RISK TAKING



EXSC 200 – SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL WELLBEING OF YOUNG PEOPLE

ASSESSMENT TASK 3 TEACHING RESOURCE FILE

RISK TAKING

ANGELIQUE KAREFYLAKIS

CONTENTS

Activity 1……………………………………………….…3

Activity 2………………………………………….......3 – 4

Activity 3…………………………………………….……4

Activity 4………………………………………….………5

Activity 5………………………………………….…..5 – 6

Activity 6……………………………………….................6

Activity 7………………………………………….………7

Activity 8………………………………………….…..7 – 8

Activity 9…………………………………………...…......8

Activity 10………………………………………….....8 – 9

References…………………………………………….….10

APPENDIX……....……………………………………....11

The following activities are used to provide students with the opportunity with developing skills such as:

o Drug refusal skills

o Assertiveness skills

o Communication skills

o Safety skills

o Coping skills

o Stress reduction techniques

o Goal setting

o Decision making

o Problem solving

ACTIVITY 1

Outline of activity

This activity consists of printing out an article of an accident that occurred to a teenager (similar age to the students), getting them to highlight on their own individual papers from the article, the three main situations mentioned above.

Purpose: Although this article is linked with depression, it’s important that it highlights to the students the use of the child taking drugs (LSD) to ‘get rid’ of the pain and suffering of depression, further pointing out that it made things worse. This stresses the topic of risk taking as she turned to substance abuse due to feeling down and being under peer pressure, which further makes students realize that this could have been avoided by seeking help.

Aim: This emphasises to the students the main risk factors of risk taking (peer pressure) and possible strategies with how to get past a difficult stage. Students are to highlight three important situations in the article:

- Why the child participated in risky behaviour

- When they realised they were acting irresponsibly

- Strategies that were used in order to stop participating in risky behaviour and stop bad habits.

Year group: This is an article suitable for Year 10 students

ARTICLE:



(Article provided in appendix section)

ACTIVITY 2

Outline of activity

Present the student with the worksheet of the body figure. Get students to write the short and long term effects on the body. After discussing with the class the ideas they have come up with, present and discuss with the class facts about the description of the drug, the affects of taking the drug and problems that could arise later in life if cannabis is/has been used.

Purpose: Activity 2 focuses on the effects of cannabis use. It is important that students have an idea of what cannabis is and how it affects the body so that when a child participates in risky behaviour, they have knowledge of the drug and what they are possibly going to try. The long and short-term affects emphasise to the students what can happen immediately after you try the drug and further down the track. Students are then able to make decisions for themselves by knowing knowledge of the drug.

Aim: The aim is to highlight long term and short-term effects of cannabis. With students having the knowledge of the long and short-term effects, they are able to refine their decision-making skills when put in a situation to try the drug.

Year group: This activity is aimed at Year 10 students who are starting to see drug use around them more often and could be curious on trying the drug without knowing its effects.

FACT SHEETS ON CANNABIS:

(Worksheet that’s used for students to write long/short-term goals: provided in appendix section)

ACTIVITY 3

Outline of the activity

Show students the anti-smoking ads. Following the videos the teacher should outline the effects of smoking, both short-term and long-term.

Purpose: Video 1 portrays a real life situation of a man loosing his wife at 46 years old. This emphasises how life is shortened dramatically and reinforces that when addicted to such a drug, it damages not only yourself but also the people around you.

Video 2 shows the effect that smoking has on the lungs. Students need to realise that every cigarette counts into making your lungs and body organs very unhealthy and dangerous.

Aim: These videos should further make students realise the damage and severity smoking has to the body. Video 1 emphasises the effect smoking has on life in general. It should make students understand that their life is minimised with every cigarette consumed. Video 2 should make students realise the effect that smoking has on organs in the body, shutting those organs down with every cigarette that is being smoked, further resulting in death.

Year group: Smoking can be introduced to year 9 students although it might start earlier.

YOUTUBE VIDEOS:





ACTIVITY 4

Outline of activity

Teacher is to show students the videos on drink driving and further emphasise the danger in driving under the influence of alcohol and the consequences that are brought upon the individuals for the rest of their lives.

Purpose: The videos purpose is to open the eyes of young students who are starting to get their licence. Students around the ages of 15-17 are beginning to try alcohol although the legal age for alcohol consumption is 18. Students around the age of 16 are participating in risky behaviour without taking safety precautions. Most fatal accidents on the road involve young adolescents that have recently got their licence. Video 2 shows that this man was only 17 when the accident happen and it was due to him drink driving, further emphasising to the children the devastating effects.

Aim: Students should understand from these videos the consequences you are faced with and the burden left on those individuals for the rest of their lives. It is also important that the drink driver is not normally killed however innocent people are the ones hurt or killed in such accidents. Students should also be aware that these sorts of accidents COULD happen to them. After watching these videos, the student should be able to make informed decisions and develop safety skills when participating in behaviour that could lead to dangerous accidents.

Year group: These videos are suitable for year 10 students as they are quite upsetting and can have emotional effects on the students. It is important that students are warned of the images shown in the videos and if uncomfortable to step outside.

YOUTUBE VIDEOS:





ACTIVITY 5

Outline of activity

Most students from years 8 onwards are worried about their appearance and are constantly thinking of ways to change that. Some girls start trying dangerous ways to loose weight such as completely eliminating food from their diets and bringing up the food they do eat. In order to stop students from resulting to this risky behaviour of establishing a disease such as anorexia the teacher is to bring in a wide variety of magazines. Students must cut out famous people that interest them from these magazines. In groups, or individually students must brainstorm brief descriptions of these people.

Purpose: Students must answer the following questions in their groups or individually:

- What are the individuals that they have cut out really like?

- What evidence do you have for your opinions?

- Can we have wrong impressions of people because of their shape and size? And Why?

In students answering these questions, they are able to change their thoughts on individuals they thought were once perfect and realise that physical appearance does not portray our personalities.

Aim: Students should realise that physical appearance does not identify who we are as individuals. Students should also understand that most of the individuals portrayed in magazines as ‘perfect’ have been photoshopped to look as such and that they shouldn’t be idolising ‘fake’ figures.

Year group: Year group can span from year 7 onwards. Students normally have these sorts of insecurities before hitting puberty, so the earlier this message can be passed on to the students, the better.

POSSIBLE MAGAZINES:

- Woman’s Weekly - Girlfriend (older years)

- New Idea - Dolly (older years)

- Woman’s Day

ACTIVITY 6

Outline of activity

Teacher should distribute handout 2.1. The student must tick the appropriate boxes individually based on their own thoughts. A discussion of a couple of situations should take place.

Purpose: In getting students to assess when situations are risky and what level of risk is associated with that situation, it allows the students to analyse real life situations before making decisions. Teacher should ask the students to identify the factors that helped them to make their decisions or influenced their decisions about the risk level associated with each situation. The main purpose of this task is to emphasise that students need to learn to trust their own judgements and strive to make responsible decisions.

Aim: Students should be refining their decision-making skills in this activity. It also highlights the level of safety of the situation and the act of immediacy if a situation is dangerous. In participating in this task students should also realise the consequences that come with the decisions made in certain situations. It should also refine their decisions to be more sensible and make them think more responsibly.

Year group: This activity can be completed on students in year 7 onwards.

‘ASSESSING THE RISK’ RESOURCE



(Handout 2.1 given in appendix section)

ACTIVITY 7

Outline of activity

Students are to answer questions given by the teacher (Handout 2), for a specific scenario (Handout 1). Teacher is to print out the handouts and get students to answer the questions given. Following the student’s task, a discussion should take place reviewing each student’s thoughts and as to why they would act the way they have written they would.

Purpose: Students like to work in an informal manner; therefore by getting the children to discuss their concerns and experiences with each other, it broadens their knowledge of strategies they could use to act in such situations. This activity refines their decision-making skills for them to be aware of possible outcomes in participating in the risky behaviour and use that to their advantage when put in a difficult position. The main purpose is to provide students with a range of strategies they can use when in situations risking their personal safety.

Aim: Students are to understand safety situations and decisions with those that are unsafe and could possibly cause them to be in more danger. The students should then gather a realistic and assertive approach to dealing with situations where they are put under pressure and could be forced to participate in unsafe behaviour.

Year group: A Year 10 class, as the topic is quite sensitive and may have emotional effects on the students.

HANDOUT PLAN INFORMATION

Handout 1:

Handout2:

(Both handouts included in the appendix)

ACTIVITY 8

Outline of activity

This activity enables students to interpret a picture. Following the interpretation, students are to then create a scenario from the picture, resulting with a positive or negative outcome. Each student is to then share their scenario and explain why they chose their characters to act the way they did.

Purpose: The activity broadens the student’s minds to analyse situations and further outline settings in the picture that look strange. The purpose of this activity is to refine assertiveness skills of the students. It is important that when the student is placed in a real life situation, they are able to analyse the setting to one of a positive or negative and act correctly and responsibly.

Aim: Students should be able to identify unsafe situation by the environment that they are surrounded by. This increases their awareness and furthermore has the effect of students making responsible decisions before they are put under pressure or already involved in unsafe situations.

Year group: This activity can be presented

PHOTOGRAPH WEBSITE



ACTIVITY 9

Outline of activity

The activity consists of filling out a worksheet based on why people drink or not drink. Following the worksheet teacher is to inform the students of the questions mentioned below.

Purpose: The purpose of this activity is for the students to highlight the main factors of alcohol contributing to an individual’s life. In students completing the boxes they are able to analyse that the consumption of alcohol are due to different reasoning. It is important that the students realise that consuming an excessive amount of alcohol or binge drinking can lead to very dangerous effects on an individual, however alcohol in moderate amounts is not as harmful.

Aim: The following questions should be asked:

- What alcohol is?

- How different consumptions can affect individuals in different ways

- How much is ok to drink?

During the discussion the students should learn to impair their judgement on alcohol and its effects. Questions that such as ‘Is it worth it?’ should make the students reconsider the options of drinking.

Year group: This activity can range from year 9 onwards.

WORKSHEET INFO



ACTIVITY 10

Outline of activity

A role-play will take place of a student walking normally on a straight line. The teacher will then blindfold the student and twirl them in a circle, then instruct the student to walk on the same straight line.

Purpose: The purpose of this activity is incorporating a fun role-play to achieve a viewpoint of how dangerous participating in risky behaviour, such as trying drugs or large amounts of alcohol, can be on an individual. This viewpoint expresses that when students/individuals participate in risky behaviour, they are not capable of making fast decisions and a lot of sensory receptors are impaired.

Aim: The aim of this activity is to highlight how taking part in the consumption of alcohol and drugs in large and risky quantities at such a young age can jeopardise their future. It also emphasises to students that when taking part in risky behaviour you do not have control of your body and because of that, possibly results in the student making life-threatening decisions.

Year group: This activity can be enforced by students in Year 8 and onwards

References

Reach Out: Having the power to be strong. (2011) Retrieved from

NSW Public Schools. (2012) Retrieved from

Stoddart, R. (2011, Apr 6). Very Sad Anti-Smoking Ad [Video File]. Retrieved from

(2011, Aug 1). Anti-Smoking Ad- Lungs & Smoke [Video File]. Retrieved from

(2009, Mar 17). 4 teens killed by drunk driver [Video File]. Retrieved from

(2011, Feb 2). Jacqueline Saburido The Short Story [Video File]. Retrieved from

NSW Department of Education and Training. (2011) Retrieved from

Reach Out: A helpless victim no longer. (2010) Retrieved from

Drinking Diaries [Image]. 2009-2010. Retrieved from

Completely Gorgeous. (2005) Retrieved from

APPENDIX

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