Purpose:
This activity is designed to be one component of a pregnancy prevention lesson for high school students. Its purpose is for students to identify pregnancy risk-taking behaviors they may have, reflect on their comfort level with their risks of pregnancy, and identify what they can do to reduce their pregnancy risk-taking behavior.

Time:
5-10 minutes

Materials:
Newsprint or a blackboard

Procedure:
1. Overview the Activity

Introduce the activity by letting the students know you will be asking them three questions that they will be answering privately. Let them know that the questions are designed to help them directly relate what they have been learning in class about pregnancy prevention to their own lives. Explain that you realize many of them are not having sex and some are. You would like everyone to take part in the activity.

Assure them that this is a totally confidential activity with the sole purpose of assisting them in personalizing what they have learned about pregnancy prevention.

2. Present the Personalization Questions

• Set the Stage. Write on the board the following statements:

1.	I don't have sex.
2.	I do have sex, and we use birth control every time.
3.	I do have sex, and we use birth control some of the time.
4.	I do have sex, and we use the withdrawal method.
5.	I do have sex, and we do not ever use birth control.

Define the following terms for the students as needed: sex refers to vaginal intercourse; birth control refers to condoms, birth control pills, Norplant and other methods of contraception; withdrawal method refers to when the guy pulls out during intercourse before he ejaculates.

• Determine Pregnancy Risk Ratings. Ask the students to consider the five statements on the board and silently answer the following question:

Question #1: "Which of these statements most resembles your sexual behavior?"

Allow a minute or so of silence for the students to process the statements. Once they are done, write next to the statements the Pregnancy Risk Ratings presented below. Explain that each of the statements has been given a rating between 0 and 10. Ask the students to note the rating next to the statement they chose; this is their Pregnancy Risk Rating. The higher the rating, the more likely they are to get pregnant or get someone else pregnant.

Statements		Pregnancy Risk Rating
1.	I don't have sex	0
2.	I do have sex, and we use birth control every time.	1
3.	I do have sex, and we use birth control some of the time.	6
4.	I do have sex, and we use the withdrawal method.	7
5.	I do have sex, and we do not ever use birth control.	10

Allow the students to ask any questions about the ratings.

• Determine Comfort Level with their Ratings. Write the following question and comfort range on the board. Ask the students to consider the question and silently choose the answer that most accurately describes how they feel:

Question #2: "How comfortable are you with your Pregnancy Risk Rating?"

Very Comfortable

Comfortable

Uncomfortable

Very Uncomfortable

• Examine Intentions to Lower Ratings. Write Question #3 on the board. Ask the students to write their answers to this question on a sheet of paper.

Question #3: "Do you want to make a change to lower your pregnancy risk-taking behavior? If yes, what will you do?"

Tell the students that after the lesson, they can keep or destroy their answer as they feel comfortable.

3. Conclude the Activity

• Thank the students for participating in this activity. Ask if anyone has questions.
  
• Summarize the activity by explaining that they have identified their risk behaviors that could lead to pregnancy, assessed how comfortable they feel about their risks, and had an opportunity to plan their next step in making changes to lower their pregnancy risk behavior. Let them know you are available if they want to discuss issues related to this activity at another time.

---

Join our mailing list - ReCAPPNotes! Copyright © 2007 ETR Associates. All rights reserved. Disclaimer