Grades 9 to 12 • Health Problems Series

Alcohol
The cultural views surrounding alcohol, drinking, and drunkenness are complex – and
KidsHealth.org/classroom
often positive. These activities can help your students improve their understanding
of alcohol, its health effects, and the cultural influences around them.
Teacher’s Guide
This guide includes:
• Standards
Related KidsHealth Links
• Related Links
Articles for Teens:
• Discussion Questions
• Activities for Students
• Reproducible Materials Alcohol
TeensHealth.org/en/teens/alcohol.html

Binge Drinking
TeensHealth.org/en/teens/binge-drink.html
Standards
This guide correlates with I Think I May Have a Drinking/Drug Problem. What Should I Do?
the following National Health TeensHealth.org/en/teens/drinking-drug-problem.html
Education Standards: Dealing With Addiction
TeensHealth.org/en/teens/addictions.html
Students will:
• Comprehend concepts related Peer Pressure
to health promotion and TeensHealth.org/en/teens/peer-pressure.html
disease prevention to enhance
health. Coping With an Alcoholic Parent
• Analyze the influence of TeensHealth.org/en/teens/coping-alcoholic.html
family, peers, culture, media,
technology, and other factors
on health behaviors.
School Counselors
• Demonstrate the ability to
TeensHealth.org/en/teens/school-counselors.html
access valid information and
products and services to
enhance health.
• Demonstrate the ability to use
interpersonal communication Discussion Questions
skills to enhance health and
avoid or reduce health risks.
Note: The following questions are written in language appropriate for sharing with
• Demonstrate the ability to
use decision-making skills to your students.
enhance health.
• Demonstrate the ability to use 1. What effect does alcohol have on the body? What happens to people when they
goal-setting skills to enhance get drunk? How does it affect their bodies, thinking, and judgment?
health.
• Demonstrate the ability to
2. How is alcohol physically and mentally addictive? What are the signs of an
practice health-enhancing
behaviors and avoid or reduce alcohol problem? What does “binge drinking” mean? How does alcoholism affect
health risks. people’s lives? How does it affect the people around them? How can people deal
• Demonstrate the ability to with alcoholism and treat it?
advocate for personal, family,
and community health. 3. What aspects of our culture encourage drinking? For example, consider the role
of drinking in movies, TV shows, and advertisements. Have you heard people brag
National Health Education
Standards:
about drinking beer, partying, and getting drunk?
http://www.cdc.gov/
healthyschools/sher/standards/
index.htm
© 2016 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.
 Grades 9 to 12 • Health Problems Series
Alcohol
Activities for Students
Note: The following activities are written in language appropriate for sharing with your students.

Tricks of the Trade

Objectives:
Students will:
• Analyze images of drinking alcohol in the media and contrast them with facts about alcohol
• Learn to recognize how drinking can be misrepresented in the media, as well as how ads can manipulate viewers

Materials:
• Old magazines or newspapers
• "Tricks of the Trade" handout

Class Time:
30 minutes

Activity:
You’ve read about all the problems that alcohol can cause, from drunk driving accidents to liver disease to just
acting like a fool. Now take a look at some magazine and newspaper ads for beer and other alcoholic drinks. You
won’t find anybody throwing up or crashing into a tree. What do you see? Find an ad for alcohol. Attach it to the
"Tricks of the Trade" handout, and answer these questions:
• What images are used in the ad?
• What words are used?
• What does the advertiser want you to think about this drink?
• In what publication did you find the ad? Who reads it? Who do advertisers want to buy the drink?
• How does this ad compare to what you know about alcohol?

Extensions:
1. Choose a video ad for an alcoholic beverage, and follow the same instructions as you did for the print ad.

2. Now it’s time for an alcohol reality ad. In a paragraph or two, describe a print ad for alcohol that will show
readers the realities of drinking. Be sure to include a catchy slogan to make your message memorable! You
can turn your idea into a print or video public service announcement to educate peers at your school.

© 2016 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.
 Grades 9 to 12 • Health Problems Series
Alcohol
Culture Clash

Objectives:
Students will:
• Critically analyze the role of alcohol culture in their lives
• Create ways to deal with alcohol-related peer pressure

Materials:
• Pen or pencil and paper

Class Time:
20 minutes

Activity:
Sometimes, the idea of “peer pressure” may be a little insulting. It can make it seem that your friends like to try to
convince you to do things you don’t want to do and that you are so weak that you have to go along. But it isn’t that
simple. Sometimes, the pressure doesn’t come from one person or even a few people. A culture surrounds certain
things, including alcohol. Just the words “beer,” “wine,” and “booze” can bring to mind a multitude of images and
feelings. You’ve seen alcohol ads and watched people drinking and partying in the movies. No one has to utter the
clichéd line “If you want to be cool, you’ll drink with us” for someone to feel pressured to give in. It’s an unspoken
rule of the alcohol culture, but you don’t need to fall in with that culture.

Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper. On the left side, list every adjective that you can think of to
describe the drinking that you’ve seen in movies and beer commercials. On the right, list all the adjectives you can
think of to describe a real drinking experience.

Extensions:
1. Look at the words on the left side of your page. In a paragraph or two, explain how you formed these
impressions about drinking alcohol.

2. Trapped with people who are drinking? Most people have been there at one time or another – you don’t want
to drink, but everyone around you is drinking. In a paragraph, tell how you would handle such a situation, from
trying to enjoy yourself without alcohol to getting home safely. How might you avoid this situation?

Reproducible Materials
Handout: Tricks of the Trade
KidsHealth.org/classroom/9to12/problems/drugs/alcohol_handout1.pdf

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© 2016 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.
 Health Problems Series
Alcohol
Name: Date:

Tricks of the Trade

1. What images are used in the ad?

2. What words are used?

3. What does the advertiser want you to think about this drink?

4. In what publication did you find the ad? Who reads it?
Who do advertisers want to buy the drink?

5. How does this ad compare to what

© 2016 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.