American
Indian Life Skills Development Curriculum
Teresa D. LaFromboise
Suicide is a significant problem for many adolescents in Native
American Indian populations. American Indian Life Skills Development
Curriculum is a course for high school students and some
middle school students that is designed to drastically reduce
suicidal thinking and behavior.
Created in collaboration with students and community members
from the Zuni Pueblo and the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, this
curriculum addresses key issues in Native American Indian adolescents'
lives and teaches such life skills as communication, problem
solving, depression and stress management, anger regulation,
and goal setting. The course is unique in its skills-based approach.
After first increasing awareness and knowledge of suicide, it
then teaches students specific methods to help a peer turn away
from suicidal thinking and seek help from an appropriate help-giver.
The skills-based approach of this curriculum follows well-established
teaching methods to develop social skills. Teachers and peers
inform students of the rationale and components of a particular
skill, model and demonstrate the skill for them, and later provide
feedback on individual skill performance.
"American Indian Life Skills has been a very successful
program at Sequoyah High School. Having a curriculum that addresses
many of today's concerns from a Native American base has greatly
benefited our students. It has offered students opportunities
to be actively involved in a classroom community. By addressing
different learning styles, American Indian Life Skills
helps students to understand and talk about such issues as depression,
stress, sexuality, and grieving. This program has changed many
lives including mine. It would be a beneficial program for anyone
working with adolescents. I highly recommend it!"—J.
Rachel Green, Life Skills Teacher, Sequoyah High School, Tahlequah,
Oklahoma
 Teresa
D. LaFromboise is associate professor in the School of Education
at Stanford University and is a former associate professor in
the Department of Counseling Psychology at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison. She is the author of Assertion Training
with American Indians and Circles of Women: Skills Training
for American Indian Professionalization.
Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.) |
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June 1995
LC: 95-006546 E
408 pp. 8 1/2 x 11
30 line illustrations
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