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Teaching Resources

Choices Pacing and Implementation Guide

Choices in Your Classroom

Choices is a ready-to-go print and digital resource that reinforces curriculums designed to meet standards, including the National Health Education Standards, Common Core ELA standards, and more.

Many teachers use Choices articles to support their life skills, social and emotional learning, and health curriculums. Others use it as a prompt for discussion about current issues relevant to students’ lives. No matter how it’s used, Choices helps spark student reflection and fosters class engagement and participation. Choices is designed to meet your instructional needs and to activate students’ curiosity so they are excited to read, write, and learn about topics that matter to them!

To help you make the most of all that Choices offers, we’ve created this guide to help you use Choices effectively.

What You Get with a Choices Subscription

Print Magazines

Eight issues filled with articles on current health topics, thought-provoking debates, profiles of real teens, practical guides to develop life skills, and more!

  • Timely, relevant articles
  • Engaging visuals
  • Skill-building vocabulary
  • Actionable advice and tips
  • Interactive features
  • Prompts for reflection

Digital Resource Guides

Your guide to each issue’s articles and their standards, lesson-plan objectives, digital extras, and accompanying skill-building activities

Digital Resources and Features

Your subscription comes with free access to a wealth of online teaching resources and features that work on any device (desktop, laptop, iPad, Chromebook, or smartphone).

  • Digital articles including two years of past issues
  • Captivating videos with closed-captioning
  • Text-to-Speech audio
  • Interactive polls, slideshows, and quizzes
  • Skill-building literacy activities
  • Reading comprehension assessments
  • Learning Management System integration including Google Classroom
  • Inquiry-based lesson plans

Full-Class Period

Here are some ways you can use a Choices feature article in your classroom. It’s flexible for whole-class, small-group, and individual instruction.

FEATURE ARTICLE: SUGGESTED LESSON (45 minutes)

Each article comes with a lesson plan that is tailored to the article’s content, provides ways to activate prior knowledge and questions for discussion, and includes activities that support diving deeper into the article’s ideas.
 

1. 5 minutes | ENGAGE and activate prior knowledge. 
Ask students the pre-reading question to prompt a lively class discussion. Preview questions from the interactive quiz.
 

2. 15 minutes | EXPLORE the core ideas. 
Preview the article’s visuals and text features. Have students read the article independently or read it aloud to the class.

3. 15 minutes | EXPLAIN the article’s core ideas through writing and discussion. 
Discuss the concepts in the article. Use the critical thinking and close reading questions to prompt deeper engagement. Discuss and define vocabulary terms. Revisit the pre-reading question and have students revisit their initial answers.

4. 10 minutes | EXTEND conceptual knowledge and reinforce key skills. 
Share the skill builders that accompany the article. Watch the video or complete interactive activities such as polls or quizzes. Use the writing prompt for an in-class writing reflection or a longer, researched paper on the subject.

Half-Class Period

Looking for lessons that are shorter than 45 minutes? Check out some ideas below.

DEBATE (25 minutes)

1. 5 minutes | PREVIEW the debate question. 
Take a quick poll of students’ opinions before reading the article.
 

2. 10 minutes | READ the article aloud
to students or have students read independently.
 

3. 5 minutes | REVISIT the debate question. 
Ask students which side made the more convincing argument. Discuss whether any students changed their mind, and if so, why.
 

4. 5 minutes | POLL the class again.

YOUR BODY ON… (25 minutes)

Learn how your choices and health habits affect your body, mind, and mood.


1. 10 minutes | READ the article aloud
to students or have students read independently.


2. 5 minutes | DISCUSS what you learned.
What one fact surprised your students the most?


3. 10 minutes | ENGAGE students
by having them complete the quiz questions and poll either individually or as a class.

LOCAL HEROES (25 minutes)

Read about inspiring teens making a difference in their communities.
 

1. 5 minutes | PREVIEW the article’s topic.
What do students know about the issue the local hero is trying to address?


2. 10 minutes | READ the article aloud
to students or have students read independently.


3. 10 minutes | ENGAGE students
 by having them reflect on the local hero’s advice about how to create change in your own community.

Mini-Lessons

Choices can easily be adapted for your classroom needs! Here are even more ways you could incorporate it into your classroom.

MINI-LESSONS (10–20 minutes)

These can be done as a whole class, in small groups, or independently. They can also be used in centers or stations.

1. Research the life of a personal role model using our back page Follow the Leader feature as a guide.

2. Read about a teen’s real-life experience and write a brief paragraph about something that makes you interesting or unique.

3. Stage an in-class debate using our debate topics.

Independent Learning

Use Choices for independent learning to build students’ empathy and empower them to make healthy choices.

  • Have students read the entire issue and then vote on which article was their favorite.
  • Ask students to use the archives to find all articles on a topic such as sleep or nutrition.
  • Share a themed text set like Building Resilience or Healthy Relationships and have students read two or more articles.
  • Encourage students to pick an article from the current issue and do independent research to find additional facts or data related to the topic.

Writing with Choices

Use Choices to develop students’ writing skills so they can write knowledgeably and effectively about a range of topics.

  • Articles have pre- and post-reading questions that ask students to read for evidence, form opinions, and reflect on their own experiences.
  • Our skills sheets include multiple choice and extended-response questions about Choices articles.
  • Vocabulary skill sheets boost literacy and understanding.
  • Writing prompts spur reflection and engagement.

To request a free sample and for more information, call (800) 387-1437, or email magazineinfo@scholastic.com.

Text-to-Speech