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Self-Management of Attitudes and Responsible Thinking (S.M.A.R.T.) 

Michael R. Sanchez

Academic Setting 

As the counselor at Taylor Middle School, I am designing the Self-Management of Attitudes and Responsible Thinking (SMART) unit, intended to educate students, and serve as a model for teachers in the area of personal skill development for students. The teaching unit to accompany SMART will deal with developing skills and positive responses to enhance the students’ ability to deal with authority, justice, and engagement of fair play in a school setting.   The implementation of SMART will be phased in over a three-year period based on the data collected regarding the success of the program and the staff commitment each year.   Initially four different general education language arts teachers, one from 6^th, 7^th, 8^th and a multi-age gifted special education teacher volunteered to participate in the first year pilot. The goal will be to implement the SMART program school-wide within a three to five year period in an effort to support and develop the following six long-range goals:

SCHOOL-WIDE LONG-RANGE GOALS
DEVELOP POSITIVE DECISION MAKING STRATEGIES		REDUCE SCHOOL DISRUPTIONS		REINFORCE A POSITIVE SCHOOL CLIMATE
DEVELOPSOCIAL COMPETENCE		INCREASE ACADEMIC GAINS

Demographics 

Taylor Middle School is in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the Village of Los Ranchos, nestled between Paseo Del Norte and Los Ranchos Road (north and south) and Rio Grande Boulevard and Edith Boulevard (west and east). The student population decreased from twelve hundred students in 2000-2001 to six hundred in the 2001-2002 school year due to the completion of the new middle school, James Monroe in the Taylor Ranch community.  The socio-economic community of Taylor Middle School ranges from high to low income.  Thirty-nine percent of the student body is on free or reduced lunch, an increase from last school year.   Four elementary schools feed into Taylor and Taylor feeds into Cibola and Valley High Schools. The ethnic composition of the student body is 50% Hispanic, 45% Anglo, 4% Native American, and 1.7% Afro-American and Asian-American students.  

The Challenge

“The primary goal of schools is to educate children and assist them to be life long learners.  However, a consensus exists that schools will be effective learning environments only if strategies are in place and maintain appropriate social behavior (Dwyer, Osher & Warger, 1998; Sugai et al., 2000; Walker & Epstein, 2001). Instances of extreme violence and examples of destabilizing disruption have led to calls for broad change in schools (Skiba & Peterson, 2000).  Statewide standards now ask for documentation of behavioral stability as well as gains in academic achievement” (Horner et al., 2001). Schools are being asked to deal with discipline and curtail or eliminate the amount of days students are suspended from school. “The solutions vary dramatically from recommendations for zero tolerance (Skiba & Peterson, 2000) to recommendations that schools invest proactively in defining and teaching school-wide behavioral expectations (Lewis & Sugai, 1999; Serna, Neilson, Lambros & Forness, 2000; Taylor-Greene et al., 1997).  The common theme across current recommendations however, is that schools must be safe, predictable and socially stable settings. The call is not just for minor policy change or simple redesign of existing procedure, but for a radical restructuring of the role schools play in teaching and demanding appropriate social behavior” (Walker et al., 1996) (Horner et al., 2001). 

Understanding Of Behavioral Theory 

Many of the behavioral management systems, e.g., verbal warnings/reprimands, movement to a quiet area, suspension, etc., that teachers use may have various negative consequences The goal, of course, is not to have the student repeat the inappropriate behavior and eliminate the problem behavior.  However, experience has shown that this type of punitive intervention is not effective and does not eliminate problem behavior.  A reactive response, such as punishment, is time consuming and reinforces the inappropriate behavior.  

            Using a behaviorist approach to classroom management and relying on the operant model to gain insight to explain why certain factors seem to be eliciting dramatically different responses from one student to the next favors a narrower focus.  This narrower focus of the behaviorist model of Antecedent, Behavior, and Consequences (A-B-C) model sees the student (organism) being responsible for behavior and a result of stimuli, organism, response, and consequences.  The emphasis is on the behavioral outcome rather than the developmental understanding of the skills and does not account for variables such as emotions, trust, faith, love and attachment.  Clearly, our understanding of the relationship of what is causing the behavior and how we respond is complex and is limited by the amount of theoretical training each teacher may have in responding with an appropriate intervention. In the SMART unit, the pilot students and teachers will be able to use skills to create an environment that will increase the possibilities for positive decision-making and enhanced self-esteem.  Furthermore, the academic gains, social competence and effective practices of the SMART unit should also build a positive school climate. The skills will empower individual students to understand what is fair and unfair for themselves and others.  The transferring of these skills to other social settings will allow for a greater degree of discernment in making choices that will prevent them from choosing a path of crime, violence, drugs, prejudice, and lack of tolerance. Developing personal skills are not just for the students with behavior problems. All students can benefit from them.  The following flowchart demonstrates the processes in the SMART unit:

SMART FLOWCHART

	STUDENT
				Affective School Environment		Positive Skills Knowledge		Self-Management and Responsible Thinking
	SMART Model

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                The Basic Components Of Smart 

The four major components of SMART are empathy, anger management, positive role-play, and character education. In empathy, students are learning to recognize the feeling of others.  Through anger management, students are empowered to gain self-control.  In positive role-play, students practice socially appropriate responses. Finally, in character education, students learn responsible thinking through the components of honesty, respect, responsibility, caring, citizenship, and cooperation. 

            The content of the unit is integrated into weekly thirty-minute lessons during first block  (Taylor is on a four, eighty-five minute block schedule.)  SMART is developed using the Albuquerque Public Schools Counseling Curriculum and Scope and Sequence.   

Context And Background 

More than 50% of all crimes in the United States are committed by 5 – 7% of youth between the ages of 10 – 20 (APA 94). These statistics are growing out of the changes that are occurring in society over the last fifty years.  Ron Powers wrote about the societal changes in his hometown of Hannibal, Missouri.  After finding out that there were two killings within a six-week period of time in his hometown, he wrote Tom and Huck Don’t Live Here Anymore: Childhood and Murder in the Heart of America (2001).  He wrote about how the “the atrophy of civic and familial cohesion…and the children, from earliest infancy through the end of adolescence, endured the greatest suffering from its effects.”  Hannibal represents the changes occurring across the nation; a microcosm of how society has been changing in America from the 1940’s to 1997.  Hannibal, “America’s Home Town,” was also the home of Samuel Clemens, who, as Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and, at the time, was not affected by the same social erosion that has affected communities across the country.  

            It is important to carefully study the effects of social changes on students. The social climate has changed in the family system since the 1940’s and demonstrates a break in the connections with children.  “America has been fitfully acknowledging since the end of World War II:  ‘juvenile delinquents,’ ‘beatniks,’ ‘hippies,’ ‘dropouts,’ ‘slackers,’ ‘rebellious children of dysfunctional families.”    Following are some of the statistics that are affecting our youth across the country:

·                   A million and a quarter had run away from home

·                   273,000 are homeless

·                   Drugs and alcohol absorbed countless millions

·                   Gun homicide committed by teenagers tripled from 1986 to 1993

·                   Early adolescents were the victims of assault

·                  A million kids a year between the ages of twelve and nineteen were victims of violent crime

·                   In 1995, 2,227 kids committed suicide (an increase of 120% over 1980)

·                   Harvard Medical School found that 23% of its 8,098-member study group had serious depressions before turning twenty

·                   Marijuana use more than doubled between 1991 and 1994-The National Institute on Drug Abuse found that two-thirds of eighth graders reported having tried alcohol; a quarter said they were current drinkers; 28% admitted they had been drunk at least once (Powers 2001). 

            Realizing that each student comes with different sets of experiences, abilities, and behaviors, we can begin to understand what students need in order to learn and succeed in the learning process.  The value of educating students personally, socially, and academically can have a pay-off in reducing classroom disruptions and have better performance academically.

            In the school setting, students have difficulty demonstrating that they can deal with their responsibilities.  When they are asked to assume responsibility, we often can hear the cries, “that’s not fair.”   As we begin to understand that certain judgments come with a preconceived impression of what is fair or unfair, we can begin to understand and relate to situations dealing with self and others. We can speculate that this inner reaction involves perceiving, construing, interpreting, emoting, and judging; it may well involve other psychological functions (Finkel, 2001).   On the other hand, in Shaver’s classic work on blame, “people are never blamed for doing good, only negative events, and the negative initiates an ‘epistemic search’ for an accounting, through the assignment of blame.”   The research on fairness and unfairness also takes into consideration Shaver’s factors of:  “variability, perspective, age, gender, culture, and context are likely to play in its judgment.”  The SMART unit will assist in developing the skills necessary to get students involved in the exploration of what is fair and unfair. Feedback from students, teachers, parents, and experience in working with students lays the foundation for the content in SMART. The program design will take into consideration the needs of the students, training, and successful counseling practices in skill development programs.   

            Teachers are increasing their reporting on inappropriate behaviors and are referring students that reflect disruptive behaviors, defiantly refusing to do their work, and bullying others during instruction, all of which disrupt the learning process in the classroom.  When facilitating parent/teacher conferences, sometimes five days a week, the major behavior difficulties are: work not being turned in, not writing down assignments in an agenda organizer, not staying on task, being easily distracted, making fun of students, and not taking responsibility for their actions. Many times, students and families are referred to community agencies because the majority of the time is spent on crisis interventions or on “system support.”  Experience has also demonstrated that most of the families referred to community agencies do not follow through with outside counseling for their student even if they have chronic conduct disorders. Therefore, a spiraling effect occurs and these students end up with in-school suspension or three to five day suspension at home. Punishing problem behaviors (without a proactive support system) is associated with an increase in (a) aggression, (b) vandalism, (c) truancy, and (d) dropping out (Mayer, 1995, Mayer & Sulzar-Azaroff, 1990).  In addition, there is a link between the general level of disruptive behavior and more extreme acts of violence (Skiba and Peterson 2000). 

            From a teacher and counselor point of view, the challenge is to incorporate effective practices that provide nurturing support systems so that students can make academic gains, attain greater social competence, and be safe in a school setting.  Research reviews of over 600 studies on how to reduce school discipline problems indicate that the least effective responses to school violence are counseling (talking therapies), psychotherapy, and punishment (Gottfredson, 1997, Lipsey, 1991; 1992, and Tolan & Guerra, 1994).  The same research indicated the “most effective” responses to school violence are social skills, academic restructuring, and behavioral interventions. 

            The emotional and personal risk factors that most students have difficulties with are: anger control, inappropriate feelings of self and others, not having educational success and poor decision-making skills.  The personal skills building and delivery system is effective and positive changes can be observed in student behavior. The success of the SMART unit is making sure the students learn the vocabulary, use the skills, role play skills in a positive manner, and have teachers provide consistent follow-up.           

Relative to global outcomes, positive behavioral support systems
            should emphasize the cognitive and behavioral goals of self-
            management.  More specifically, it is recommended that
            schools consciously develop school-wide Positive Behavioral
            Self-Management Systems that address three levels of self-
            management: a) teaching children and adolescents functional
         self-management skills (at appropriate developmental levels)
            such that they learn and demonstrate interpersonal, problem-
            solving and conflict resolution skills as well as independent
            learning and academic engagement skills (Knoff, 2002a);
            b) teaching teacher the instructional self-management skills
            that they need to run positive, effective classrooms that result
            in student learning and behavioral growth; and c) teaching
            school staff organization self-management skills so that they
            develop the systemic approaches needed for identifying
            resources and building capacity to independently sustain
            successful building-wide services for the prevention,
            strategic intervention and intensive support needs of all
            students (Knoff, 2002).   

Implementation 

Given the research and feedback from teachers, it is clear that a skills-based unit be implemented in the classroom.  Pilot teachers will begin training a week after school starts.  In the following weeks, the teachers and I will plan the weekly lesson and integrate SMART using their language arts strands. This gives teachers insight on what to plan and what to expect as the unit is presented. Follow-up with teachers on the integrity of skill implementation is important to support the process and answer any questions that might come up as the teachers practice using some of the principles of SMART.  The greatest impact on teachers is observing actual practice. 

Albuquerque Public Schools Counseling Curriculum 

The APS counseling curriculum objectives are standards based and are organized into three major domains or goal areas and are embedded into the SMART curriculum.  The three major domains are: 1. Knowledge of Self and Others, 2. Educational Success, and 3. Career and Life Planning (Appendix A lists the competencies for each Goal/Domain.) Each of the SMART components will be marked specifically with the appropriate individual competencies. 

Smart Framework 

There are many examples of positive intervention programs providing students with the knowledge of pro-social skills.  Considerations given for designing an effective unit are skill selection, active training model, and evaluation. The four major lessons that are emphasized in the SMART unit are empathy, anger management, role play, and character education.   I will be using “Aggression Replacement Training,” (ART) as a model for designing the SMART unit. 

            ART was developed and designed by the Center for Safe Schools and Communities.  There are four major components: Empathy, Anger Control, Skill Rehearsal and Character Education.  This model was developed out of a tremendous need for reform during the early part of the 1990’s in St. Louis, Missouri.  The demographics of the district changed and gangs from Compton, California and Chicago were setting up base for drug commerce.  The schools were being impacted and becoming places where a drive-by shooting killed a ten-year child by gang members.  The need to develop some kind of intervention started a middle school program for violent and aggressive students called, “PAL – Positive Alternative Learning Program.”  Little or no progress was made and Dr. Goldstein was called in to evaluate the program.  He was challenged to role play with the students.  He used “sincerity and firmness, explaining to the students that the only way they were going to be successful was to role play the skills.  The students began to improve in both behavior and academics.  William Ahlbrand, Ph.D., from Southern Illinois University found that students who participated in the ART program achieved a high rate of success using the variables of grade point average, office referrals, attendance, suspensions, parent perceptions, teacher perceptions, and student perceptions” (CSSC 2001). 

            Before the SMART unit is presented to the students, I will go to each one of the pilot classes, introduce myself, and set goals and expectations.  As a pilot year, thirty-minute weekly lessons will be implemented with the goal that the time will be expanded over the next three years.  

Smart Lessons 

Lesson One:  Empathy. (A1,2,4,7,11,12,90, B19-20, C33, D111) 

Time: 30 minutes 

Materials: Overhead and transparencies  

Purpose: Students will learn the definition of empathy and why it is important to show empathy toward others. This training emphasizes the development of a “feeling” vocabulary. 

Directions: Ask the students to define empathy. After a brief discussion, place a transparency on the overhead with the definition of empathy already on it and discuss briefly the difference between empathy and sympathy.  Write on the board or a blank transparency the  “feeling” words that come up in the discussion. The teacher may use the list of words for a “Word Wall” and/or spelling words.  Finally, once you observe that students have an understanding of empathy, ask them to explore their feelings and the feelings of others the rest of the week to learn how to show empathy. 

Guided Practice:  Leave the definition of empathy on the overhead.  Have students think quietly about a person they know. Teacher models by talking about a person he knows and talks about the qualities demonstrated by this individual that makes them feel that way about him/her.  Homework Materials: Homework sheet with interview questions

Have the students interview either parent or guardian using the following homework sheet: 

1.       What is one thing that makes you sad?

2.       The best gift you ever received was…

3.       The best thing about your family is…

4.       Your favorite music is… 

Require parent signature, date, student name, and the amount of time spent on the activity. 

Lesson Two: Empathy  (A1,2,4,90, B20, C32, D111)   

Time: 30 minutes 

Materials: Student journal or loose-leaf paper 

Purpose: To explore the feeling of happiness in self and others.

Directions:   1. Students will do a free write about a time they were happy and describe the setting.  Focus on the who, what, where, when, and why of the situation.

2. Students can use a web to organize their thoughts.

3. Teacher will pair up students to share their writings and look for the main points, similarities, and differences.

Writing Web

WHO				WHEN
WHAT		HAPPY TIMES		WHY
WHERE

Homework: Use newspapers, magazines, or family pictures and make a “happy” collage. Explain  why you chose the pictures you used with your parent or guardian and share in class.

Lesson Three: Anger Management  (A1,2,4,5,6,7,9,11,13,61,90, B16,19,21,25, C31-33, D34,111, E40-44, F48,51,52,53, F60,61)            

Time: 30 minutes
Materials: Chartboard, chalkboard or overhead, Homework sheet
Purpose: To teach students how to control their anger in various situations
Directions:  The teacher will group students into triads and chart, display, and discuss the following questions:

1.       How do you define anger?

2.       Who makes you angry?

3.       What makes you angry?

4.       How do you show your anger?

5.       What are your anger buttons?

6.       How do you control your anger?

7.       How does your anger affect others around you?

The students will share the main ideas that were identified.   The teacher will ask for feedback and write their responses using the overhead. 

Homework:  The student will ask parent or guardian the same questions.  The students will then compare and contrast their responses and create a Venn diagram (teacher will instruct in the use of a Venn diagram.)  Students will share some of their Venn diagrams in class. 

Lesson Four:  Anger Management  (A1,2,4,5,6,7, 9,11,12,13,61,90,  B16,19,21,25, C31-33, D34,111,  E40,41,42,43,44,   F48,51,52,53,60-61) 

Time: 30 minutes
Materials: Chartboard, chalkboard, or overhead
Purpose: Student will learn ways to reduce their anger.
Directions:

1.  Explain how counting backwards is an intervention that can assist in deescalating   anger. 

2.  Explain how positive self-talk can reduce anger.  Self-talk is a simple intervention and can remind students to stay calm and cool.  Give examples of self-talk:  “I am going to count backwards,” “ I am going to ignore the person,” “I am in control,” “ It is not worth it,” etc.

3.  Group students and have them describe an experience when they were angry.  Have students compile a list of self-talk interventions to be posted on a bulletin board for future reference. 

Guided Practice:

The teacher will role play with students using positive self-talk.  Allow students to brainstorm situations where they can use positive self-talk and role play the situation. 

Homework:

Read the following self-talk statements and pick three that you would use to reduce your anger:  Justify your choices. 

1. “It’s not worth it.”
2. “If I lose my temper, I’ll get in trouble.”
3. “I’m not going to let that person get to me.”
4. “I’m not going to fight.”
5. “I’m going to control myself.”
6. “Stay cool.”
7. “I won’t make a big deal about it.”

Teacher will have the students share their choices.

Lesson Five: Role Play Self Control (A1,2,4,5,6,7,9,11,12,13, B16,18,19,20,23,25,

C32,35, E40,41,42,43,44, F53,56,57,60, A61,90, D110,111,116,118,119)

Time: 30 minutes

Material: Chalkboard, or overhead

Purpose: Students will learn that positive outcomes can be related to positive social skills. The teacher will provide instruction and practice in behavior areas to promote positive social skills.

Directions:

1. Teacher asks the students about the meaning of social skills and writes their responses on the chalkboard

2.  Ask the students “Why is it important to learn social skills?”

3. Give students examples of important situations where positive social skills are important (school scenarios and job-related social skills)

4.  Put students in groups of four and have them brainstorm different social situations and create a list of the positive skills that they would use.   Then  group into pairs and practice the positive social skills in that scenario.

Remind students as they role play that all outcomes must be positive so that these skills are reinforced and learned.

Guided Practice:

Students engage in social rehearsal referring to the listed skills and practice positive social skills

Lesson Six: Role Play Self-Control (A1,2,4,5,6,7,9,11,12,13, B16,18,19,20,23,25, C32,35, E40,41,42,43,44, F53,56,57,60, A61,90, D110,111,116,118,119) 

Time: 30 minutes

Materials: Chalkboard or overhead
Purpose: Students will learn strategies to control his/her behavior in and outside the classroom.Directions: Teacher writes the following focus points on the chalkboard or overhead as a grounding activity:  

·                     Think about what is going on inside your body that helps you know that you are about to lose control.

·                     Think about what happened that made you feel this way.

·                     Think about ways you might control yourself

·                     Choose a way to control yourself and think about doing it. 

Class discussion:

Discuss with the class that we all encounter situations when we feel that we are going to lose control.  If unchecked, we get angry and no longer think SMART.

Teacher asks the following questions:
When do you feel yourself losing control?
What happens?
What would be a better choice?

Role Play:
Have two students volunteer to role play the following scenario: Your friend/brother/sister borrowed your CD player/disc without you knowing and broke it.  Demonstrate the methods of self-control that you would use to deal with your anger.  Create other scenarios and other self-control strategies together with the class. 

Lesson seven: Character Education Responsibility (A3,4,5,6,7,9,11,12,13, B16,17,18,19,20,23,25, C29,31,32,33, D34,36, E40,41,43,44,47, F48,51,53,60)

Time: 30 minutes
Materials: Student activity sheet (Teacher overhead transparency of activity sheet).
Purpose:  The student will understand responsibility and its implications to society.
Directions:
1.  Ask students to define responsibility.  Have them write down their definition and pick two or three students to share their definition. Write down the key points on the board/overhead.

2.  Ask students why it is important to be responsible.  Write key points on the board.

3. Have the students write down specific examples of times when they might be responsible e.g., home, school, sports, music, clubs, etc.

Guided Practice:

Read a scenario to the class and ask the questions that relate to responsibility.  The scenario can be related to homework, class work, listening to directions, etc.

Sample Scenario: When Sally goes home from school, all she wants to do is eat, relax, listen to music or watch TV.  However, she has homework and some chores to do around the house.

Questions:

1.  What are Sally’s responsibilities at home?

2.  If you were Sally’s parents what is your expectation?

3.  What might happen when Sally’s parents get home?

4.  How do you think Sally is doing in school? Why?

5.  What is the character trait that Sally should be using?

6.  What do you think is going to happen when Sally wants to invite friends over?

7.  How does her actions affect her and her family?

Make sure students know the correct answers and why.

Lesson seven: In-class activity sheet:

Directions: Choose a task for which you are responsible at school. Then complete the flow chart:

I am responsible for …

 

I know I have fulfilled my responsibility when …

Benefits to other …

 

Benefits to me …

 

 

Lesson eight: Character Education – Honesty (A3,4,5,6,7,9,11,12,13, B16,17,18,19,20,23,25, C29,31,32,33, D34,36, E40,41,43,44,47, F48,51,53,60)

Time: 30 minutes

Materials: Activity sheet

Purpose: The student will learn the importance of being truthful.

Directions:
The teacher will conduct a class discussion using the following questions:
1.         What is being truthful mean to you?
2.                   Who is the most honest person you know?
3.                   Why do you think that honesty is the best policy?
4.                   When you get into trouble, do you think that being honest will make things worse?  Why?

Read the following short story about Colin L. Powell:

“General Colin L. Powell is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Department of Defense.  He is the most important military advisor to the President of the United States.  Born in Harlem on April 5, 1937, he grew up in the South Bronx.   When he was in college, he majored in geology, but he already knew that there were many opportunities for him in the military.   His classmates said that he showed great leadership, ability, and honesty even then.  He enrolled in Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).  After graduation he served in Vietnam and received many medals for his bravery.   He returned to the United States and served an important internship at the White House.  Many officials were impressed with his efficiency and honesty.  Powell went on to command military posts in Korea, Kentucky, Kansas, and Germany.  He  served as National Security Advisor under President Reagan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Bush.  He is highly regarded in Washington, D.C.  He is respected for his abilities, rather than his political ideas.  He believes strongly in his country and the role that he plays in public service” (CSSC 2001). 

1.  Why do you think people admired Colin Powell’s honesty?
2.                   When do you think he decided to be an honest person?
3.                   Why do you think he was given so much responsibility and leadership roles?
4.                   What would General Powell say to you about honesty?

Lesson Nine:  Culminating Activity
Time: 60 minutes
Material:  Markers, colored pencils, paper, construction paper etc.
Purpose: To assess students’ understanding of the components taught: Empathy, Anger Management, Role Play and Character Education.

Directions:

1.  Have students review the information they have compiled during the last eight weeks.  In pairs, the students will select one component to “teach” to the class or other classes through either role playing, demonstrations, video taping, reports, visuals, charts, etc.  Students may not use any scenario previously used in class. 

2.  Create a four point rubric for students to refer to as part of the evaluation based on teacher expectation of student success.  Accompany the scoring of the rubric with teacher observational checklists.  Rubric and checklists should reflect the goals of the SMART unit.

·                     Is there evidence of positive decision making strategies?

·                     Did the students use positive skills knowledge in dealing with different academic, social, and physical settings?

·                     Did students think SMART or use Self-Management and Responsible Thinking? 

Guided Practice

As the students work on their projects, the teacher will use an observational checklist to assess any evidence of empathy, anger management, honesty or responsibility.  The teacher will also be available to offer any support.  Students will then sign up for a time to present their project to the class or other students. 

Documentation 

Appendix A

The Middle School Competencies (6-8) under the first domain are:

A.                  To understand and appreciate self

B.                  To understand and appreciate others

C.                  To understand and appreciate home and family

D.                  To develop a sense of community

E.                   To make decisions and set goals

F.                   To understand safety and survival           

Middle School Competencies (6-8) for the second domain:

A.                  To develop personal qualities which contribute to being an effective learner

B.                  To employ strategies to achieve success

C.                  To understand the interrelationship of life at school, at home, in the community and in society 

Middle School Competencies (6-8) for the third domain:

A.      To understand the relationships between personal qualities and work

B.      To demonstrate decision-making, goal setting, and action-oriented skills

C.      To learn to work together

D.      To understand how the community awareness relates to work

E.       To use free time effectively 

 

Bibliography

American Psychological Association.  Violence and Youth:  Psychology’s response.  Washington, D. C.: Author, 1994. 

Beckett, Katherine and Sasson, Theodore.  Crime and Punishment in America. The Politics of Injustice. 2000. 

Center for Safe Schools and Communities.  Aggression Replacement Training. 2001.

Creeden, Sharon  World Folktales of Justice.  Fair is Fair. 1994 

Dwyer, K., Osher, D., & Warger   Early warning, timely response: Aguide to safe schools. Wasington, D.C.: U. S. Department of Education, quoted in, Horner, R. H., Crone, D. A. & Stiller, B. (2001). The Role of School Psychologists in Establishing Positive Behavior Support: Collaborating in Systems Change at the School-Wide Level, National Mental Health and Education Center, 1, March 2001. 

Finkel, Norman J.  The Typology of Commonsense Unfairness.  Not Fair. 2001. 

Gottfredson, D. C.  School-based crime prevention. In L. Sherman, D. Gottfredson, Mackenzie, D. J. Eck, P. Reuter, & S. Bushway (Eds.), Preventing crime: What works, what doesn’t, what’s promising.  College Park, MD:   Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. 1997. 

Howard, Philip K. How Fairness Went Too Far.  The Lost Art of Drawing The Line. 2001.

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