My Tutor Blog

1. Questionnaire : How active are you?
This first task gets students to think in a non judgemental way about their own lifestyles and will provide material for them to reflect on in later activities. You could get the students to interview each other in pairs and try to decide which has the most active lifestyle.

Task 1 How active are you?

1. How often do you walk more than a kilometre?

• Every day
• Once a week
• Once or twice a month
• Very rarely
• Never!

2. When was the last time you took any form of physical exercise? (swimming, running, dancing)

• Yesterday
• Last week
• Last month
• A long time ago
• I can’t remember

3. Tick any of the following activities if you do them regularly:

• Cycling
• Watching TV
• Playing team games (football, rugby)
• Watching team games
• Playing computer games
• Surfing the net
• Walking in the countryside
• Listening to music in your room
• Playing outside/in the garden/in the street
• Going to a gym
• Texting your friends

2. Your health

Task 2 Your health
Can you calculate the number of hours you spend on the activities per day or per week? (e.g. I spend 2 hours a day cycling to school and one hour a day watching TV).

• Which of the activities in the questionnaire might be good for your heart?
• Which activities can be called sedentary?
• Give other examples of sedentary activities.

3. Reading

Task 3 Reading
Read the text and answer the questions.

• How does your lifestyle compare to British teenagers?
• Are they more active than you?

A generation of couch potatoes

Lots of teenagers have posters of their sports hero on their bedroom wall. But do they follow the healthy examples set by these athletes? British parents are worried that young people are not as fit and healthy as in the past. Why is this?

According to the British Heart Foundation, 13 to 15 year olds are spending too much time doing sedentary activities such as watching TV or playing computer games. A special report describes a generation of couch potatoes , young people sitting around at home, growing up in their bedrooms, travelling by car and in serious danger of heart disease as they get older. Is this their fault ? Are young people lazy?

Many parents don’t allow their children to play outside or walk to school by themselves. “ I ring my Dad on my mobile and he picks me up from the station. It’s 10 minutes walk from home but he thinks it is dangerous”, says 14 year old Carrie. Some teenagers blame their over protective parents for making them unfit. It is certainly becoming more difficult to encourage young people to have an active life and protect their hearts. In recent years schools have spent less time on sports. “My Mum did lots of hockey and netball at school but we didn’t have time for that this year because we had so many exams to prepare”, says Ben 16.

4. Do a fitness survey

Task 4 Do a fitness survey
Make a survey for your class to measure fitness levels. Ask questions using:

• How often do you .....?
• When was the last time you .....?

5. Fitness campaign
Elicit a couple of suggestions before groups/pairs start. Artistic students could design a poster to encourage a more active lifestyle or to raise awareness of keeping your heart healthy. Ask the class if there are adverts in their country to encourage healthy habits/diet. Are they effective? This discussion is best with higher level groups.

Task 5 Fitness campaign
Think of 4 ways to encourage young people in your town/area to improve their fitness.

• How can you encourage a more active lifestyle at home and at school?
• Use expressions such as:
• 'I think we should;
• It might be a good idea to..;
• Why don’t we'.

6. Discussion: Attitudes towards lifestyles and healthy living
In this task students have the opportunity to compare their own beliefs with those of the statements. You could put students into pairs and tell one to argue 'for' and the other to argue 'against' each of the statements or they could just defend their own opinions. If you prefer you could do this as an open class debate.

Task 6 Attitudes towards lifestyles and healthy living
Do you agree or disagree with these statements?

• Young people are naturally fit and healthy and don’t need much exercise
• Eating fast food is OK if you don’t eat it every day
• Older people always say negative things about teenagers’ habits
• Sport is good fun
• Teenagers don’t have enough time to do sports because they have too much homework
• Schools should make all students do at least 2 hours of PE a week
• Can you add 2 statements?
• Do your friends agree with you?