Shaping a Healthy Body Image

Lesson Plan

Pre-Lesson Assignment

• Tell students they are going to be learning about the issue of body image and how it can affect a person's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
• Make one copy for each student of Out of Order: When Food Becomes More Than Something To Eat. Distribute to each student to review as homework the day before you begin this lesson.
• Have each student bring in at least one picture or drawing that influences how teens think a person should look (i.e. body image representations) the day before you begin this lesson.

Before You Begin

• Review the teacher resource pieces: Adolescence: Developing a Positive Body Image and Body Image Resources found at the end of this lesson plan.
• Make one copy of "How Well Do You Like Your Body?" for each student.
• Make copies of Discussion Group Assignment, one copy for each group of four students. Assign each group a different key factor that influences body image (culture, mass media or advertising) by writing it on top of each assignment sheet.
• Place groups of pictures or drawings around the room or have them lying on the tables or desks as students arrive.
• Introduce key vocabulary words to students:

Body Image: the picture of our own body we form in our minds; the way in which our body appears to ourselves; what we believe and think about our appearance.
Self-esteem: a confidence and satisfaction in oneself.
Eating Disorder: eating-related attitudes and behaviors that result in: a loss of self-control; obsession, anxiety and guilt; an alienation from self and others; and potentially life-threatening physiological imbalances.
Bulimia Nervosa: a type of eating disorder characterized by cycles of binge-eating and purging. During a "binge" a person consumes large amounts of food in a rapid fashion. "Purging" after food consumption is usually accomplished through some combination of induced vomiting, restrictive dieting, excessive exercising, consuming laxatives or diuretics. Mentally, there is a strong drive for thinness and an immense fear of fat.
Anorexia Nervosa: a type of eating disorder characterized by restrictive food intake which is usually coupled with excessive exercise that results in weight loss. Mentally, there is a strong drive for thinness and an immense fear of fat.

In the Classroom

• Briefly introduce the topic of the lesson. (Refer back to the handout Adolescence: Developing a Positive Body Image for discussion ideas).
• Have students complete "How Well Do You Like Your Body?"
• Optional: Have students write in their journal (or on a piece of paper) a response to the following question:

  "What about your body image would you like to change? Why?"

  Emphasize that they will not have to turn this in or share this with anyone.

• Ask for volunteers in the class to clarify what is meant by the terms: culture, mass media and advertising.
• Assign students to groups of four. Each group should have one picture or drawing of what an adolescent "should" look like and a Discussion Group Assignment sheet.
• The groups discuss how the key factor they were assigned impacts body image (culture, mass media or advertising should be written on the top of each sheet.)
• Each person in the group selects one question to discuss further with their group.
• The group determines what key message their picture communicates. Have one person from each group report to the whole class what their group decided.

• Make a chart of the answers on a chalkboard or an easel. (Include on the list: family, friends, culture, teachers, media -- television, movies, magazines)
• Lead a discussion on how these influences affect a person's feelings and actions. What might be the outcome?
• Have students look around the room at their peers. Have students list at least three similarities and three differences they share.
• Explain that it is the differences in people that make them unique. Have students list at least three positive characteristics that make them unique.

• The physical changes that occur during puberty are healthy and normal.
• Taking good care of yourself by eating right, getting enough sleep and being active can help you develop a positive body image.
• Be aware of the influences that shape attitudes about body image.

Jerry Coziahr, health teacher, Montgomery Middle School, San Diego County and Tami Lyon, MPH, RD, CDE, eating disorders specialist for their help and expertise in developing this supplemental lesson.