DOCUMENT.RESUME ED 364 037 EC 302 607 AUTHOR Cohen, 1.,via S. TITLE The PRISE. (Positive Resiliency in Special Education) Curricu1 ...4. INSTITUTION Northwes Suburban Special Education Organization, Palatine, TL. SPONS AGENCY Department of Education, Washington, DC. PUB DATE 91 NOTE 455p.; A voduct of the Comprehensive Special Education :Irug Initiative. PUB TYPE Guides - Classroom Use - Teaching Guides (For Teacher) (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC19 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Coping; Daily Living Skills; Decision Making; *Disabilities; Drinking; *Drug Education; Drug Use; Elementary Secondary Education; Interpersonal Relationship; *Learning Activities; Lesson Plans; Needs Assessment; Peer Influence; *Prevention; Sell Esteem; *Substance Abuse; Teaching Methods IDENTIFIERS *Positive Resiliency in Special Education; *Resilience (Personality) ABSTRACT The PRISE (Positive Resiliency in Special Education) Curriculum was designed to prevent alcohol and other drug use among the special education population in kindergarten through high school, by involving students in classroom activities that will increase their personsl resiliency while encouraging them to make healthy, informed decisions. The federally funded curriculum is not intended to supplant existing curricular materials in prevention education, but to enable teachers to select and use these materials in an effective way. The curriculum begins with guidelines for prevention planning and two needs assessment forms (one for elementary teachers and one for secondary teachers). The c:urriculum presents six instructional units on the following topics: (1) personal resiliency, (2) information about drugs,(3) decision making, (4) resisting pressure, (5) nurturing relationships, and (6) healthy alternatives. For each objective, activitiea which meet both the instructional and social needs of special education students are listed. For each activity, grade levels, subject areas, constraints, materials, evaluation methods, variations, and spin-offs for reinforcing the concepts are indicated. The curriculum concludes with a list of available materials and recommended learning activities drawn from other curricula, arranged by curriculum objective. (JDD) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** . " DEPARTMENT OF IOXICAT014 Mice of Educabonal Ruttier Ch and Improwtment EDUCAT1ONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) TINS document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it C Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction Quality Points of view or opinions stated in this docu- ment do not necesunly represent official OERI position or policy A 2 THE PRISE Positive Resiliency in Special Education CURRICULUM by Tsivia S. Cohen, Curriculum Specialist Comprehensive Sped& Education Drug Initiative Project Director: Jennifer Casale Project Secretary: Nancy Hill Title: Karen Brosnan Cover: Jennifer Grote Artwork: Jennifer Grote and Tsivia Cohen NSSEO Administrator: Ann Christensen The contents of this curriculum were developed under a grant from the Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and should not assume endorsement by the Federal government. Northwest Suburban Special Education Organization Dr. Pamela Gillet, Superintendent Copyright 1991 3 ACKNOW! .7,DGEMENTS The development of this curriculum has depended on the cooperation of a number of people throughout the Northwest Suburban Special Education Organization (NSSEO), and particularly in NSSEO's Learning Disabilities (LD) Center where the project is housed. In order to design, write and print these materials, I have been dependent on both the efforts and the insights of many people: Ann Christensen, Principal of NSSEO's LD Center has provided the office space and in-kind support for the project. She has also been an advocate for this curriculum and a valuable consultant. Her contributions to this curriculum include her insights about both teaching and special education children. Karen Brosnan, School Nurse of NSSEO's LD Center, has inspired much of this work by her authorship both of the grant that supports it and of the name of the curriculum itself. "PRISE" is just one of her creative ideas. As a consultant to this curriculum, she has helped by reviewing activities and sharing her wonderful ideas. Jennifei Casale, Director of the CSEDI project, has compiled and annotated the exhaustive lists of resources included in this curriculum. In addition, she has reviewed activities and been a painstaking proofreader and editor. Drawing on her years of experience in the field of substance abuse counseling and Student Assistance Program development, she has brought her broad knowledge of materials and ideas to this curriculum. Nancy Hill, the secretary of the CSEDI project, has shown tremendous energy and ingenuity in getting these materials formatted, printed and ready for reproduction. Without Nancy, it might have taken us another year! (Special thanks also go to Kim and Stacey as our models of what girls their age like and don't like.) Jennifer Grote, a student at Winona State University in Minnesota, designed the cover for this curriculum, as well as some darling cartoons of the internal organs. Her creativity and willingness to volunteer her services have upgraded the looks of the whole package. The Community of Saint Sabina in Chicago for their extensive packet of information on alcohol and tobacco billboard advertising and legal issues. Special thanks also go to Maureen Daly, Tom Frasier, Peggy McGreevy, Gayle Lewis, Darlene Russo, Elaine Weil, Laurie Wydeen and the patient and forbearing clerical staff at the NSSEO office. Tsivia Susan Cohen Curriculum Specialist CSEDI Project December 1991 4 MORE THAN AN INTRODUCTION OVERVIEW The PRISE (Positive Resiliency in Special Education) Curriculum has been developed for teachers working with special education students in kindergarten through high school. The goal of this curriculum is to prevent alcohol and other drug use among the special education population by involving studews in a series of classroom activities which will increase their personal resiliency while encouraging them to make healthy, informed decisions. The PRISE Curriculum is one part of the Comprehensive Special Education Drug Initiative (CSEDI), a School Personnel Training Grant, fundedby the U. S. Department of Education, Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. Initially an eighteen month grant, an additional two year funding cycle has been approved beginning April 1, 1992. Through this grant, training in the PRISE Curriculum will be provided, as well as assistance in establis ing Student Assistance Programs. Throughout the span of the project, this curriculum will be expanded and refined, utilizing the feedback from educators in NSSEO. The CSEDI Project has also collected a variety of resources which are stored in our offices inthe NSSEO Learning Disabilities Center at Miner School. These resources include published drug prevention curricula, video tapes, visual aids, books for students, resource materials for student research, pamphlets, games, as well as books for educators and parents. Considering the range of students, both in terms of age and ability (special education students being more different than alike), the PRISE curriculum uses an open-shelf approach. This is not a first youdo this, then you do that kind of curriculum. PRISE is designed to be teacher-driven, the assumption being that you will select and choose what will work for your students aswell as what fits with your own teaching style. For that reason, please read the GUIDELINES FOR PREVENTION PLANNING at the end of this introduction, (even if you skim the rest ofthis opening). Included in these :guidelines is critical information from the research on how to put together a prevention plan for an entire school year-- one that has a good chance of making adifference. The NEEDS ASSESSMENT will also hopefully assist you in making decisions abouthow to approach your students this year, given their needsand level of skill. In addition, the RESOURCES section of this curriculum includes a listof materials available through the CSEDI Project, as well as a list of recommended activities from selected curricula. DESIGN OF THE PRISE CURRICULUM This curriculum does not hope to supplant the large number of curricular materials that have been developed in the area of prevention education. Instead, we would like to give you the information we now know from the research to enable you to select and use these materials in an effective way. While an abundance of curricula have appeared in recent years, veryfew of v INTRODUCTION 2 them have been tested. Only recently have some studies appeared that examine curricula and ask the critical question: Do they work? e In order to develop (and adapt and borrow) a set of activities for special education students, we first wanted to know what has been shown to work with mainstream students. In the rush to do something about a serious - problem, many of the early prevention curricula made a number of mistakes. Simply providing students with information about alcohol and other drugs did not make them less likely to use these substances. In fact some studies indicate that this tactic can have the opposite effect. Better informed students