Middle School Health

Teacher:

Mr. Cobern

Semester(s):

1 semester

Email:

jcobern@pittsfieldnhschools.org

Phone:

435-6701 (ext 4131)

Course Description: Emphasis is placed on promoting wellness and positive behavior by encouraging students to evaluate
their choices and take responsibility for their own well-being. This course focuses on self-awareness and provides
opportunities for students to evaluate their present health situation and take measures to maintain and/or improve their health,
21 prevent disease, and reduce risky health behaviors. Topics include self-esteem, stress management, nutrition, drugs
including alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs, identification and prevention of infectious and lifestyle diseases.

Students are able to demonstrate competency in a way that works for them. Below, the course
assessments are listed to give you an idea of the summative opportunities that will be provided within the
course for students to demonstrate competency.
Course Competencies
C 11 Students will demonstrate the
ability to identify and analyze a variety
of factors that influence health and
wellness choices.
C 12 Students will demonstrate the
ability to formulate strategies that
promote good physical, emotional, and
mental health

Summative Assessments
Unit 1 Welcome to your health Make a health map showing positive and negative
internal and external influences on my health.
Unit 2 Decisions and Revisions Using the decision process, make a flow-chart for
a complicated situation.
Unit 10 Go tell it on the Mountain! Make a public service announcement that deals
with a local health issue.
Unit 3 :Ultimate Selfie Promote my own self esteem through a selfie and
affirmations poster.
Unit 4 After school snack party Show an understanding of nutrition by planning,
making, and sharing a healthy snack.
Unit 5 Healthy Relationships Show characteristics of a healthy and unhealthy
relationships through a skit, video, comic strip, or short story.
Unit 6 Bullying and Violence Show what bullying is and how to report it through a
video, skit, or flow-chart.
Unit 9 I get by with a little help from my friends Research and present techniques
to promote safety or deal with common first aid situations.

C 13 Students will understand that

there are factors that cause diseases
and they will demonstrate the ability to
formulate strategies to protect
themselves.

Unit 7 Keeping it Clean Research and report on a pathogen and the disease it
causes with a slide presentation.

C 14 Students will understand that

physical, mental, and emotional
changes happen during puberty and
what functions those changes have, and
develop strategies to manage those
changes maturely.

Unit 8 Welcome to Puberty Make a board game that uses student-generated

questions and researched answers to puberty-based questions.

Student Expectations: Students will be expected to participate in class discussions, generate guiding questions, research
information independently, compile and present their findings, and give constructive feedback to their peers. They will be
expected to have their books with them for class, as well as be able to bring the books home for homework reading and writing
assignments. They should have their iPads ready and charged in class every day.
I prefer that assignments be completed using Google Docs and Google Slides, so that they may be shared with me and easily
presented in class. Homework can be done with paper and pencil or on Google Doc.

Course Evaluation & Assessment Practices: Homework will count as formative assessments and and be used to determine
if the student is ready to demonstrate competency through a summative assessment. Rubrics for each competency will
emphasize depth of knowledge. As many of the assessments apply to multiple competencies, multiple assignments that are
connected to the competency will be averaged together. There will also be some assessments which are the only ones for
certain competencies, and the grade earned on those will be the grade for the competency.
If a student does not turn in an assignment on time, they will receive a mark in the grade book of NE for no evidence. Once
this happens, the student may meet with the teacher to make a plan to make up the missing work. If a plan to make up the
work is not made within 5 school days of the NE, the mark will change to a zero. Once work is returned according to the makeup plan, the grade will be changed to reflect what the student has earned on the assignment.

Additional Notes: Our frank discussion of puberty will include the male and female reproductive systems, and the students
will be generating their own questions. If you have any objections to this, feel free to contact me with your concerns. The
following is from the Pittsfield School District Student and Family handbook regarding health education:
HEALTH EDUCATION AND EXEMPTION FROM INSTRUCTION (IHAM) Parents /guardians have the right to inspect
the health education curriculum and may do so by contacting the Dean of Instruction to make those arrangements.
Parents/guardians who wish to have their child opt-out of such instruction are required to make their request in writing
to the Dean of Instruction and state the particular unit of curriculum or lesson of instruction in which the student is not
to participate. Opt-out requests must be submitted annually and are valid only for the school year with they are
submitted. Please see Board policy IHAM for more information.

As signified by our signatures, we have received and read this course outline.

Student Signature

Date

Parent Signature

Date