.
During our first chapter of Unit 2, we will be discussing healthy eating. The main portion
of this week will be spent learning how to read food labels. We will go over the amount of
calories needed per student (usually about 2000), and how to read what should be eaten. We can
do this by using sample food labels to study serving size, vitamin percentage, and calorie intake.
At the end of the week, we plan to take a field trip to the grocery store, and the students (working
in groups), can create an eating plan for a day. This way they can see how to shop for healthy
living.
During our second chapter of Unit 2, we plan to discuss eating on a budget. Our first
activity will be talking about fast foods. Yes, fast foods are cheaper than picking out produce,
lean meats, and healthy foods at grocery stores, but what is at risk when you eat fast food on a
regular basis? We want to show our students that eating lots of fast food can be dangerous. To do
this, we plan to show the Supersize Me video about a man who ate fast food every day for a
month. We want to the students to see how fast food affected the man in the video. We also plan

to talk about how growing your own fruits and vegetable can be beneficial to your health. It is
cheaper and healthier than most other options. We want to take a field trip to the public garden in
our community to teach our students about eating and growing healthy foods.
During our third chapter of Unit 2, we want to address disease prevention and awareness.
We want to talk about behaviors and habits that relate to disease. Smoking can lead to lung
cancer, drinking lots of alcohol can lead to liver disease, binge eating can lead to eating
disorders, etc. We want the students to know that their actions now can affect them in the future,
even if they dont see immediate effects. We also want to talk about moderation. Yes, these
unhealthy habits can lead to some diseases, but with correct moderation, you are living a much
healthier lifestyle.
Unit 3 Social Wellness (3 weeks)
This is the third and final unit in our Healthy Living curriculum. In this unit we will focus
on social relations and communication between people in a healthy way. There are three chapters
in this unit that we feel best cover the information for this unit, Healthy Relationships,
Cyberbullying, and Social Responsibility.
Our first chapter is Healthy Relationships. By the end of this chapter, students should
have an understanding of the difference between good relationships and bad relationships. We
want students to focus on the friendships theyre making with their peers. One activity we have
planned for break-out sessions are small, various writing assignments. During this week, before
the lesson students will write a short passage about a prompt given to them. Prompts can vary
between topics such as, What makes a good friend?, how can we make new friends?, etc.
This will be similar to bell work and a good exercise to have students focus on characteristics of
good friendships. Another way we plan to promote the lessons of this very social chapter in more

difficult subjects such as math and science is to emphasize the use of partners and small-group
work with students that wouldnt usually work together. They will be encouraged to use skills
they learn to make new friends throughout their collaborative assignments.
Our second week of this chapter will transition into teaching students about unhealthy
relationships made at school. Bullying and cyberbullying will be our main focus. We know that
this is a big problem for students at this age and we feel that this is an important topic about
which to educate the students. To open up the chapter, we want students to watch ABC Familys
movie, Cyberbully. This film shows how easy it can be to become a cyber bully and also shows
the hurt that it can cause. We also believe an engaging activity for the students to do at the end of
the week is to use the computers provided at school to look up current events articles about this
topic and to share with the class what happened in their article and what the consequences were
for the students.
Our final chapter will concern students social responsibility. Students will focus on
understanding their responsibility as a citizen. One focus for the week will be on the 3 Rs:
reduce, reuse, and recycle. Students will learn about their responsibility to be ecologically
responsible. On the same topic, we will discuss our urban garden and the benefits it gives to not
only ourselves but also our community.
To wrap up this unit, we plan to use a presentation as their assessment. Students will
chose a topic concerning social responsibility or something discussed within the past two weeks
and form a thesis statement for a presentation they will eventually present to their classmates.
They should aim to communicate what they think it means to be an active citizen. They will then
use this to create a presentation that will consist of a creative visual aid, all the necessary
information, and a series of references from which they did their research. We want to know that

students took enough away from their lessons that they may be able to share with others the
importance of health and wellness. We want this project to be very student led and we want our
students to be motivated to dive right in about a topic they are excited about.
End of Unit project: Portfolio
At the end of the quarter, the students will pull together all of their work to make
a portfolio to show what they have learned so far. The goal of the portfolio is for the students to
have a resource that they have created that they can continue to use to maintain a healthy
lifestyle. This will also be used at the parent/guardian teacher conferences that will be run by the
students to show their parents what knowledge that they have gained.
Learning goals/Student involvement
The students should be able to answer the question: What does it mean to really live a
healthy lifestyle? This is our goal for the end of this quarter. They should be able to apply their
knowledge to live socially, mentally and physically healthy. The students will know what
depression, suicide, and eating disorders are and the warning signs of each. Then they will be
able to take action and maybe save a life in the end. They will know how to teach other to live a
healthy lifestyle. They will know what a healthy relationship is and how to maintain one.
Cyberbullying is a big problem and they will be able to know the signs of a cyberbully, signs of
who is being cyberbullied and what to do for these student. We view learning as a long-term
goal. We never stop learning. At New Horizon we are always learning from our community and
students experiences. Every student learns differently, and we make sure that we consider every
students learning needs.
The students involvement is very important to us. We value their opinions, so to ensure
that their voices are heard we will provide options for them. Before each unit the students will

tell us what they are interested in learning for each topic and why it is important to them or
interested in it. Then within our teacher team we will put emphasis on the interests of the
students. Their interests are just as important as what we teach them to stay active and engaged
in the classroom. Their lives outside of school greatly affect their academics in school and these
kinds of tensions or assets are encouraged to be discussed in the classroom. it is imperative to
make as many community connections as possible to help guide our students to find their role
and meaning in society.
In order to address the needs of all the kinds of students we may have encounter we have
great teacher resources. Of course we have an intervention specialist, but there will also be a
teacher specializing in working with English language learners, a speech pathologist, and an
occupational therapist. All students will have full access to the appropriate resources they require
to help they reach their full potential. This is also done by our teachers striving to teach using
cultural relevance and incorporating a multicultural education. Again, our students need to make
connections to their own life as well and have their eyes opened to everything the world has to
offer and the many different people and ways of thinking about life.
Our community and its members are crucial to support our students learning and
engagement. We are relying on volunteers to be involved in our community center for before and
after school activities. The volunteers can help with tutoring and activities as well as provide kids
with snacks and meals to bring home. We also need the support of our community in order to run
the urban garden. The garden is giving our 7th graders a lot of responsibility and freedom to
make decisions. Volunteers can be there for guidance and empower our students to have
confidence in their work. The garden is welcome to the public so people have access to fresh and
healthy food. Speakers are essential for our students to begin thinking about their future.

Assessment Rationale
We have come to the realization that testing does not work the way we all thought that
they would. Tests stress the students and teachers out more than anything that we have to deal
with. This is the reason why we decided to get rid of testing here at New Horizon. We believe
that the students should be responsible for their knowledge with guidance from the teachers and
the school. The students will be able to express themselves, talents and learning modalities each
and every day. This will bring in different types of that each student will have to work with
causing us to challenge ourselves around other people, which is when we truly start to learn.
There is a quote that we follow here stated, We learn more from our mistakes than we do
pretending that we are always right Jamie Harrison.
The assessments will vary depending on what they are doing for each quarter. One type
of assessment that we will implement is group projects. Here at New Horizon, we believe that
healthy relationships between the students are very important. Students should be able to work
together as a group on a project and evaluate themselves truthfully. This will allow us to see who
really put effort in the project and what each person contributed to the assignment. Being able to
work together with other people is very important. This shows our students how to share their
opinions with others and be able to decide the best course of action. This is basic social skills
that the students will need to function in society and their community. We believe that students
learn best when they have discussions in class over different topics. This gives the students new
point of views to consider and deepens our thought process. We learn something new every day
from each other and this includes the teachers. We have a high diversity rate in our school where
every students and teacher brings something new to the table. These ideas will be heard here
because that is how we learn and grow as human being.

A big assessment we do here is a portfolio. We like the students to be responsible for

their work. At the end of each quarter the students will turn in all their work to show us how they
have grown over this period of time. At the end of the year they will turn in all of their portfolios
and work as a final to show us how much they have grown. They will also write a reflection
about what they gained throughout the year and what they had trouble with. Here at New
Horizon, reflection is a part of our everyday lives and it is important to reflect on the years ups
and downs to show how bright our future really is. At the end of each quarter there will be
guardians- teacher conferences ran by the students. The students will do everything, which
consists of: times, letters, materials, and talking. It is important to show the parents here how
much the students succeed and fail each quarter, so the parents know what is going on at all
times. This also makes the students responsible for their work, since they are the ones presenting
the information to their guardians. This will also bring community to the school through the
students. We believe that making learning more engaging and active is the way to go. We use a
website called Kahoot.it that is basically a review game. We will use this site as a form of game
and making sure the students understood the material we covered.
Here at New Horizon we believe that class should be fun, engaging and interactive
throughout the year where students learn from each others backgrounds and experiences through
discussions and group projects. The guardians will be very involved through their students
portfolio and teacher and guardian conferences.