Committee for Children Blog

Introducing a New Second Step Solution to Bullying!

| By: Committee for Children

You probably know and love the Second Step program (since most of our website visitors do), and now there’s even more of a reason to love it: the new Bullying Prevention Unit. Here are some anticipated frequently asked questions to satisfy your curiosity.

What is the Second Step Bullying Prevention Unit?

The Bullying Prevention Unit was developed to be taught with the Second Step program, but it is sold separately. Together, the Second Step K–5 program and Bullying Prevention Unit provide a comprehensive, research-based solution to bullying in elementary schools. The Bullying Prevention Unit includes:

Unlimited online staff training for a full year
Grade-level lesson notebooks for Kindergarten, Grades 1, 2, and 3
Online resources for administrators, teachers, and families

See pricing and detailed product information.

Why are the Second Step program and Bullying Prevention Unit taught together?

The research-based Second Step elementary school program teaches skills that are foundational to bullying prevention: emotion management, problem solving, empathy, friendship building, and assertiveness. These skills help create a physically and emotionally safe school environment and also contribute to increases in students’ grades and achievement test scores.

The new research-based Bullying Prevention Unit trains all of your school staff to deal with bullying, from understanding policies and procedures to recognizing and responding to bullying to communicating with families. The Bullying Prevention Unit teaches students in K–3 how to recognize, report, and refuse bullying and how to use their bystander power. Lessons for Grades 4 and 5 will be available for purchase in spring 2014.

Together, the Second Step program and Bullying Prevention Unit provide comprehensive bullying prevention.

How does the Bullying Prevention Unit work?

Implementing the Bullying Prevention Unit is a three-step process:

Complete the Online Staff Training.
Register classroom notebooks at SecondStep.org to unlock teaching resources.
Teach the K–3 lessons (anytime after teaching the Second Step Skills for Learning Unit). Note: Lessons for Grades 4 and 5 will be available for purchase in spring 2014.

How does the Bullying Prevention Unit’s Online Staff Training work?

The Online Training is composed of three modules:

Module 1 is for principals and program coordinators (45–60 min.)
Module 2 is for all school staff (75–90 min.)
Module 3 is for teachers and counselors (75–90 min.)

We recommend that principals and program coordinators complete Modules 1–3, all school staff complete Module 2, and teachers and counselors teaching the lessons complete Modules 2 and 3.

The modules include role-based interactive exercises and skill practices. Individual staff members complete the training when it is convenient for them, and they can revisit the training as many times as they like during the year.

How do the Bullying Prevention Unit lessons work?

Each grade-level notebook includes five lessons, and each lesson takes about 30 minutes to teach. The first lesson is an introductory lesson. The four remaining lessons are story-based. All of the lessons are supported by a media-rich DVD. The DVDs use animation, live-action, and claymation to engage students. The stories themselves were created in collaboration with Trudy Ludwig, award-winning children’s author of many books on the topic of bullying.

Each lesson includes a Following Through card and Home Link to reinforce the skills beyond the lesson and the school. And each grade-level notebook includes a Family Letter.