The seventh grade curriculum is comprised of Units 1–3. Contrary to the approach for each of the elementary and high school grade level kits which include all six units, the Grade 7 and 8 kits are split into two parts with three units each. This allows more time for the middle school lessons to develop the concept in greather depth to be age appropriate.

It begins by introducing students to the ongoing PALS radio talk show, “Teens for a Positive World,” which is combined with a radio drama, “We’re on Our Way.”  The drama includes a description of the main characters and settings that will make up the real-life situations involving students of middle-school age and the concepts taught in the Positive Action lessons throughout the program. Students take turns reading the radio play characters, and by using fictional characters, students are more likely to discuss the issues through the characters representationally, than personally. The talk show, integrated with the drama, provides opportunities to discuss the lesson concepts as they apply to the students’ actual classroom and school situations, local culture and other relevant issues related to their physical, intellectual, social and emotional learning—specifically, self-management.

Students also learn in Unit 1 that they will become their own self-concept scientists by applying the scientific method: question, hypothesis, method, results, and conclusion. They study how to conduct a simple, scientific study of themselves through periodic personal assessment and data collection, analyzing the data and writing a report.

Students learn to think about their three “I’s”—identity, image, and impression. Identity is who they really are, image is who they sometimes try to portray and impression is how others perceive them. Their work as a self-concept scientist informs their thinking on these three critical images. It is about becoming someone with integrity and authenticity.

In Unit 2, students focus on how to take care of their bodies and minds. For their physical areas, they learn the essentials of good physical health: exercise, nutrition, hygiene and refusing to abuse their bodies. Intellectually, they consider brain research and learn about right- and left-brain hemispheres and the need to be a “whole-brain learner.”

In Unit 3, students learn the positive actions to help them manage themselves by managing their resources like time, energy, talents, possession and their emotions. They learn that self-management means to exert self-discipline as they manage their lives, and by doing it, they discover it contributes greatly to their success and happiness. They also plan a celebration to wrap-up what they have learned about themselves and how positive actions help them feel good about who they are.

Materials:

• Grade 7 Instructor's Manual with an introduction, purpose statements, materials list and 82 20–25-minute scripted lessons
• 30 Activity booklets
• 3 Instructor's activity sheets
• 16 Radio script booklets
• 30 Journals
• 3 Visual aids
• 14 Full color posters
• Game board & game cards
• 30 Certificates of Completion and more!

All classroom kits include materials for 30 students.