Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Conflict

For our last lesson of the year, I reviewed the 3 different ways we respond to conflict.  With our older students I go into the brain stem and our reptilian brain's fight/flight/freeze, but in the lower grades I found a great alternative that is much more developmentally appropriate from The School Counselor's Chronicle.  I started by showing them this hilarious video on conflict, compliments of Sesame Street and Robin Williams:



Then I introduce the 3 ways we respond to conflict as human beings: like a mouse, like a monster, or like me.  We wrote down examples of how each would respond to a conflict in our flip book.  For example, a mouse might ignore, stay quiet, etc.  A monster might yell, push back, etc.  Me might be assertive, use I Message, etc.  We created flipbooks to help learn about each of our possible reactions and discuss which works the best.



After we had a clear understanding of each of the 3 types of responses, we acted them out.  I printed out large masks of a mouse and a monster for students to wear to show the different ways we might respond. 

  
Some of the role plays included:
  • My friend won't play with me.
  • He poked me.
  • She called me names.
  • He cut in line.
  • Ms. Sepp didn't pick me to act out scenarios. :)

9 comments:

  1. Great Concept. I have used this a few times already this year in individual sessions when needing to address behaviors with some of my "regulars". The visual of "monster" and "mouse" really hits home.

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  2. This is a great idea which i shall definitely use in my class - thanks for sharing it :)

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  3. Love that this comes with discussion, role-playing and visuals that allow the kids to 'act' without being 'themselves.'

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    1. Thank you Kathleen. Yes, with second graders I like to get them up and moving!

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  4. LOVE this! Thanks for sharing. Where can I find more information about how you teach Conflict Resolution to 4th and 5th graders?

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    1. Search for "I Messages" and our "Peace Path." We use scripts and peer mediation to help the older students resolve conflict successfully.

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  5. I'm excited to try this activity with some of my clients this evening! Thank you for sharing your ideas!

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