What is a Conflict?

 Standards: Content Standard Social Studies Standard C (Political Science and Citizenship)

            NCSS:

·         Have learners compare and evaluate the impact of stereotyping, conformity, acts of altruism, discrimination, and other behaviors on individuals and groups.

·         Help learners to explain conditions and motivations that contribute to conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among groups, societies, and nations.

            MMSD:

·         Demonstrate empathy for feelings of others.

·         Exhibit group membership traits by being trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and by demonstrating accountability for actions, displaying self direction and showing pride.

            UW Madison Teacher Education:

·         Standard 1: Incorporates Understanding of Human Learning and Development – All children feel angry and get into conflicts with other students at school or kids in the neighborhood or siblings.  Understanding how children cope with these feelings and how to help them think of healthy ways to deal with conflict.

Materials Needed:

·         When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry…by Molly Bang

·         Paper

·         Coloring Utensils

Objectives:

Students will be able to identify the feeling of anger and how to appropriately handle the emotion.
Students will be able to define what a conflict is and a healthy way to handle a conflict.

Lesson Context:

Students spent some time discussing feelings and emotions and how to change how they are feeling.  Also, we have learned that we are all friends and that we have to respect and care for our friends.  We all feel angry sometimes and have disagreements with our friends but we need to learn to identify the conflict and deal with it appropriately.

Lesson Opening:

Provide each student with a piece of white paper and have them get out crayons, markers, colored pencils etc.  Have the students draw on the paper a time when they were really angry.  They can draw the scenario or they can make a drawing that represents their feelings at the time.

Procedures:

Have the students bring their papers over to the rug and have a seat.  Let each student share the time that they were really angry and how it made them feel.  Once each child has shared their story tell them that you are going to read a story about a little girl who gets very angry.  Read When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry…by Molly Bang.

Discuss what Sophie is angry about and how she handles her anger.  Is it a good or a bad way to handle anger?  Have a discussion about healthy ways to deal with anger.  We all know that physical bullying through violence is not acceptable but do we all understand that using our words to bully is not acceptable either?

     Hand a student an apple and ask the student to hit the apple against the floor and then pass it on to the next student and ask them to do the same.  Make sure the apple makes its way around the circle.  Ask the students if it looks like the apple is hurt.  The apple should not have any bruises so it looks like we did not harm it at all.  A person who has been called names and been verbally abused will look the same, like they aren’t hurt on the outside.
     Cut the apple open and show the students all of the bruises that the apple has on the inside.  Even though the apple looked unharmed on the outside, it is harmed and hurt on the inside just like a kid who is verbally bullied.

Some of our stories are when we get angry by ourselves but sometimes we are angry with other people.  Can anybody tell me what a conflict is?  Listen to students responses, eventually make the point that a conflict is between two or more people when they don’t agree on something.  What are some different conflicts that could come up in our classroom?  Examples would be sharing supplies, playing games on the playground, or deciding on an activity in the classroom.

Share with students that everyone has conflicts but what is important is how we handle the conflict.  Is it okay to feel mad?  Yes it is, but is it okay to take your anger out on another person.  No it is not.  We need to use our words when dealing with conflict and make sure to listen to both sides without interrupting and come up with a solution.

Closure:

Now that we know what a conflict is we will practice how to deal with a conflict which is called conflict resolution.  Tomorrow we are going to learn how to resolve a conflict so no one gets hurt.

Assessment:

Informal: Monitor students’ ability to show anger through their drawings and expressing that anger with their words when sharing with classmates.
Informal: Watch students as they listen to the story and answer questions throughout the story. 
Informal: Listen to the discussion while students are discussing what to do when they feel mad.  Are their answers appropriate?