Objectives:
Students will:
- Establish ground rules for this class in order to ensure an atmosphere of respect and trust.
- Realize that this class is about the physical, emotional, and social changes of puberty.
- Understand that although girls have many differences they all go through the changes of puberty sometime between the ages of 9 - 16.
Vocabulary: Puberty
Materials: Picture Card 1, chart paper, marker
Procedure:
- Read Picture Card 1 and go over discussion questions.
- Setting Goals. Tell students that this is going to be a class that has a lot of personal and special information. The teacher should share his/her goals for the class. Goals could include:
- that students will know more about their bodies and will appreciate how special their bodies are;
- that students will understand the changes of puberty and will realize they are normal and healthy so that they will not be scared;
- that students will recognize and feel good about the social and emotional changes taking place at this age; and
- that students will feel comfortable enough to ask questions.
- Establishing Ground Rules. Read the following situations and after each one have students identify the problem and try to name a ground rule that would prevent a problem like this. As students come up with suggestions the teacher should write them on chart paper.
- During this special class, Janice asks what a girl should do if she has one breast that's bigger than the other. All the students laugh and yell things like "What a stupid question!" and "Can you believe she asked that?"
- During this class, Susie asks the teacher if she shaves her legs.
- During class, the teacher holds up a picture card and asks Jennie to name the private parts of a girl's body. Jennie can't remember the words and feels very uncomfortable and embarrassed about the class. The teacher tells her she must answer.
- Alicia asks several questions about her 'beaver'. When someone asks what a beaver is she says "You know, it's a cunt or a pussy".
- Your ground rules chart should be displayed during each class so that it can be referred to easily. Even if students can't read, the chart itself can serve as a reminder. Ground rules that students have suggested can be summarized and consolidated. The chart should look something like this:
- Show respect. No put-downs.
- Everyone has the right to "pass".
- All questions for information are OK. No questions are dumb.
- No asking personal questions.
- Use words taught in this class that doctors and most adults use.
Explain to students that in order to accomplish these goals ground rules need to be established for the class.
Problem: Janice's feelings are hurt. This situation might make all the students afraid to ask questions.
Ground Rule: No put-downs. No making fun of another student's comments or questions. Be sensitive to each other's feelings. Show respect for one another.
Ground Rule: All informational questions are OK. No questions are dumb.
Problem: The teacher feels embarrassed.
Ground Rule: The students should not ask the teacher personal questions and the teacher should not ask students personal questions. It is inappropriate.
Problem: Jennie is not feeling good about herself or the class.
Ground Rule: In this class, everyone has the right to "pass" on any question or activity. Also, the teacher may choose to "pass" because she/he may not want to cover that topic yet or may not be allowed to answer because of school guidelines.
Problem: Not everyone knows all the slang terms. Also slang terms are degrading and make girls feel bad about their bodies which is contrary to the goals for the class.
Ground Rule: Try to use the words taught in this class which are the words doctors and most adults use.
Note: Let students know that if they can't remember the words used in the class and they want to ask a question, you will help the students find the words they are looking for. When a student uses a slang term and others giggle, the teacher should remain calm and correct the terminology. Then the term just seems incorrect, not shocking, and the teacher remains in control of the class setting.
Ground Rules