The Prepare Curriculum: Teaching Prosocial Competencies

by Arnold P. Goldstein

This well-researched manual has been revised and expanded to include updated materials, procedures, and 93 supplementary exercises. PREPARE presents a series of 10 course-length interventions grouped into three reducing aggression, reducing stress, and reducing prejudice. It is designed for use with middle school and high school students and can also be adapted for use with younger students. The 93 supplementary exercises involve games, role plays, reading and writing, drawing, brainstorming, group discussion, relaxation, tape recordings, photography, and other hands-on activities. The book examines important issues such as behavior management, assessment, motivation, and transfer and maintenance of skills.

900 pages, Paperback

First published July 3, 1988

Reviews

[Liza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent comprehensive guide!

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the Prepare Curriculum contains a lot of great ideas and background for building social skills of students from many different backgrounds. These skills are useful to learn in a school because they are important to overall well being and success in life. The authors often have a residential treatment vibe to the way they explain how the curriculum would be used and in the examples, which wasn't particularly helpful for me as a school practitioner. However, I know enough about my students and their typical issues that I can easily tailor that to fit my setting.

Although I understand that this curriculum is research based and follows a pattern, it is hard for me to adopt bit chunks since the majority if learning and instruction is done through roll playing, which I just can't get my 9th-12th grade EBD students to do on a regular basis. I see the importance of role playing and practicing these skills, I just wish the curriculum included more varied means of teaching these skills. Supplementary handouts, ideas for videos to show which support the skills being learned, etc. would be extremely helpful additions.

As it is, I use this curriculum as a supplement to my core work with my students, and often edit it heavily to reduce the role playing involved and to include more relevant examples for my students. Although somewhat useful for a public school setting, I would recommend other pro social curriculum books over this one due to ease of use and comparability with the setting.