Tools for Change: An Educator's Resource Site

Author(s): Sherryl Kraizer

Publisher: Coalition for Children

Type of Resource: Instruction manual on DVD with accompanying videos

Target Grades: Preschool – grade 3

Canadian Resource? No

Resource formally evaluated? Yes

What is the source, internet link, or article title for viewing the formal evaluation of this resource? www.promisingpractices.net/program.asp?programid=129

Subject Areas:language, the arts, health and physical education, family life

GRADE THREE

Language: Reading

Express clear responses to written materials, relating the ideas in them to their own knowledge and experience and to ideas in other material they have read

Begin to develop their own opinions by considering some ideas from various written materials

Language: Oral and Visual Communication

Apply the rules for working with others

Rephrase to clarify their ideas (e.g., what I meant was, when I think about)

Speak on a variety of topics in classroom discussions using some specialized language (e.g., metres in measurement), and select words carefully to convey their intended meaning

Use appropriate volume, tone of voice, gestures, and stance when speaking, making a presentation, or reading aloud

Contribute ideas appropriate to the topic in group discussion and listen to the ideas of others

The Arts: Drama and Dance

Communicate, through movement, their thoughts and feelings about topics studied in other subject areas (e.g., create a movement sequence to express their fear of an environmental event such as a storm)

Solve artistic problems in drama and dance in cooperative work groups

Health and Physical Education: Healthy Living

List safety procedures and practices in the home, school, and community

Use a problem-solving process to identify ways of obtaining support for personal safety in the home, school, and community

Identify examples of real and fictional violence (e.g., schoolyard fights, cartoons, movies)

Health and Physical Education: Active Participation

Demonstrate respect for the abilities and feelings of others (e.g., accepting everyone into the group)

Follow the rules of fair play in games and activities (e.g., giving everyone a chance to play)

Communicate positively to help and encourage others

Catholic Education Religion and Family Life

Family Life:

• exploring our own physical, mental, and emotional growth
• roles within relationships
• promises, choices and process of decision-making
• interdependence of people in society

(where noted: Consistently (C)   Often (O))

Exploring Well-Being Through Relationships

This resource shares knowledge with students about:

• personal growth in and through relationships
• how healthy relationships support a healthy sense of well-being
• differentiate between healthy/equal relationships and relationships that are negative/unequal
• increase awareness of how actions and choices impact the well being of others
• increase awareness of how actions/choices of others impact personal well-being

This resource provides opportunities for students to acquire skills by allowing students to:

• explore relationships from personal perspectives and experiences
• define values of healthy, supportive and caring relationships
• develop personal self-awareness and understanding of well-being
• express personal feelings, thoughts, and experiences

Exploring Social Relations of Violence, Oppression and Equality

This resource provides opportunities for students to acquire skills by allowing students to:

• explore multiple and different forms of violence/vulnerability and experiences of exclusion in their lives

Developing Connections, Creative Thinking and Participation

This resource shares knowledge with students about:

• understanding violence and healthy relationships from one’s own personal perspective
• where and how to seek out help and support

This resource provides opportunities for students to acquire skills by allowing students:

• Opportunity for the development of supportive connections between students and teachers/adults

Structure and Format:

• Research-based introduction
• Strategies to integrate lessons/activities into the educational curriculum
• Information guide or scope and sequence of lessons (i.e. how to strategies)
• Ready to use scripted format
• Sequential guide or lessons that are user friendly
• Availability of support to implement the program/resource

Teaching/Learning Strategies:

Direct Instruction: whole class and small group

• Explicit Teaching
• Demonstration
• Explicit teaching and use of thinking skills and strategies
• Explicit teaching and using self-assessment and reflection

Interactive Learning

• brainstorming
• Conferencing: peer and student-teacher

Indirect Instruction

• Guided teacher-directed inquiry
• Reflective discussions

Experiential Learning

• Case studies/scenarios

Activities/Lessons Include:

• Multiple opportunities for practice and feedback.
• Oral and written reflection

Assessment Methods:

Pencil and Paper:

• Checklists
• Rubrics

Personal Communication:

• Student-teacher conferences

Other:

• Parent involvement - information session
• Parent involvement – letters home to explain program/units
• Parent involvement – strategies to transfer learning at home
• Staff training

The Safe Child Program teaches prevention of sexual, emotional and physical abuse by people known to the child and by strangers. The program is targeted to children ages preschool-grade 3. For each grade level, the program consists of a DVD containing 5 lessons, along with a scripted teacher manual.

The goal of the program is to teach children how to stay safe and assert themselves if they are not comfortable with something that is happening to them, without directly teaching them what abuse is. The program teaches children the importance of being in control of their bodies. It teaches children that their bodies belong exclusively to them, that they have a right to determine who is allowed to touch them and how, that they should say “no” to touching that makes them uncomfortable, never keep secrets about this type of touching and tell a parent or an adult they trust. Children are also taught how to be safe with strangers: how to keep a safe distance and how to behave if someone approaches them when they are alone, or calls/shows up at their house when a parent is not present. These messages are introduced in the first (preschool) level and reinforced/expanded upon in later levels. The central teaching technique is the “what if” game, through which children explore and learn appropriate ways of handling themselves by working through hypothetical questions and situations.