What I Learned About: 
Get Real About Violence^®

From the Comprehensive Health Education Foundation
Permission to duplicate text from the Get Real about Violence® website at http://getrealaboutviolence.com/ (off the Web as of April,, 2005, alternative site http://www.chef.org/prevention/violence.php.  2001 Comprehensive Health Education Foundation (C.H.E.F. ®), was granted from C.H.E.F. ®, Seattle, WA. Further duplication is prohibited without expressed written permission from C.H.E.F. ® All rights reserved.

How is Get Get Real About Violence® structured? Get Real about Violence® comprises lessons from kindergarten through grade 9 as well as a K-9 school-wide unit. What are the goals of Get Real About Violence®? Because violence has different faces for different age groups, the goals are different for the different units: The goals of the grades K-1,2, and 3 units are the following: to encourage students to avoid doing mean and violent things to each other to encourage students to report incidents of meanness and violence to adults in the school to encourage students to prevent others from doing mean and violent things The goals of the grades 4-6 unit are the following: to encourage students to avoid doing mean and violent things to each other to encourage students to report incidents of meanness and violence to adults in the school The goals of the grades 6-9 unit are the following: to encourage students to change the norms that promote and perpetuate violence to address factors that put students at risk for becoming involved with violence. The goal of the school-wide unit is to make schools safer and more supportive. What are the features of Get Real About Violence®? The lessons in each grade level of Get Real about Violence are divided into three different sections: “Vulnerability to Violence,” which helps students understand that violence is their problem, that mean and violent incidents do occur at their school and community, and that violence hurts them and others. “Contributors to Violence,” which helps students become aware that they’re influenced to commit and tolerate mean and violent acts, identify the sources of influence, critically analyze mean and violent messages when they get them, and learn to resist them. “Alternatives to Violence”, which helps students learn and practice strategies and skills to avoid violence. Each lesson is designed to reduce risks associated with adolescent problem behaviors. Each lesson is designed to promote at least one of the following norms: Adults should help. I can be a powerful force to reduce violence. I can solve problems nonviolently. It’s good to ask an adult for help. It’s good to discourage violence. It’s good to help people in trouble. No one deserves to be a victim. People who are nonviolent are cool. School should be a safe and supportive place. Violence is everyone’s problem. Violence should not be accepted or tolerated Each grade-level unit of Get Real About Violence® is supplemented with a document that summarizes the research on which the curriculum is based and also lists programs and approaches that have been effective in communities across the country. The document is Preventing Violence: Changing Norms in School Communities. Lessons contain the following: well-researched teaching strategies, like ITIP (Instructional Theory Into Practice) design and teaching of social skills teacher sheets and work sheets extension activities that extend the lessons into the student's life outside the classroom pre-post measures at each grade-level unit a parent newsletter at each grade-level unit Get Real About Violence® comes with a teacher’s guide and all the materials needed to teach the curriculum, with no consumable items. The school-wide unit comes with a Facilitator’s Manual and all the materials needed to facilitate the curriculum, with no consumable items. Who developed Get Real About Violence®? Get Real About Violence® was developed by Comprehensive Health Education Foundation (C.H.E.F.®), the same people who developed the drug education curriculum Here’s Looking At You, 2000®, the AIDS prevention curriculum Get Real about AIDS®, the tobacco education curriculum Get Real about Tobacco™, and the peer-helping program Natural Helpers®. What Training Options are available for Get Real About Violence®? One of the most important components of Get Real About Violence® is teacher training. Training workshops give teachers hands-on experience with the lessons and materials. Training includes the latest information on the problem of violence and what to do about it. During training, participants are given the opportunity to examine their own attitudes and assumptions about violence and how those attitudes and assumptions might affect their teaching of the curriculum. To further reduce costs, locally-selected teams can attend a Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop, in which teams participate in an actual teacher training and learn how to conduct workshops in their own areas. This method allows for local, ongoing training without the need to rely on outside consultants. To learn more about training contact: Comprehensive Health Education Foundation (C.H.E.F.®) 22419 Pacific Highway South Seattle, Washington 98198 Phone: 800/323-2433 Fax: 206/824-3072 Email: chefstaff@chef.org Preview copies of the curriculum are available. For additional information on previewing or purchasing the Get Real About Violence®   curriculum, please contact Customer Service at AGC/United Media: AGC/United Media 1560 Sherman Avenue, Suite 100 Evanston, Illinois 60201 Phone: 800/323-9084 Fax: 847/328-6706 Email:agc@mcs.net

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© 2002 Michael K. Carlie
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author and copyright holder - Michael K. Carlie.