Educating Students about Drug Use and Mental Health - Grade 3: Expectation 3

Grade 3 Overview

Expectation 1

2

3

Specific Learning Expectation

Use decision-making skills to make healthy choices about drug use, and recognize the effects of various substances (e.g., nicotine, caffeine, alcohol) on the body.

Hot Tips for Teachers

The decision-making model used here (LOOK, THINK, DECIDE, ACT) (used with permission from the "Making Decisions Program" (1999), Alcohol-Drug Education Service, Vancouver, B.C.) does not demonstrate the range of influences which affect the student's decision-making process.

If you would rather include these influences in your lesson plan, see Grade 4: Expectation 3.

Teaching/Learning Strategies

1. Review the "LOOK, THINK, DECIDE, ACT" model of decision-making.
2. Review the reasons why decision-making is important with regard to the substances we have been discussing.
3. Choose one of the following situations and model it with the students, identifying what the safest choice for the students would be.

Students are broken up into small groups and asked to answer the questions about the situations given to them. Once the students have the answers, they are to role-play the situation, trying out their decision. Once all the groups have had a chance to role-play their situations, the groups report back to the class on their results.

Look, Think, Decide, Act

a) One day Dan was walking home alone from school. As he took a short cut across the park, he saw some kids from his school huddling under a tree. When he got closer, he saw they were smoking cigarettes.

When they saw Dan, they quickly formed a circle around him. "If you want to be in our club, smoke this cigarette right now!" they said.

LOOK: Should Dan smoke the cigarette?
THINK: What would be the problem with smoking the cigarette?
DECIDE: What can Dan do?
ACT: What is the safest choice for Dan?

Now act it out and see if you made a good choice.

b) Jan thought that Marisa was very grown up because she sometimes helped with Jan's baby brother. Marisa's mother left Marisa alone a lot and Jan loved to drop by and "hang out" and watch Marisa and her friends.

One day, one of Marisa's friends brought a beer over to Marisa's house. The older girls all took a big swallow. When it came to Jan, she didn't know what to do.

LOOK: Should Jan take a swallow of the beer?
THINK: What would be the problem with taking a drink of beer?
DECIDE: What can Jan do?
ACT: What is the best choice for Jan?

Now act it out and see if you made a good choice.

c) Sheila's family belongs to a religion where stimulants of any kind are forbidden. When Sheila stays overnight at her best friend's house, her friend's mother brings them coffee in bed as a special treat. Sheila knows that coffee is a stimulant and that her parents would be very upset if she drank the coffee.

LOOK: Should Sheila drink the coffee?
THINK: What could happen if she drank the coffee?
DECIDE: What can Sheila do?
ACT: What is Sheila's best choice?

Now act it out and see if you made the best choice.

Assessments of Learning

1. Discussion regarding decision-making model and why we use it

2. Participation in the "Walk-through"

3. Completion of answer sheets for decision-making

4. Observation of role-plays

5. Reporting back to the class

Decision-Making Rubric for Levels of Assessment

CRITERIA	LEVEL 1	LEVEL 2	LEVEL 3	LEVEL 4
Identifies & describes a problem	Needs help	Identifies a problem	Describes the problem	Analyzes the problem
Determines alternatives to solve the problem	Only identifies one possible alternative	Identifies some alternatives	Identifies many alternatives	Alternatives that aren't immediately obvious
Evaluates alternatives	Needs help to see pros and cons	Able to evaluate the most obvious alternatives	Evaluates all alternatives giving obvious consequences	Evaluates all alternatives and able to provide consequences not easily apparent
Actively participates in voting for "best" choice	Participates only with strong encouragement	Participates needing only mild encouragement	Participates actively	Participates actively and encourages others to do so as well
Actively participates in discussion of process & next steps	Participates only with strong encouragement	Participates needing only mild encouragement	Participates actively	Participates actively and encourages others to do so as well

Additional Resources

There are some additional resources listed at the end of this document. You may also check with your local school board, public health office or call the central information numbers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health:

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