What is Important to Know?

     When thinking about my topic, I ask myself a few questions. These will guide me as well as my "Nerdz" through research and other posts. Which one of the grades (9th-12th) might be impacted most academically due to smoking? While I do my survey, this question will be running through my head. How much of an impact might is affect adolescence academically? When I see this question, i think about my peers who smoke and are poorly performing in class. Could smoking be the cause of their actions? Possibly. What if students knew that cigarettes affected their grades in a negative way? Maybe they would stop smoking. Maybe they would be more successful. Should schools step in to help students quit smoking so that they can succeed? I definitely think so. Why would this information help high school students? I believe that if students could quit smoking, they would be more successful academically. The facts about cravings, chemicals, and other factors of smoking could open up their eyes and make them take a second look at what they are doing to their future.

  

Essential Questions

•Which one of the grades (9th-12th) might be impacted most academic wise due to smoking?

•How much might it academically affect student’s grades?

•What if students knew that it affected their grades?

•Should schools step in to help students quit smoking?

•Why would this information help 9th-12th grade students?

 

Could these be affecting adolescence academically? I think so. http://www.stop-smoking-programs.org/chemicals-in-cigarettes.html

Cheyenne Mallery

Ms. McKoy

English II

10-16-12

“Academic Performance and Substance Use: Findings From a State Survey of Public High School Students”

            In this article, Cox et al argues that improving grades and the way that adolescences perform in an academic way is extremely important to parents and teachers. The authors claim that between being a kid and an adult, a teenager, comes with different and possibly unusual behavior such as emotional, physical, intellectual, and how they handle substances. Cox et al comes up with this claim by first describing their opinions and observations. Another claim that is stated is that past investigations have shown that cigarette smokers are more likely to have low academic achievement. The authors stated that in a recent survey of 12^th grade high school students, the ones who smoke on a regular basis had way lower scores than those who do not smoke.

            The authors’ purpose of writing this article is to inform parents, teachers, and students/ adolescences of the relationship of smoking and academic achievement. They used proven facts as well as observations to write this article. This article was significant to me because it pretty much stated my topic in a different way. The facts in this are right on target. Many of the words caught my eye because they are words that I have been using for my research. This article was extremely helpful because I can still use some of the statistics in my documentary.

Works Cited

Daniel R. Bender, et al. "Academic Performance And Substance Use: Findings From A State Survey Of Public High School Students." Journal Of School Health 77.3 (2007): 109-115. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.

 

Cheyenne Mallery

English 2

Ms. McKoy

10-15-12

“Identifying High School Students ‘At Risk’ for Substance Use and Other Behavioral Problems: Implications for Prevention”

            Hallfors et al argues that cigarettes, alcohol, sexual behavior, and other substances can cause adolescences to think about suicide, dropping out, and have lower GPAs. The authors claimed that problems like substance use, emotional, delinquency, alcohol, and tobacco use are common things to see when looking at teens. Hallfors et al develops this claim by first examining and observing adolescence and how they are affected by substances. The authors conducted experiments to examine how much teens were affected. Indiscriminate teens were chosen.  They also claim that it is hard to identify these problems because teens are not very open and hide how they feel.

            The results of the experiments showed that affected teens said that they do not like to spend time with their family, do not plan to attend college, have no knowledge of their parent’s lives, and do not do any type of school activity. The kids who were surveyed were broken up into two categories; high risk and typical. The results for the high risk kids helped prove the authors’ argument.

            This article is significant to my blog because it shows how teens feel and how they are affected by substances. I got a lot of information to support my blog out of this. There are lots of statistics that I can put into a graph or even just make into sentences.

Works Cited

Shereen Khatapoush, et al. "Identifying High School Students “At Risk” For Substance Use And Other Behavioral Problems: Implications For Prevention." Substance Use & Misuse 41.1 (2006): 1-15. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.

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Cheyenne Mallery

Ms. McKoy

English 2

October 4, 2012

A Period of Increaded Susceptibility to Cigarette Smoking Among High School Students

            Filice et al argues that when teens smoke, they experience five stages of preparation. They also argued that they are more capable of being susceptible (being affected emotionally). The authors also argue that the susceptible youth are two to four times more likely to smoke later in adolescence. They claim that the first stage of smoking is the preparatory stage; the teens build stronger attitudes and beliefs about it. The second stage is the “trying” stage. This means that adolescents start to try smoking. Stage three is the experimental stage which is when the smokers try different things with smoking. Stages four and five sort of tie in with each other. These two stages are regular usage, and addiction. Filice, Hannan, Lando, and Joseph also claim that susceptible youth are two to four times more likely to smoke later on in their life as a teenager or young adult. A third statement made by the authors is that “short-term periods of increased susceptibility might represent important opportunities for prevention to smoke. To make these claims, the authors first studied and experimented adolescents. Filice, Hannan, Lando, and Joseph surveyed teenagers to see how tobacco related to knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.

             The purpose of this article is to share the purpose and findings of the surveys that they gave out. They took students from 9^th to 12^th grade and put the results into graphs. The students were anywhere on a scale from susceptible, but never smoked to committed non-smoker, to some experience with smoking. This work is significant to my topic because it brings up the fact that smoking may affect student’s knowledge. That was part of the research that they did.

 

Works Cited

Harry A. Lando, et al. "A Period Of Increased Susceptibility To Cigarette Smoking Among High School Students." Journal Of School Health 73.7 (2003): 272-278. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Oct. 2012.