Teaching and Learning Tips

Instructional Strategies

 

The Healthy and Wise online publications are free for schools, districts, and parents and can be accessed at www.healthyandwisekids.com.

 

Acceptable Uses:

 

• Teachers, students, and parents can view the issues online.
• Issues/pages can be duplicated for classroom use.
• Issues/pages can be downloaded and saved for future use.
• Issues/pages May Not be put on an open access Web site.
• Schools and districts may put a link on their Web sites to direct users to www.healthyandwisekids.com to access the Healthy and Wise publications.

 

Using the Healthy and Wise Publications at Home

 

Healthy and Wise is a family publication and designed to be used in the home.  Parents should read the articles to or with their children and discuss the concepts, answer the discussion questions, and select activities that are appropriate for their children and family.

 

Utilizing the Healthy and Wise Publications in the Classroom

 

When using the Healthy and Wise publications in the classroom, the teacher should always read the article or story to the class as a whole and ask the discussion questions. Divide students into five groups of four (or more if necessary). Select the activities that you want the students to complete as a group or individually within their group for the article read. Allow students time to accomplish the assigned activity or task. Choose developmentally and health-stage appropriate activities for the individual groups and even the individual group members, if possible. If you decide to let students work at their desks in groups, make sure each group has a copy of the Healthy and Wise lesson and required materials. Assign appropriate family or home activities.

 

Each Healthy and Wise unit includes an instructional guide and National correlations (available in the issue section). There is also a Cafeteria Participation Plan (available in the supplement and resource section) so food service personnel can help support the nutrition objectives presented. A school nurse and counselor participation plan are also available. 

 

Organizing Health Instruction in the Computer Lab

 

School districts are seeking more instructional digital technology as opposed to traditional textbooks or workbooks.  The Healthy and Wise online publications can be used during a computer class.  All necessary instructional materials can be accessed, viewed, saved, or printed via a computer/printer. Many of the Healthy and Wise activities can be completed using various technology applications or skills.  A learning center that provides hands-on activities should also be set-up in the lab.  Some activities will allow students to work in small groups at their computers while others may need to be done at a table with a technology application requirement as part of the activity.  The Healthy and Wise online publications offer a good assortment of activities that can offer a hands-on, technology oriented approach to teaching and learning health concepts and skills. 

 

Healthy and Wise/Technology Strategies:

 

Simply accessing, saving, printing, or emailing the Healthy and Wise issues/pages requires teachers and students to use technology skills, but there are many strategies that can be used in the computer lab setting that can integrate even more technology applications into the Healthy and Wise curriculum.

 

• Allow students to view and read the issues online.
• Have students write their responses to the discussion questions in a Word document or other word processing software.
• When appropriate, visit the suggested Web sites recommended in the Healthy and Wise publications.
• Allow students to research health topics online while appropriately supervised.
• Students can organize data gathered during Healthy and Wise activities in an Excel spreadsheet or in a table format in Word.
• Use appropriate software to create graphs for data obtained via Healthy and Wise class surveys.
• Use PowerPoint or another presentation software to create presentation materials for corresponding Healthy and Wise activities.
• Healthy and Wise activities often require students to create health awareness materials.  Have students use an appropriate publishing or graphic design software to create these materials.
• Allow students to use clip art and graphics to create artistic representations for appropriate Healthy and Wise activities.

Specific Technology Objectives:

• Use technology terminology appropriate to the task.
• Start and exit programs as well as create, name, and save files.
• Use a variety of input devices.
• Use proper keyboarding techniques.
• Use language skills including capitalization, punctuation, spelling, word division, and use of numbers and symbols.
• Use software with audio and graphics to enhance learning.
• Use appropriate software, including the use of word processing and multimedia, to express ideas and solve problems.
• Use font attributes, color, white space, and graphics to ensure that products are appropriate for the defined audience and the communication media.
• Publish information in a variety of media including monitor display and stored files.
• Evaluate the product for relevance to the assignment or task.
• Use software features, such as slide show previews, to evaluate final products.

Assessment 
 

Use the Healthy and Wise rubrics available at the end of the instructional guides to  assess each group or individual group member’s work. Assign a performance assessment to each group and use the Appropriate Healthy and Wise rubrics to grade each student’s work and participation.