Promoting Mental Wellness in the Classroom

Iris the Dragon Units of Study objective

The He Shoots! He Scores! Units of Study is a unique comprehensive program that pairs with school curriculums to promote awareness and understanding of topics related to mental wellness. Each unit of study is motivational as it relates to students’ lives, experiences and personal well-being, ensuring interest and engagement in the content—a method promoted by mental wellness studies.

How does it do all this?

Reflects curriculum expectations for language arts and health education

The He Shoots! He Scores! Units of Study encourages students to explore the subject of mental wellness by integrating curricular expectations in health education and language arts with differentiated tasks that include the arts and technology education. 

Flexible, easy to implement

The program assists educators in uncovering the mental-health content that already exists in their academic curricula and fully integrates it into effective lessons. A full range of language-arts-based activities also allow teachers freedom of choice in the extent of implementation. Whole-class, small-group or independent learning opportunities can be offered as a self-sufficient thematic language-arts unit, or the teacher can select learning components for integration into a health program.

Uses evidence-based material 

He Shoots! He Scores!, the core book used in the Units of Study, was sponsored and endorsed by the Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health as an excellent tool to address the topics of Healthy Minds, Bullying and Self Advocacy. An empirical study on this book was commissioned by the Opening Minds Committee, a part of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Develops essential student skills through comprehensive literacy approach

The program uses a holistic method of instruction that is most effective in a nurturing learning environment where individual differences are valued and non-judgmental risk taking is encouraged. It creates rich links between literacy and health education, providing learning tasks and framing questions that integrate visual arts, drama and music. The active engagement of students in speaking, reading, writing and media connections allows them to improve their problem-solving skills and develop greater emotional competency within peer interactions.

Educating beyond the classroom

The units are inclusive and encourage learners to identify relationships between information and facts from various sources—in various social environments. Students mobilize their knowledge by establishing connections between their learning and personal experiences to develop sustainable solutions to social challenges.

Click here to download the He Shoots! He Scores! Units of Study