Decision-making Process - Grade 6

Decision-making Process

Time Frame

This unit will take approximately three to four hours to complete.

Foundational Objectives and Learning Objectives

Level A - Extend Knowledge Base

Foundational Objectives

Students will understand the role of personal standards in applying health-related information to daily living.

Students will acquire and evaluate multiple sources of health-related information.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• identify examples of health-enhancing and health-risking behaviours
• give examples of personal standards
• identify sources of information and consider authority of sources
• identify selection criteria and use them to evaluate sources of health-related information (CCT)
• list strategies to use in evaluating health-related information
• recognize the importance of respecting facts, evidence, and views of others when engaging in rational discussions (PSVS).

Level B - Make an Informed Decision

Foundational Objectives

Students will develop the lifelong practice of making health-enhancing decisions.

Students will acknowledge the role of personal standards in decision making.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• identify when their personal standards might be at risk
• identify factors that affect decision making
• identify similarities and differences in decision-making models
• identify short-term consequences and long-term consequences
• establish personal goals that affirm personal standards.

Level C - Carry Out Action Plan

Foundational Objective

Students will practise planning for responsible health action.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• identify the elements of a well-designed action plan
• construct clear, achievable goals, and plan to meet them (IL)
• design action plans that affirm personal standards
• identify the traits and skills of a support person who can affirm standards
• establish criteria and use them to assess the design elements of action plans.

Unit At a Glance

Note: For further information about the titles listed in the 'Resources' column, please see the Middle Level Health Education bibliography.

Instructional Strategies/Methods	Teaching Notes
Direct Instruction: structured overview	Provide students with a list of the required units or topics for Grade 6 Health Education and the optional units to be included. Optional units may be selected based upon student need, community need, teacher expertise, availability of resources, or stude nt interest. Review the themes used in Health Education throughout the Elementary Level: Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Becoming Models Discovering Patterns Gathering Facts Applying Decisions Checking Expectations Inform students that the theme or perspective for Grade 6 Health Education is Affirming Standards.
Direct Instruction: structured overview and Interactive Instruction: talking circle/circle of knowledge	Use a talking circle or circle of knowledge to explore the topic of personal standards. As students offer their ideas one at a time, record them on the chalkboard or flipchart. This practice is especially helpful for students who are visual learners. Two resources that can be used in this review of personal standards are Choices: A Teen Woman's Journal for Self-awareness and Personal Planning and Challenges: A Young Man's Journal for Self-awareness and Personal Planning. In these res ources, personal standards are grouped in the following categories: adventure beauty or aesthetics creativity family friendship and companionship helping others independence and freedom knowledge power money or wealth moral judgement and personal consistency recognition security. Conclude the activities concerning personal standards by suggesting that personal standards affect our behaviours. For example, if we value family, friendship, and companionship and we believe in respect for persons, we do not pick on or bully another person.
Direct Instruction: structured overview and Interactive Instruction: brainstorming	Explain that 'Health Action', a term that applies to Health Education, means the appropriate and responsible application of health-related information in various aspects of daily living. Explain to students that the Health Action program is a practical course aimed at helping students enhance their present health status and decrease their risk for disease and disability. The course focuses on ways students might apply Health Education in their daily lives by increasing 'health-enhancing' behaviours and reducing 'health-risking' behaviours. Explain that the title Health Action was chosen to focus on what people can DO to improve their own health. Ask students to brainstorm a list of health-enhancing behaviours. The list is likely to include: eating nutritiously getting enough rest exercising regularly developing a hobby as a way to manage stress. Continue by having students brainstorm a list of health-risking behaviours. The list will include opposites of the above, but might also include: smoking drinking too much alcohol experimenting with drugs failing to express feelings such as worry, fear, and others.
Indirect Instruction: personal reflection	Have students imagine that their day, yesterday, was video taped. Suggest that students replay the imaginary video and make two lists as they reflect on their previous day. One is a list of activities that 'contribute to my health' and the other is a l ist of activities that 'place my health at risk'. The list might include: Contribute to my health nutritious lunch walking/biking to school spending time with peers Place my health at risk skipping breakfast watching TV for three hours arguing with a peer/sibling
Direct Instruction: structured overview	Prepare a wall-sized chart of the six-step Decision-making Process and use it as a visual support while explaining that, during the year, students will : acquire and evaluate health-related information to make sure they know the facts they need to make informed decisions gain skills in decision making for health, recognizing that it is not always easy to make wise decisions practise applying health education information appropriately and responsibly to help them carry out the decisions they make. Post the wall chart. It will be used throughout this unit and throughout the year.

Student Assessment Techniques Providing the students with short case studies or scenarios and asking them to 'identify' the health-enhancing and health-risking behaviours is one way to assess the degree to which they have met this objective. The second learning objective is to 'give examples' of personal standards. Teachers can assess students by asking them to list examples, or to draw a visual diagram or design a collage of examples.

Instructional Strategies/Methods	Teaching Notes Refer to the wall-sized chart of the six-step Decision-making Process to indicate that students have completed Step 1: Reflect on what you know about the issue. They will now proceed toward Step 2: Research the issue. Find the facts.
Direct Instruction: question and answer and Interactive Instruction: discussion	Human Resources Prepare a short paper and pencil quiz to stimulate discussion about sources of information in the home, school, and community. Use items that are relevant to the community. The following items might be included in the quiz. Who would you ask for information or help if you had: a toothache (dentist) a sharp pain in your right side (doctor or emergency staff at a hospital or clinic) a mild headache (parent, teacher, school nurse) a small cut (parent, friend, teacher, school nurse) a rash (parent, school nurse, family doctor) a question about death (parent, doctor, elder, clergy) a question about a diet and exercise plan outlined in a magazine (Health Education teacher, Physical Education teacher, parent). Develop the answers together, as a class. Make sure students know it is not a test. Print Resources Develop a list of print resources available in students' homes, the school, and community where answers might be found to questions about health. The list is likely to include such resources as bulletin board displays, dictionaries, encyclopedias, lib rary books, pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, and telephone books. Non-print Resources Develop a list of non-print resources that may include items such as the Internet, Kids Help Line (1-800-668-6868), radio, television, and videos. Bring closure to the discussion and connect it to the next activity through the following generalizations about sources of information: Health-related information and support are available from a variety of sources. Some sources provide more expert advice than others and some sources might not be reliable. Professionals need to be consulted for serious problems.
Direct Instruction: mini-lecture	Review, from the Elementary Level of Health Education, that it is important to check the copyright date of resources to ensure that the information is current. Also, it is a good idea to check and see if the author's credentials are clearly visible to the consumer. Introduce additional criteria to be used in selecting reliable resources. Emphasize that you are concentrating on the source of information. Introduce three key organizers: author, source, and information. These organizers are introduced here an d added to throughout the Middle Level to evaluate health-related information. Author The author's credentials are visible for the consumer to see. The author's educational background is in the discipline in which the author is writing. (Note: Be cautious of credentials or titles that sound impressive but might not really indicate professional qualifications.) Source The source (publisher, producer) is recognized in the health field. Information The copyright date is current (within five years).
Direct Instruction: demonstration	Introduce the Sample Checklist for Evaluating Health-related Sources of Information provided as Appendix 6-A. Use three or four teacher-selected resources to demonstrate the use of the checklist. It may be valuable to sele ct one source of information that is outdated and another that is from a non-expert source.
Interactive Instruction: peer practice	Bring to the classroom several resources that include references to the health-related concept of 'protection'. They might include magazine articles, pamphlets, advertisements, medical journals, student texts, and consumer reports about mouth guards to protect our teeth during activities such as hockey, sunscreen to protect our skin, and seatbelts to protect ourselves while in moving vehicles. Provide pairs of students with a resource and a checklist for evaluating sources of health-related information . Rotate the resources so each pair of students has an opportunity to evaluate two or three resources. The debriefing of this peer practice session is important. Facilitate a comparison of student findings. The value lies in students sharing with one another information such as: where they found the author's credentials in a particular resource where they located the copyright date. Discuss with students how they decided whether an author's educational background prepared him or her to be an expert on mouth guards, seatbelts, sunscreen, etc.
Direct Instruction: mini-lecture or compare and contrast	In a mini-lecture, examples of facts about mouth guards, sunscreen, and seatbelts, as substantiated by scientific evidence and reported in reliable information sources, can be presented to students. A variety of viewpoints can also be presented. In an activity of compare and contrast, students can see the similarities among facts, evidence, and views as well as the differences. Regardless of which instructional method is used, it is critical that students recognize the importance of respecting the facts, respecting evidence, and considering (although not necessarily accepting) the views of others. Remind students that as we move from childhood through adolescence toward adulthood, we may modify our personal standards as we acquire more information that is supported by sound evidence. Likewise, we may modify our personal standards if we learn tha t some of what we formerly thought of as truth turns out to be opinion, viewpoint, or unsubstantiated information.
Interactive Instruction: brainstorming	Ask students to brainstorm a list of strategies they might use to evaluate information about mouth guards, sunscreen, seatbelts, or any health-related information. Examples might include: ensure that the information is current (copyright is within five years) beware of personal observations or testimonials that are not supported by reliable scientific data search for information based upon sound scientific data ensure that statements that sound like or read like truth or fact are supported by evidence; if not, such statements are the 'view' of the author. A Sample Checklist for Evaluating Health-related Information is provided as Appendix 6-B. It includes such strategies as: searching for ambiguous statements or claims watching for over-generalizations. Students may suggest adding others such as: examining any visuals to determine their purpose or intent finding out what group or organization funded the research and exploring its agenda or mandate.
Interactive Instruction: peer practice	Using the same peer partners, have students use the criteria provided, along with criteria they may wish to add, in order to evaluate the information contained in the two or three resources they originally evaluated as sources of information. Ensure th at students understand that they are using the same resources but they are using different criteria for a different purpose. This time, they are not evaluating the source of the information. Rather, they are evaluating the information contained within the resource. Draw students' attention to the wall-sized chart of the Decision-making Process. Indicate that they have begun to acquire the skills of researching an issue and finding the facts based upon current and accurate information. Indicate ways in which their skills will be assessed for Level A of the Decision-making Process and for Level B as students enter into Steps 3 and 4.

Student Assessment Techniques Present each student with a source of health-related information (e.g., journal article, magazine article, or book). Ask each student to use the Sample Checklist for Evaluating Health-related Sources of Information (Grade 6), or one they created as a class, to evaluate the resource as a source of health-related information. To assess students' abilities to identify facts, evidence, viewpoints, testimonials, unsubstantiated claims, ambiguous statements, generalizations, purpose or intent, and so on, provide them with examples and non-examples and ask them to identify the e xamples. Student Evaluation Techniques for Level A of Decision-making Process Assessment is the process of gathering data. Evaluation is the process of making a judgement or assigning a mark based upon the data. For example, teachers and students might keep portfolios of selected samples of students' work. In each student's por tfolio, the following might provide assessment data for Level A: lists of print and non-print resources, peer partner ratings of two or three sources of health-related information (as gathered by a teacher), and peer partner ratings of the information inc luded in two or three resources (as gathered by a teacher). At the end of Level A, this assessment data can be judged and assigned a mark that represents a percentage of the student's mark for the Decision-making Process Unit.

Decision-making Process Level B - Make an Informed Decision 3. State the challenge. Explore alternatives and consequences. 4. Make a decision. Set a personal goal. Learning Objectives Students will identify times when their personal standards might be at risk. Students will identify factors that affect decision making. Students will identify similarities and differences in decision-making models. Students will identify short-term consequences and long-term consequences. Students will establish personal goals that affirm personal standards.

Instructional Strategies/Methods	Teaching Notes
Direct Instruction: structured overview	Inform students that the next class period or two will be spent concentrating on the skills to be developed in Level B of the Decision-making Process. Point out Steps 3 and 4 on the wall chart.
Interactive Instruction: brainstorming	Review the examples of personal standards as listed by students in Level A. Ask students to generate a list of times, places, or situations when their personal standards might be at risk. Note: If students have difficulty identifying situations when their personal standards might be at risk, offer the concept of protection (i.e., seatbelts, mouth guards, sunscreen) to get them started. If a student values security, that personal standard might be at risk when he or she baby sits for a neighbour and is driven home in a vehicle that is not equipped with seatbelts.
Interactive Instruction: co-operative learning groups (Think-Pair-Share/1-2-4)	Ask students each to list some of the decisions they make every day. In pairs, ask students to identify some of the decisions they make regularly that have to do with their health and well-being. Move two pairs together to become a small group of four and ask students to list factors that affect decision making. Debrief the Think-Pair-Share activity by examining the groups' collective list of factors that affect decision making. The collective list may be grouped into broader factors such as the following: adult role modelling advertising family influence felt need media peer pressure societal trends urgency values.
Direct Instruction: mini-lecture or compare and contrast	Present several models of decision making. Begin by including the Decision-making Process used in the elementary grades: Level A: Extend Knowledge Base Step 1: Stop and reflect on what you know and feel about the issue. Step 2: Research the issue. Find the facts. Level B: Make an Informed Decision Step 3: Explore options and consequences. Step 4: Make a decision. Level C: Carry Out an Action Plan Step 5: Design an action plan for implementing the decision. Step 6: Examine and analyze the results of the action plan. Choice: A Teen Woman's Journal for Self-awareness and Personal Planning and Challenges: A Young Man's Journal for Self-awareness and Personal Planning provide a detailed model in chapter five of each title. Healthwise 1 includes co nsiderable information on the decision-making process and provides a step by step model. Be sure to refer to the Decision-making Process of Middle Level Health Education, as posted in the classroom. Ask students to identify how it expands on the process they used in the Elementary Level. Encourage students to see that the Health Education model differs from some others because it does not begin with identifying a decision to be made or a problem to be solved. Instead, the Decision-making Process begins with gathering information and ev aluating both the sources of information and the information itself. By becoming well informed on the topic at hand, individual students are better equipped to focus on an element of the topic or issue that is of real concern to them. This individualizing is accommodated in Step 3: State the challenge. Conclude by explaining that decision making is a complex process. Assure students that they will encounter various decision-making models in their reading and that some models emphasize certain aspects of the process while others emphasize other aspect s. Remind students that decision-making models can provide guidance but it is unlikely that any one system captures all the subtleties involved in the process of making decisions. The Health Education Decision-making Process is a rational model of making decisions based upon accurate and up-to-date information.
Interactive Instruction: discussion	Lead into the next part of the unit asking students to consider the consequences of not making informed decisions.
Interactive Instruction: co-operative learning groups	Divide the class into four small groups. Arrange for students to take the roles of recorder, reporter, and time keeper. Have each group discuss and record their ideas about one of the following: short-term consequences of not using sunscreen long-term consequences of not using sunscreen short-term consequences of not using a mouth guard during contact sports long-term consequences of not using a mouth guard during contact sports. Debrief the small group discussion by comparing short-term consequences and long-term consequences.
Direct Instruction: mini-lecture and demonstration	Throughout Elementary Level Health Education, students practised making decisions and designing action plans to carry out their decisions. At the Middle Level, students not only make decisions but also set specific goals and then design action plans to meet the goals. A mini-lecture is one way to inform students about setting goals. Key points include: A goal needs to be measureable. In other words, can I tell when my goal has been reached? A goal needs to be specific. It may include a specific number or a timeline. A goal needs to be possible. In other words, can I see myself doing this? Choice: A Teen Woman's Journal for Self-awareness and Personal Planning and Challenges: A Young Man's Journal for Self-awareness and Personal Planning provide information on setting goals in chapter four of each resource. Setting goals is referred to in chapter 2 of Healthwise 1. To clarify setting goals, students might write goal statements about protecting themselves and using mouth guards, sunscreen, and seatbelts as mechanisms to that end. Demonstrate by defining goals that answer the following questions: What will be changed? By how many or how much? (where appropriate) By when?
Interactive Instruction: peer practice	Review the concept of personal standards. Provide pairs of students with a card that identifies a specific personal standard and a type of personal protection (e g., money, mouth guard; adventure, sunscreen; family, seatbelt; independence, seatbelts; b eauty, mouth guard; knowledge, sunscreen). Have students create a goal statement about personal responsibility for protection that reflects personal standards.
Indirect Instruction: concept attainment	If students seem to need further information or assistance in writing goal statements that reflect personal standards, a concept attainment activity may prove beneficial. Concept attainment can also be used as an effective assessment strategy to help t eachers determine whether students have grasped the concept and are ready to proceed to Level C, Carry Out Action Plan.

Student Assessment Techniques To assess a student's understanding of the first two learning objectives in Level B, the student might create a paragraph or scenario in writing or on an audio tape outlining a situation when an adolescent's personal standards might be at risk. The st udent might also outline the accompanying factors that affect the adolescent's decision making in such a situation. If some grade 6 students are not ready to create a scenario, it may be more appropriate to provide them with a scenario or case study, and ask them to identify the personal standard(s) that are at risk and the factors that affected the adolescent's decision making. In the third learning objective, students are 'to identify' similarities and differences in decision-making models. If students created a scenario above, use the same scenario and have students suggest at least two alternatives and then generate a list ing of short-term consequences and long-term consequences for each alternative. If the students were provided with a scenario, it might include two alternatives and they can still be asked to identify consequences. Students can also compare the decision-m aking model used in the scenario with another decision-making model with which they are familiar. If the concept attainment activity was used to solidify the skill of writing goal statements that reflect personal standards, it can be used as an assessment strategy. Student Evaluation Techniques for Level B of the Decision-making Process Keep the scenarios and the concept attainment activity data in each student's portfolio and refer to them in order to make a judgement and assign a Level B mark for each student.

Instructional Strategies/Methods	Teaching Notes
Interactive Instruction: discussion	The learning objective about elements of a well-designed action plan may be attained through a class discussion designed to review what students have learned throughout Health Education in grades 1-5. Debrief the discussion and add any of the following elements that may have been missed: the name of the person(s) who will work with you or support you as you work toward your goal the signature of your support person(s) what you are going to do (the goal) how you are going to attain the goal (the step-by-step process to get there) when you are going to begin your plan and when you intend to meet your goal (timeline) how you will monitor your progress (draw a chart, keep a journal or log) times to meet with your support person to monitor progress (check-ins) the identification of possible barriers or obstacles and an outline of how to overcome them a reward for yourself along the way as you achieve certain steps of your plan.
Direct Instruction: demonstration	Select one of the goal statements related to personal standards, defined by a pair of students in Level B. As a class, develop an action plan to meet that goal.
Interactive Instruction: peer practice	Provide pairs of students with a goal statement that reflects a specific personal standard (e. g., valuing family — I will help my Mom and/or Dad do the dinner dishes for seven consecutive days; independence — I will find out what my homework assignments are, even if I am away from school, and do them for one week). Ask student pairs to develop an action plan to meet the goal statement and to affirm the personal standard. Advise them that their action plan will be used as part of their assess ment for Level C.
Interactive Instruction: talking circle/ circle of knowledge	A talking circle or circle of knowledge is a suggested method of learning from students what they already know. In this case, it can be used to explore the traits of an effective support person. A class of grade 6 students is likely to suggest the foll owing traits: someone who is trustworthy and will listen when you run into a problem someone who can listen and express feelings someone who demonstrates a positive disposition and will provide encouragement someone who points out the accomplishments of others and will provide praise each step of the way someone who can help identify goals and develop the steps to carry out an action plan someone who works well with others and will identify the strengths and weaknesses of a plan someone who will feel just as good about your successes as you do someone you can talk to and who cares about you.
Direct Instruction: mini-lecture	Debrief the talking circle by asking the students to prioritize the character traits that would be particularly important in a support person who could help them make decisions about personal standards. While prioritizing, students may refine some of t he traits in their original lists. For example, they may suggest that a support person who affirms personal standards needs to be someone who will help you sort out your personal standards, or someone who will listen to your personal standards and not try to make their standards your standards. Bring closure to this portion of the unit by advising students that a support person may be any one of the following: aunt/uncle classmate cousin elder grandparent guidance counsellor neighbour other relative parent sibling teacher youth leader other.
Interactive Instruction: discussion	The last learning objective of this unit deals with assessing action plans. The learning objective states that students 'will establish' criteria. One way to accomplish the learning objective is to revisit the elements of an action plan that were gener ated at the beginning of Level C. List the elements of a well-designed action plan on the chalkboard or a flipchart. Proceed by having students discuss what the element of 'who' might look like in a less effective action plan and how it might look in a mo re effective action plan. Record student descriptors in two columns or categories for each element of action plans (i.e., who, what, how, why, when, where). The class generated list may look something like this: Element of action plan Less effective More effective Who name of support person name of support person names of others involved in the action plan What statement of what is to be done goal statement that is clear, specific, measurable, and attainable How vague outline of what is to be done step-by-step outline of what is to be done outline or system for monitoring progress (i.e., a log or journal) Why vague explanation about why particular steps are in place listing of possible barriers or obstacles and how they might be overcome justification of why specific steps are planned to meet the goal When start and end dates start and end dates check-in dates with support person(s) celebration dates with support person(s) dates for each step of the action plan Where no indication of where the action plan is to be carried out specific indication of exactly where each step of the action plan is to be carried out (if appropriate or when such detail is more likely to ensure success)
Interactive Instruction: peer practice	In working with the third learning objective of Level C, 'Students will design an action plan that affirms personal standards', pairs of students developed an action plan to meet a goal statement and to affirm a personal standard with which they were p resented. Allow time for the same pairs of students to use these criteria to improve their original action plan.
Interactive Instruction: peer practice	Ask students to highlight and explain why they made the changes they did. Remind them that assessment is the process of gathering information. They assessed, or gathered information about, their action plan when they compared it to the criteria in the chart above. Assessing their action plan in the design phase, and improving it based upon their findings, is likely to improve the chances of its success at the implementation phase. Note: Keeping the original action plan in each student's portfolio provides a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate growth throughout her or his grade 6 year.

Student Assessment Techniques Having students assess a sample action plan is an appropriate way to assess the degree to which each student has attained the ability to identify the elements of well-designed action plan. The action plan designed and later refined by pairs of student s is a practical tool for assessing students' abilities to construct goals and design action plans. Each student, with a partner, assessed his or her action plan using specific criteria. Use their self-assessments as well as teacher assessments of their a ction plans as assessment data for Level C. Students could develop a poem to identify the traits of a support person. Student Evaluation Techniques for Level C of the Decision-making Process Gather all of the Level C assessment data for each student and assign a mark that represents the degree to which each student attained the learning objectives of Level C. To arrive at a mark for the unit of study (and later for a report card) assign one third of the total mark (or grade) to each of Levels A, B, and C of the Decision-making Process.