Fifth Grade Curriculum Resources
Standard of Learning
5.4 The student will critically evaluate how print media, broadcast media, and Internet technology influence perceptions of health information, products, and services. Key concepts/skills include:
- strategies for validating health information;
- tools for the critical evaluation of advertisements and promotions.
Understanding the Standard
The student will acquire problem-solving skills to critically evaluate and interpret advertisements and promotions designed to influence consumer's health products and service decisions.
Essential Knowledge and Skills
The student will:
- describe effective tools for evaluating health products and services.
- explain how effective decision-making and improved consumer education affect the buyer.
Sample Lessons
The Educator’s Reference Desk: Lesson Plans> Health>Consumer Health Lesson Plans>Magazine Ads and You, the Teenager
Advertising is often aimed directly at young people. Not only do they spend $70 billion a year, but they influence their parents' purchases also. Youth are hit by certain appeals - appeals to be like everybody else, sex appeal, even negative appeal. This activity is to increase student awareness of persuasion tactics as seen in magazine advertising.
Sponsor: The lesson was developed by a teacher at Daly Middle School, Lakeview, OR. The site is part of the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM). GEM is a Consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to thousands of educational resources found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites. GEM is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.
Contact: http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi
Free
Kellogg Special K Ads
This lesson helps students understand the relationship between body image and marketing by exploring the Kellogg’s Special K “look good on your own terms" advertising campaign. Students begin by reading about this award-winning, controversial campaign which uses humor to skewer traditional advertising stereotypes about thinness. Students will deconstruct a series of Special K ads and discuss how marketers target “ideal beauty" messages to both men and women. Students will also look at the differences between the different marketing campaigns for Special K that have been used with Canadian and American women.
Sponsor: Media Awareness Network
Contact: http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources
Free
Macmillan McGraw Hill Lesson Plans and Activity Sheets Cybersmarts Identifying High Quality Sites
Students learn that, because anyone can publish on the Web, they must carefully evaluate the sites they use for research. They review evaluation criteria and use a checklist to "grade" informational sites. Students will learn how the ease of publishing on the World Wide Web may affect the usefulness of some sites' content. Students will interpret the criteria on a site evaluation checklist and apply the checklist to a site, evaluating its usefulness. The activity sheet may be downloaded in PDF format.
Grades 6-8
Contact: http://www.cybersmartcurriculum.org
Free
Magazine Ads and You, the Teenager
Grades: 6-8
Advertising is often aimed directly at young people. Not only do they spend $70 billion a year, but they influence their parents' purchases also. Youth are hit by certain appeals - appeals to be like everybody else, sex appeal, even negative appeal. This activity is to increase student awareness of persuasion tactics as seen in magazine advertising.
Sponsor: Ask Eric
Contact: http://www.eduref.org (select lesson plans – health – consumer health)
Free
Media Literacy Lesson Plan: Recognizing Propaganda—Unreliable Testimony
After completing this lesson, students will be able to: Recognize the importance of personal hygiene and grooming, demonstrate health advocacy skills in an original advertisement and apply the media literacy skill of recognizing unreliable testimony to an ad for a hair care product.
Sponsor: Glencoe & McGraw-Hill
Contact: http://www.glencoe.com/sec/health/teachres/lessonplans/mlshampoo.shtml
Free
MedlinePlus: Evaluating Health Information
Filled with tips on how to evaluate health information. This well organized web site links the reader to reliable resource, for instance the NLM and NIH Guide to Healthy Web Surfing, the Federal Trade Commission Health Claims on the Internet: Buyer Beware and American Psychological Association Watch for Commercial Influences. Sponsor: National Library of Medicine & National Institute of Health
Contact: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus
Free
New York Times Daily Lesson Plan>Diagnosing Delusions: Debunking Common Medical Myths Through Education
In this lesson, after reading a background article from the New York Times, students learn how widespread medical myths can be potentially dangerous. They then synthesize their knowledge by creating pamphlets that help patients learn the facts behind some commonly believed medical myths.
Sponsor: The New York Times in partnership with the Bank Street College of Education in NYC.
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons
Free
The New York Times Daily Lesson Plans. Bigger Than Life, But Not Necessarily Better
Evaluating Images of Health in American Society: A Science Lesson
In this lesson, students examine where one develops his or her views about health and ways in which different products promote specific ideas of what should be seen as healthy. Students then investigate different ways in which people alter their bodies to become more like the "ideal"' picture of health promoted in American society and assess the marketing of dolls, action figures, and nutritional supplements, focusing on the images of health that they present.
Sponsor: The New York Times in partnership with the Bank Street College of Education in NYC.
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons
Free
Selecting and Using Health-Care Products
This Web site offers a lesson plan entitled “Selecting and Using Health-Care Products". Registration is required in order to access the lesson plans.
Sponsor: Health Teacher
Contact: http://www.healthteacher.com/lessonguides
$100 for all teachers in a school to access the middle school lesson plan.
Oral Health Education: Saving Smiles Series- “Healthy Mouth, Healthy Body”
Grades: 4 & 5
Lesson Plan (1) Identify the components of a balanced meal and describe
carbohydrates and their impact on oral health. (SOL 4.1b, d ; 5.2b)
Lesson Plan (2) Develop an awareness of community health resources available
(SOL 4.5a,b ; 4.6a ; 5.4a,b ; 5.5c,d,e,f)
Lesson Plan (3) Describe the causes of dental diseases including the role of
bacterial plaque, and describe how dental diseases can be
prevented. (SOL 4.4b,d ; 5.2a)
Lesson Plan (4) Identify laws related to the purchase of tobacco products and describe the effects of tobacco on oral health and the body. (SOL 4.4b,d ; 5.2a)
Sponsor: Virginia Department of Health, Division of Dental Health
Contact: http://www.vahealth.org/teeth/OralHealthEducation.asp (curriculum resources)
Free
Additional Instructional Resources
- Code of Conduct/Health on the Net Foundation - http://www.hon.ch/HONcode
- Consumer Product Safety Commission's Kidd Safety - http://www.education-world.com/parents/health/safety.shtml
- The Harden Directory of Internet Health Resources - http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/md
- Healthwindows Jr. Commercial-Free Zone - http://www.healthwindows.org
- How Quackery Sells – http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics
- Internet Detectives - http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/tnl/detectives
- The Internet Resource Directory for K-12 Teachers and Librarians, by Elizabeth B. Miller
- KidsHealth - http://kidshealth.org/index.html
- Net-Mom's Internet Kids and Family Yellow Pages, 6th ed., by Polly Jean Armor
- Quackwatch, Your Guide to Health Fraud, Quackery, and Intelligent Decisions - http://www.quackwatch.com
Assessment Ideas
The student will:
- describe five effective tools for evaluating health products and services.
- explain how effective decision-making and improved consumer education affect the buyer.
