The Health and Opioid-Abuse Prevention Education Curriculum

The Health and Opioid Abuse Prevention Education (HOPE) Curriculum is a K-12 curriculum developed for schools to meet the requirements of House Bill 367. The HOPE curriculum is a series of lessons, assessments and learning materials to develop students’ functional knowledge, attitudes and necessary skills to prevent drug abuse. The lessons are designed to be part of a larger substance abuse prevention unit within a school’s health education curriculum.

The middle and high school lessons are designed for a licensed health education teacher to implement within a health education class. The elementary curriculum is designed for a classroom teacher to implement in 20-minute lessons that are aligned with the English Language Arts Standards.

What is the HOPE Curriculum?

Lesson Plans: Lesson plans will be included for each grade band. The high school curriculum includes 11 lessons to be implemented in health education during a drug abuse prevention unit. The middle school curriculum includes three opioid abuse prevention lessons for each grade level (6^th, 7^th, 8^th). The elementary curriculum has 20-minute lessons for each grade level from Kindergarten to 5^th grade that integrate drug abuse prevention with English-Language Arts Standards.

Assessments: Activities and rubrics used to assess student learning.

Instructional Materials: Support materials such as PowerPoint, worksheets, videos, and diagrams to support lesson plans and student learning.

Teacher and School Administrator Guides: Tips and suggestions to implement the lessons. Additional content knowledge packets with instructor notes, additional resources, FAQs, letter to parents overviewing the topic and resources.

Staying Connected: ideas for additional follow-up, community and parent engagement, and social marketing based on the foundation established by Start Talking!, Youth-led prevention programs, Generation Rx.

Prevention curriculums like HOPE are key — key to saving lives, saving resources and most important, preventing youth from ever starting to abuse drugs.

It is pro-youth empowerment; pro-good decision-making; pro-self-respect. It goes beyond basic knowledge, skills, behaviors and attitudes and turns it into functional health knowledge. - Health Communications Specialist Christa Hyson, ExtraCredit blog

...pledged to do more drug education... We think if we can really get kids information throughout the whole system, bring in experts from the outside and tailor it to the grade level we’ll be successful - Southeast Superintendent Bob Dunn; Briana Barker, Record Courier, Aug. 19, 2017

Register for the HOPE Curriculum.

Learn How Here

Interested in scheduling a professional development training?

Contact: Kevin Lorson at HOPECurriculum@wright.edu

SAMPLE HOPE Curriculum Materials:

K - 2 | 3 - 5 | 6 - 8 | 9 - 12

Curriculum Overview by Grade

K - 2

Lesson	K	1st	2nd
1	Trusted Adults & Using Medicines Safely	We Make Healthy Choices	Making Healthy Choices to Protect My Brain
	Students will differentiate between adults, friends and trusted adults at home, school or in the community who can help with taking medicines. The emphasis is to only take medicine with the help of a trusted adult.	Students will read multiple scenarios and sort them into healthy and unhealthy choices. The lesson reinforces how to make healthy and safe choices with medicine and only take medicines from a trusted adult.	Students play a Jeopardy-type game to make a healthy choice and to identify trusted adults. The lesson reinforces making healthy choices to protect the brain from the negative consequences of drug misuse.
2	Safe, Unsafe, or Unsure? Making Healthy Decisions	Who Wants to Make Healthy Choices?	Steps to Making Healthy Choices
	Students will look at pictures to decide if they are safe, unsure or unsafe decisions. Students are reminded it is unhealthy, unsafe or they are unsure, "Do NOT touch, take, taste and get help from a trusted adult!"	Students will play the game "Who Wants to Make Healthy Choices?" Students analyze the situation to determine if it was a healthy and safe, or unhealthy and unsafe choice.	Students will use the steps of making a healthy decision in three situations. Students will apply school and home rules for medicines and drugs to make healthy choices and unlock the "Code of Choices."
3	Healthy Decisions Keep "Sammy Safe"	Asking a Trusted Adult for Help to Make a Healthy Decision	Being Assertive To Be Healthy
	Students will analyze choices and determine if they are safe and healthy, or unsafe and unhealthy. Students will apply the guidelines for making healthy decisions with medicine to help the "Sammy Safe" puppet.	Lesson 3 applies decision-making and communication skills in scenarios. The emphasis will be on identifying healthy choices and knowing when to ask for help from a trusted adult.	This lesson introduces assertive communication skills to make a healthy decision to avoid unhealthy and unsafe situations. Students will practice assertive communication and asking for help from a trusted adult.
4	I Will Make Healthy Choices	I Will Make Healthy Choices About Medicine	Encouraging Others to Make Healthy Choices about Medicines
	Students will develop and sign the pledge to be safe with medicines and harmful substances; "I will make healthy choices about medicine. I will only take medicine from a trusted adult."	Students will brainstorm three possible reasons for making healthy choices. The student selects their favorite reason and writes a sentence. The student also writes a sentence about who can help them make a healthy choice.	Students will develop a paragraph that describes how to make healthy choices, who can help with making healthy choices and the reasons to make healthy choices to encourage others to make healthy choices.

3 - 5

Lesson	3rd	4th	5th
1	Healthy Choices are Best for Me!	Your Health is not a Game of Chance	Healthy Decisions: OTC and Prescription Medicines
	Students will compare and contrast the positive and negative consequences of making healthy choices about medicines. The lesson will reinforce following school and family rules for medicine use and always asking for help from a trusted adult to take medicine.	The purpose of the lesson is to reinforce making healthy choices and the consequences of unhealthy choices. We will use a "Game of Chance," or "Roll of the Dice" activity to show the risks and consequences of making healthy or unhealthy decisions.	Students will compare and contrast OTC and prescription medicines. The lesson will reinforce home and school rules for taking, storing and disposing medicines in the context of learning about prescription medicines.
2	Healthy Decisions Detective	Your Mission? Making Healthy Choices	Stop, Think, & Choose to Make Healthy Decisions
	Students will apply the steps to making a healthy decision in the role of Detective H.S. (Healthy, Safe) Decision. As Detective H.S. Decision, students will use the steps of making a healthy decision, identify consequences of the decision, and determine if the decision is healthy, safe and respectful.	Students will pose as a Secret Agent and complete a series of case files that require a healthy decision to complete the mission. The missions will require students to "think ahead," and determine if places, people or things could lead to unhealthy decisions.	The Stop, Think, Choose model will be used to help students think about the alternatives and possible consequences before making a choice. Students will play a board game where they will review key concepts, identify consequences of decisions and apply the decision-making skills.
3	Refuse to Use	Being Confident & Assertive to Make Healthy Choices	Don't Give in to Peer Pressure: Make Healthy Choices
	The focus is on standing up for yourself and the healthy decisions you make. Students will learn to practice the four aspects of assertive communication including: looking at the person, stating the decision firmly but politely, walking away if pressured continuously, and telling a trusted adult about an unhealthy/unsafe situation.	The lesson will develop assertive communication skills and strategies to be confident and stand up for yourself and your healthy decisions. Students will think about what they will say in a situation, and then practice being assertive in delivering the message with a peer.	Students will practice the "Three Nos and a Walk" refusal technique. Students will apply the refusal technique in two different scenarios. The teacher will debrief the scenarios to reinforce positive influences on healthy choices, and being assertive to make healthy choices.
4	Advocating to be Drug-Free
	Lesson 4 is a lesson enhancement. This lesson could be added as an extension to another lesson or it can be a separate stand-alone lesson if time allows. Students are asked to share what they have learned about healthy choices and express that in a creative manner using a RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic).

6 - 8

Lesson	6th	7th	8th
1	Proper Use v. Misuse	Reasons for Drug Abuse	Influences on Drug Use
	The purpose of this lesson is for students to understand the dangers associated with taking prescription and Over the Counter (OTC) medications inappropriately. Students will discuss perceptions of norms regarding prescription and OTC medications. They will practice identifying proper and improper use of medications by analyzing various scenarios.	This lesson takes a closer look at why some teens use drugs and identify alternatives to drug use. Students will look at influences on behavior and examine how positive personal values, beliefs, and goals for their future can help them make healthy choices. Students develop a visual that includes five reasons to make healthy choices about drugs and medicines.	The purpose of this lesson is to analyze the influence of media on healthy choices, in particular prescription drugs. Students identify other valid and reliable sources of information for healthy use of prescription drugs and medicines. Students develop a message using one of the techniques to encouarge healthy choices about prescription and other drugs.
2	Communication Strategies for Refusing Drugs	Refusal Skills	Refusal & Communication Skills
	Students will understand the key elements and practice verbal and nonverbal communication skills. Students will learn the difference between passive, assertive, and aggressive commuincation and strategies.	The goal of this lesson is for students to gain confidence in using refusal skills. Students will learn refusal strategies to say no to drugs and put them into practice through role plays. Students will analyze the effectiveness of a peer's refusal skill performance.	Students will analyze situations that could lead to drug use and different influences that are present when it comes to peer pressure to apply a refusal skill or strategy that best fits the situation.
3	Making Healthy Decisions about Drug Use	Decision-Making	Effective Communication to Facilitate Healthy Choices
	The purpose of this lesson is to reinforce the decision-making process of Stop, Think, Choose and to identify all the important things they need to consider when making decisions. Students will gain confidence in decision-making by practicing the proper decision-making steps through scenarios.	This lesson is for students to review the Stop, Think, Choose decision-making model and analyze the outcomes of a decision. Students will also identify various influences on the decisions they make and how to combat them to make the healthiest choice.	Lesson 3 will practice decision-making using Stop, Think, Choose and effective communication skills in scenarios. Students will identify possible consequences from making poor choices and gain confidence with how to handle these situations through skills practice and class discussion.
4	Advocating to be Drug-Free
	Lesson 4 - Advocating to be Drug-Free by writing a letter that encourages a 5th grader to make drug-free choices when they get to middle school. (Lesson 4 is an additional that can be used as a culminating assessment in middle school.)

9 - 12

1	2	3
Drug Use & Its Impact on You	Addiction	Proper Use of Prescription and OTC Medicines
Students will discuss appropriate and inappropriate uses of a drug, explore reasons why a person would abuse a drug, and find alternatives to drug use. Students will explore the scope of the problem by analyzing the impact of drug use on relationships, society, and the user's health, education, and future.	Students will take a closer look at the stages of addiction. The lesson uses scenarios to help students understand addiction leads to a progression of consequences on themselves and others they care about. Students will write a personal anti-drug message stating specific reasons to make healthy and drug-free choices.	Students will identify the characteristics of appropriate use, storage and disposal of OTC and prescription medicines. Students will describe the consequences associated with misuse of medicine. Students will read scenarios and identify proper use/misuse and alternatives to medicine misuse.
4	5	6
Decision-Making	Opioid Abuse Prevention	Influences on Drug Use
Students will apply the Stop, Think, Choose model in scenarios. Students will apply their knowledge about prescription and other drugs to identify the healthy choice. A class discussion will identify others who could be helpful and a positive influence in making healthy, drug-free choices.	Students will identify the consequences associated with opioid use. Students will analyze the impact opioid use has on an individual's health, relationships with loved ones, career opportunities, academic success, and the communities where they live.	Students will identify various biological, psychological, environmental and social influences on drug use. Students will also describe the influence of risk and protective factors in regard to drug use. Students will develop strategies to overcome these influencers and identify healthy choices.
7	8	9
Refusal Skills	Avoiding Driving or Riding with a Person Under the Influence	Getting Help
Students will practice peer resistance skills in role play scenarios. By the end of this lesson, students will have multiple strategies to keep them safe from the pressures associated with drug use.	Students will analyze situations to understand the dangers associated with impaired driving. Students will practice what to say and do if they want to prevent a person from driving while under the influence.	Students will learn how to get help for themselves and/or others who are dealing with drug addiction. They will learn how to identify warning signs and the proper steps for getting help. Students will practice demonstrating empathy to reach out and support the individual while also seeking out help from others.
Lesson 10 - Advocating to be Drug-Free
Lesson 10 is an advocacy lesson where students will put the skills and information they have learned from the unit into action by formulating a drug-free promotion message for their target audience.