Strengthening your Mental Health

Cynthia Escobar & Lisa Johnson

Design Thinking Model

Old method: In the past, a unit on mental health disorders would have been taught as a research project, where the culminating task would have been a power point or an essay that students complete on their own. This unit would have probably relied heavily on students recalling and reproducing information, and not on students working collaboratively to create new knowledge about ways in which students can handle a variety of mental health issues and difficult situations.

Overview: Students will learn about and be exposed to different stressors and mental health disorders. This exploration will provide them with insights about how to handle and what methods to use to eliminate stress and cope with mental health issues and difficult situations. As a result, students will take the creative director role of their learning and create using the design thinking model.

Goals and Objectives

MAJOR OBJECTIVES:

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE:

• Objective: Students will be able to identify the different characteristics of various mental health disorders, enabling them to identify stressors and coping skills.

• Objective: Students will understand what education and steps are necessary in order to work in any career.

PROCESS KNOWLEDGE:

• Objective: Students will be able to conduct research using credible sources.

• Objective: Students will be able to use and organize data in order to answer the BIG THINK question.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2.A: Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.

• Objective: Students will be able to work in small teams.

Co-Assessments

Formative Assessments: Formative assessments will include writing quick writes generated from watching videos and reading articles, exit tickets discussing new information that they learned from the day's research and discussions, and participation in discussions.

Summative Assessments: The summative assessment is a multimedia artifact (brochure, infographic, video, etc.) that demonstrates student knowledge of tools and techniques that can be used during a stressful situation that causes mental health issues. The multimedia artifact will include information relevant to a variety of common mental health disorders and a variety of methods to work through and relieve stress during difficult situations.

Other Objectives

• Students will be able to define terms related to mental health disorders.

• Students will be able to synthesize and analyze research to support their claims.

• Students will be able to use databases to conduct research.

Essential Questions

1. Why is important to understand mental health disorders?

2. What steps can you take to relieve stress and anxiety during difficult situations?

Graphic Organizer

Learning Activities

• Step 1: Empathy: Generate interest among learners for self-directed projects, problems to solve, opportunities, and building a passion about personal interest. Here, the mentors work hard with many learners who claim no interest in anything or have little experience with self-directed learning opportunities.

  1. Teacher will read aloud an article on the importance of mental health and issues in our society today. Teacher will have a collaborative discussion with students on personal experience and associations. https://youtu.be/NSA1BE6KUr0 https://youtu.be/Z_y4CACK-9g

  2. Students will then visit the American Psychological Association's Help Center's website and explore the various "Interest Areas" on the left-hand side of the webpage.

  3. Students will then synthesize what they have explored by defining a mental health disorder of their choosing and any initial ideas on what can be created to help someone cope with this disorder. Then, they will read through the discussion posts and respond to at least one other classmate.

• Step 2: Introduce or remind students about tools they might use to re-invent, re-create, or solve problems. This might be an intro or reminder session about the design thinking model.

  1. Both Teacher and Teacher Librarian will remind students of the design thinking model using the infographic (located in the Step 2 Rooms page). They will also support research and learning as students are grouped according to specific mental health issues.

  2. Teacher Librarian will fold in lessons on active listening and effective communication.

  3. Teacher, Teacher Librarian, and Counselor will walk students through using different databases to conduct research on different mental health disorders. They will demonstrate how to navigate the databases as well as how to interpret their searches.

  4. Students will create groups based on the following mental health disorders:

     • 1. Group A: Depression

       2. Group B: Anxiety

       3. Group C: Stress

       4. Group D: ADHD/ADD

       5. Group E: OCD

Once in groups, students will work collaboratively to research the definition of, treatment of, and ways in which a person can cope with the mental health disorder. They will also learn and discover different aspects of their assigned mental health disorder.

The School Counselor will be available to answer and clarify any questions that come up.

• Step 3: Continue the Engagement stage: Guide individuals/groups through the formulation of a problem, question, project, or invention they are passionate about and title these the essential questions.

  1. Teacher, Teacher Librarian, and School Counselor will organize an open forum with community mental health providers https://www.nami.org/Your-Journey/Teens-Young-Adults.

  2. Students will receive factual information regarding many different mental health issues in our community. Students will be able to ask questions and discuss topics that may pertain to them or someone they care about.

  3. School Counselor and Librarian will fold in mini lessons on metal health issues and mindfulness and meditation. https://www.flocabulary.com/unit/mindfulness-meditation/

  4. Each group will now consist of a student from each previous group. Example: Group 1 will now have a student from Group A, B, C, D, and E, Group 2 will now have a different student from Group A, B, C, D, and E, and so on.

  5. Together, students will create a multimedia artifact (either a brochure, infographic, video, application, etc.) illustrating and explaining the ways in which one can cope with stress and anxiety as a result of any mental health disorder or difficult/stressful situation.

• Step 4: Define and Ideate: the Problem: Help learners discover the knowledge and skills they will need in order to accomplish their task.

  1. Teacher and Teacher Librarian will assist groups in their research ensuring students use credible sources, Boolean Logic, etc.

  2. School Counselor will also assist groups in their research regarding mental health and coping mechanisms.

  3. Students will continue to discover and engage in teamwork.

• Step 5: Continue Ideate and Prototype: Have regular meetings/conferences to note progress, problems and to teach process skills

  1. Teacher, Teacher Librarian, and School Counselor will continue to support students as they meet in small groups to conduct research.

• Step 6: Prototype and test: Clear the path/be an ombudsman for the difficulties learners might encounter.

  1. Teacher Librarian continues offered support with small groups and generates examples of possible project ideas.

  2. Teacher will model how to use thinking maps when planning an building their project.

  3. Students will collaborate within their small groups to create a bubble map to generate examples of their selected mental health issue.

  4. Prior to creating their project, Students will create a multi-flow map to analyze the cause and effect of their mental health issue.

  5. After their projects are complete, students will share their findings with a whole class discussion. During this discussion, the teacher will model using a double bubble map.

  6. Students will have a collaborative conversation and create a double bubble map to compare and contrast the students findings about the various mental health issues.

  7. Teacher librarian will continue to promote collaborative learning by providing digital resources for the group presentations and putting the finishing touches on their projects.

  8. Counselor will continue to collaborate and assist groups with mental health resources and clarifying any questions or concerns that come up.

• Step 7: Implement the new system if possible. Celebrate success and challenges overcome

  1. Teacher will provide a "team test", via Google Classroom Assessments, for each of the team members to assess their experience.

  2. Students will build their project and discuss their successes and outcome learning in a "team test". The "team test" will give each group member the ability to reflect and document the team work experience, listing both struggles and successes.

  3. Teacher librarian will assist the teacher is examining the learning outcomes so that they can better assist students future learning.

  4. Projects will be posted online on the school's counseling resources page. Printed (if applicable) and available for duplicating in school's counseling center.

  5. Students will share projects and Ideas during a "Learning Lunch Hour". This platform will give students a time to present their findings to peers and administrators. They will close the presentations with a session for questions and answers.

• Step 8: Culmination of the implementation: Develop a culminating experience. This could include some sort of exhibition of the projects, but if students have kept logs, it should be a compare/contrast about the process of design thinking.)

1. Teacher, Teacher Librarian, and School Counselor guide students through a gallery walk.

2. Teacher illustrates how to participate in reflective discussions.

3. Students culminate with an exhibition/gallery walk. The students will display and present their work, and answer questions from fellow students and administration. Team members take turns at various stations as they will share their knowledge on various mental health issues. They will conclude this exhibition by addressing questions from a few select classes and discuss their learning journey.

• Step 9: Evaluate/ conduct big think

  1. Teacher: Bring in another School Counselor (along with original school counselor assisting in the lesson activities), from your campus to discuss the student collected data and the suggested plan for how one can deal with difficult or stressful situations in order to strengthen their mental health.

     • Active Discussion: The focus will be on the effectiveness of the plans, and how to make this common practice for all high school students regardless of what difficult situations they are facing.

  2. Students: Reflection on the discussion with the Counselor and how to take the next steps, which include areas of improvement and implementation by students.

     • Create New Questions: What are some new questions they have for the Counselor, after their discussion with him or her? What are some other questions that people can ask themselves as they learn how to deal with difficult or stressful situations. How can students ensure they are taking the right steps to strengthen their mental health?

The Co-Assessed Summative Assessment

What coping methods can anyone use to deal with stress and anxiety during any difficult situation?

Infographic persuading audience: Actions on what coping methods students can use to deal with any difficult situation.

Purpose for the project: For students to demonstrate what knowledge they have acquired about the materials they have researched and read. Students will persuade the audience on coping methods that anyone can use during any stressful or difficult situation. Students will persuade the audience to take healthy action to cope with difficult and stressful situations in order to strengthen their mental health.

Teacher and Teacher Librarian will grade multimedia artifact using the rubric.

Rubric: For Rubric CLICK HERE

Defense

1. Why is this design thinking an important and successful type of learning experience?

This learning experience requires that students be more self directed in their own learning. Design thinking allows the students to be engaged in their learning and have choice and creative opportunities for learning. The teachers and teacher librarians become more of mentors there to support and coach students throughout the learning experience rather than directly teaching and lecturing information.

2. How did technology help boost both teaching and learning?

Teachers used technology to enhance learning by guiding students through various online tools that promote critical thinking. Students were able to navigate different online sources to guide in their discovery of various techniques that one can use to overcome stress and anxiety. In their exploration they were able to create a multimedia artifact of their choosing to help guide people through stressful and difficult situations. Multimedia artifacts are exceptional tools that promote visual literacy and creativity. The online tools used here help boost learning by encouraging students to exhibit their learning through new modes.