1. Second Step A Violence Prevention Program
Scheri DuBon
LAUSD Local District 8 Health Education Programs/ Title IV Advisor
(310)

2. Second Step Training Goals
To help staff understand what it means to use a social skills approach to youth violence prevention.
To prepare staff to use Second Step curriculum with students.

3. Why did LAUSD choose Second Step?
Meets Federal and State Mandates
Only violence prevention curriculum rated as exemplary by the United States Department of Education
Most widely used.
Universal curriculum

4. In addition to being “Teacher Friendly”
Safety and Learning Correlation
Closing the Achievement Gap
District Goals
Developmental Assets
Brain Research

5. Safety and Learning
Correlation between level of perceived safety and API scores
Teaches students how to mediate their emotions so they can calm down and get back to learning

6. Closing the Achievement Gap
Ensure that “disagreements are handled with discussion and with respect for alternative positions”
“promote respect for the uniqueness of each person as well as for the ways we are similar”
AEMP/Closing the Achievement Gap Branch, 2004

7. District Goals Improved student achievement in English Language Arts
Improved student achievement in Math
Successful and timely re-designation of EL students
Improved attendance rates
Improved graduation rates
Focused and coherent professional development

8. Developmental Assets See Handouts Based on success not failure
Not a curriculum
Second Step promotes 31 of the 40 Assets

9. Brain Research
“Students must feel physically safe and emotionally secure before they can focus on the curriculum.”
David A. Sousa
How The Brain Learns, 2001
What the Bleep Do We Know!?

10. Safety in our Schools
“ Trying to create a safe school climate without teaching students social-emotional skills is like trying to educate our students without teaching them to read.”
Kevin Dwyer
School Psychologist
National Expert on School Safety

11. Reasons Children Fail to Act Pro-socially
Lack of modeling
Lack of practice
Desired behavior inhibited by emotional responses
Inappropriate beliefs about aggression

12. Skill Based Program: PreK-8
Based on research showing that people who engage in child abuse, domestic violence, and other kinds of criminal behavior lack the following skills:
Empathy
Impulse Control
Problem Solving
Anger Management

13. Empathy Students are taught to: Understand the feelings of others
Understand points of view that are different from theirs
Respect all people regardless of differences
Treat others with kindness

14. Impulse Control Students are taught to mediate their emotions by:
Learning to identify their feelings
Learning how to interrupt their automatic reactions through calming down techniques
Practice these skills in a variety of challenging social-emotional situations

15. Problem-Solving
Students are taught to solve problems in ways that are:
Safe
Fair
Take into account everyone’s feelings
Will work

16. Anger-Management Students are taught to:
Identify where in their bodies they feel angry
Interrupt the anger cycle through calming down methods
Use positive problem-solving methods
Assess how well they handled their anger

17. Implementation See Handouts Scope and Sequence
Lesson Teaching Time Guidelines
Lesson Section Breakdown

18. Social Skills Teaching Strategies
See handout
Modeling
Coaching and Cueing
Storytelling
Group Discussion
Role-Play Facilitation*
Transfer of Learning

19. Resources Committee for Children www.cfchildren.org
Developmental Assets

20. Unit Review Activity Unit Card What is the goal of your unit?
What key elements are taught in your unit?
What language concepts are taught in your unit?
What Transfer of Learning ideas or Extension Activities Ideas would you use?