School Violence and Curriculum Change

The purpose of this project was to develop a curriculum to prevent or reduce school violence, which is targeted at third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. The programs that contain three lesson plans for the individual grade levels encourage students to engage in critical self-reflection, small-group interaction and class discussions. Their objectives are to help students develop the values and acquire strategies to help them deal with their negative emotions and respond effectively to school violence. In the curriculum, third graders will learn about the value of respect, increase their ability to cope with anger, communicate effectively with adults and forge good friendships. Fourth graders will learn to care for others through acts of kindness and to formulate school rules and implementation strategies for preventing school violence. Finally, fifth graders will learn to make responsible decisions, resolve conflicts and increase their awareness and understanding of gangs.

The evaluation of the prevention of the school violence curriculum included a questionnaire and follow-up verbal interviews of three school counselors who were highly experienced in working with elementary school children. The school counselors rated the curriculum highly in response to these issues: a) the utility of the handbook for school counselors developing and implementing school prevention programs among elementary school children; b) appropriateness for targeted grade levels; c) effe

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s on the board. This activity should be given no more than ten minutes. 2) Divide the class into small groups and ask them to discuss whether they would turn to these adults if they saw their classmates being bullied or hurt by others: a. What would they do? b. Who would they turn to? This activity should take approximately 15 minutes. 3) Hand out a list of helpful resources and if they have not been identified by the class, ask the class to explain why they have been placed on the list. The list should include: Adult authority figures--Parents, teachers, principals, school counselors and law enforcement officers (no specific names): The purpose of identifying the individual adult authority figures is to let the students know who they should turn to when they have witnessed acts of school violence or suspect the possible occurrence of school violence. Students should trust that they can obtain help from these adult figures when they need help with school violence prevention. Information Resources--the library and the Internet with access to organizations dedicated to violence prevention: Apart from adult figures, students should also be encouraged to seek information through alternative resources. Thus, they a

Category: Psychology - S