HLC Curriculum: Middle School 3rd ed, Printed Version

Description

The Healthy Lifestyle Choices Middle School program is based on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention School Health Education Resources Initiative and the National Health Education Standards. (http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/SHER/standards/Index.htm)

The program takes a comprehensive approach to teaching health, and is guided by, and references the National Health Education Standards in each of its units. The program is broken into units of instruction, which are arrayed and discussed below. Each unit includes lessons providing new information and skills training which can be practiced individually as well as in teams. The intent of the HLC Middle School Program is to provide teachers with detailed information about essential skills and step-by-step teaching strategies that are relevant, easy to use, interactive, and fun. Rather than focus on negative behaviors, HLC promotes positive health behaviors and guides students in becoming advocates for their own health. The program allows students to build on individual strengths, individual learning styles, skills, and competencies. It encourages them to personalize information so that it is relevant to their daily lives and has longlasting effects on promoting healthy lifestyles.

There are a total of twelve units and ideally all units and lessons should be completed during the middle school years. Health education is taught differently from state to state and district to district. Yet, however it is implemented, the HLC Middle School Program is flexible enough to accommodate many choices of scheduling. The curriculum was developed to allow instructors to choose, rearrange, and embellish strategies based on their personal and classroom experiences to create an instructional program that is relevant to the needs of their individual student population.

The HLC Program focuses on teaching the important health skills identified in the National Health Education Standards and includes effective communication, decision-making, accessing information, analyzing influences on behavior, stress management, goal setting and advocacy. The HLC Middle School Program also incorporates the core concepts and the traditional content areas of wellness, mental and emotional health, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, injury and violence prevention, physical activity and nutrition, family life/sexual health, diseases and disorders, and environmental health.