Conflict resolution

General

Unfortunately, conflict is inevitable in life. It's important that we accept this so that we can learn and use productive strategies to work through conflict when it happens. When faced with conflict, it is normal to feel upset or stressed, but we should try to stay as calm as possible so that we can try to think through a solution or compromise that works for both parties. Although conflict is usually unpleasant, finding productive solutions to conflict is an important part of life that teaches us to empathize with the feelings of others and truly listen to their perspective and what we have to say. When we work through conflict, we grow as a result.

Learning objective

Students will be able to recognize different classroom conflicts and work together and on their own to solve them.

Introduction

Start by discussing the term conflict and defining it for the students. Discuss conflicts that the students may have had and ways in which they respond to conflict. Together with students, see if you can determine which of the presented images shows a conflict. Then expand the discussion on conflict and focus on conflict within the classroom and that students can learn how to resolve conflict peacefully.

Instruction

Teach students the STAR method. Explain that it stands for Stop, Think, Act, Review, and explain how each step can be used. Introduce the petals of peace and give students some vocabulary to help them start a conversation about conflict. Next, explain that conflict can be resolved for all situations. Discuss the examples given. Together as a class, brainstorm ways in which the student can resolve their situation. Next, give students the wheel of choices. These are all things that they can do individually before needing to ask a teacher or adult for help. Have students work in pairs and come up with a way to resolve the given situation. How are their responses different? Make sure to emphasize that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for conflicts and resolutions. Present students with a situation and have them determine which actions the character should do and should not do.

Quiz

Students are first given a set of true/false questions to check their understanding of key concepts of the lesson. They are then given multiple-choice questions in which they must select a correct action in response to a conflict, or suggest a response to a conflict.

Closing

The closing activity presents a hypothetical conflict in which two students want to read the same book during an assigned reading period. To work through this issue, have the students work in pairs to come up with a resolution for the given conflict.

Teaching tips

At some point during the lesson, you might choose to discuss that there are small conflicts and big conflicts and that the tools from this lesson are focused on small conflict. The ideas remain the same, but it is much harder in big conflicts to come to a resolution quickly.