Using a conflict theme

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="21d005a0dvldtc.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Arial" >PT3 Readers are Leaders</FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FF6600" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>    |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PT3 Readers are Leaders"><U>home</U></A>    |<A HREF="home54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Activity Room"><U> Training Room</U></A>  | <A HREF="home.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reading Room"><U>Reading Room</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id86.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Analyzing a book with a journey to ident"><U>Analyzing a book with a journey to identity theme</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id99.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writing activities"><U>Writing activities</U></A>   |   <B>Using a conflict theme</B>   |   <A HREF="id88.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Role playing"><U>Role playing</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id89.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Asking Questions"><U>Asking Questions</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id90.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Using Visual Strategies"><U>Using Visual Strategies</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id91.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Literary terms"><U>Literary terms</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id92.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shared Reading"><U>Shared Reading</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id93.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Community Connections"><U>Community Connections</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id94.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Small group discussions "><U>Small group discussions </U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#FFCC00" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Goals:</div> <div> 1.  To improve skills in resolving one's own conflicts</div> <div> 2.  To explore the role of conflict in literature</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFCC00" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Using a conflict theme</div> <div> <B>Using a Conflict Theme</B></div> <div> <B>TO TEACH LITERATURE AND LIFE SKILLS</B></div> <div> Some of the materials in this unit were developed by Barbara Stanford as part of a project supported by the Arkansas Humanities Council.</div> <bR> <div> Everyone has conflicts daily.  Novels and short stories are usually organized around conflicts. These activities help you combine a study of conflict in literature with learning skills for resolving conflicts in your own life more effectively.</div> <bR> <div> Activity:  Conflict in Literature Scavenger Hunt</div> <div> Make copies of the handout for everyone.  At the signal, everyone should stand up and search for someone in the class who can identify a literary work that answers the question. That person puts the answer on their sheet. Each person can only answer once. The person to complete the whole sheet first wins.</div> <bR> <div> <B>HANDOUT: CONFLICT IN LITERATURE SCAVENGER HUNT</B></div> <div> Think of a work of literature that fits the following categories. Write the title and your initials on it. Then ask your classmates to fill in the other titles. Each person can contribute one title.</div> <bR> <div> The main character defeated his/her opponent</div> <div> The main character was defeated by his/her opponent</div> <div> Everyone ended up happy.   </div> <div> Everyone ended up dead or unhappy.</div> <div> The main character liked to fight.</div> <div> The main character was afraid to stand up for his/her rights.</div> <div> The main character solved conflicts skillfully.</div> <div> The main character really messed up.</div> <div> The story made me want to cry.</div> <div> The story made me angry.</div> <div> The story made me happy.</div> <div> The story bored me.</div> <div> A short story or novel that does not have a conflict.</div> <div> There was a conflict between people and nature.</div> <div> There was a conflict between two people.</div> <div> A character had an inner conflict.</div> <bR> <div> If students cannot find answers to all of the questions, stop the game and discuss. How frequent is conflict in literature? Could anyone think of a short story or novel that did not involve a conflict. (Debate whether such a story is possible.) </div> <bR> <div> Activity:  Fictional Conflict Diary</div> <div> 1.  Ask group members to think of a name for a fictional student their age.  Brainstorm all of the conflicts this fictional person might have during the day, starting with waking up in the morning and including traveling to school, during school and after school.  Keep the brainstormed list on a blackboards, newsprint, or computer discussion list to use for other activities in this unit.  </div> <div> 2.  Discuss the kinds of conflicts the person has.  Categorize them as conflicts with another person, conflicts with self, or conflicts with society or nature.</div> <div> 3.  Discuss how the conflict diary is like a short story or novel and how it is different.  Note that in a novel, the character makes a consistent pattern of responses to conflicts that lead up to a climax. </div> <div> 4.   You may want to turn the conflict diary into a short story by giving the character a conflict style and then choosing conflicts which lead to a climax.  You may want to try out several characters with the same conflicts.</div> <bR> <div> <I>Activity: Personal Conflict Journal</I></div> <bR> <div> Keep your own conflict journal. Every day list and briefly describe the conflicts in which you were involved.  Notice the patterns in the types of conflicts you have and in ways you respond to conflicts. If you follow the suggestions of this unit, you can draw from your conflict journal to write more extended paragraphs, essays or narratives </div> <bR> <div> <B>Activity:  Active Listening Training</B></div> <bR> <div> 1.  Explain that one of the basic skills for effective literature discussions as well as for interpersonal conflict management is listening to another person in ways that encourage them to speak clearly and in ways that help you to understand what they are thinking.</div> <div> 2.  Explain that you are going to do a demonstration of bad listening and then of good listening. Ask a student with a lot of self-confidence who is usually a fluent talker to help you with the demonstration. Tell the rest of the students to note down everything you do in the first part that shows bad listening and everything you do the second time that shows good listening.</div> <div> 3.  Ask the student who is demonstrating with you to talk about a movie or TV show he or she has seen that demonstrates conflicts.</div> <div> 4.  For the first demonstration, as soon as the student begins talking, start demonstrating bad listening. Be distracted. Ask irrelevant questions. Talk about yourself etc. Stop the demonstration before the student becomes too frustrated. </div> <div> 5.  For the second demonstration, ask the student to continue talking. This time show good listening. Show body language that indicates attention. Ask questions to encourage him or her to go into more detail. Summarize to check your comprehension.</div> <div> 6.  Ask students to make a list of characteristics of bad and good listening. Point out that a good listener is an encourager who en encourages the speaker to express himself well. Handout the scorecard for listeners and have students compare their list with the list on the scorecard. </div> <div> 7.  Divide students into groups of three. The person whose birthday comes first in the year will be the first talker. The person whose birthday is second will be the listener, and the third person will be the scorekeeper. The talker will talk about a book, movie or television program with a conflict. The listener will try to learn as much about it by listening and encouraging the speaker.</div> <div> 8.  The scorekeeper will mark each time the speaker does something on the scorecard. After two or three minutes, the scorekeeper will report to the listener, and then the students will change roles.</div> <div> Note on your score sheet each of the following that you see the person doing.</div> <div> 1. Eye contact</div> <div> 2. Lean forward</div> <div> 3. Encouraging questions--tell me more</div> <div> 4. Restating or reflecting--So you are saying that....</div> <div> 5. Summarizing--Let me put this all together</div> <div> 6. "I'm listening noises," "uh-huh, Ok, Yeah.....</div> <div> 7. Look away</div> <div> 8. Fiddling or doing something else</div> <div> 9. Attacking or challenging or making judgments</div> <div> 10. Interrupting</div> <div> 11. Stating own opinion--Taking the floor away from</div> <bR> <div> RATER</div> <div> Share the scores with the listener. If possible, be specific about the comments and behaviors you marked.</div> <bR> <div> LISTENER</div> <div> After you get your scorecard, set goals for how you will improve your listening in the next activity.</div> <bR> <div> Activity:  Choice Points/Plot</div> <div> The ability to follow a sequence of events or a chain of causes and effects is fundamental to both literature and conflict management. Most students master these skills in early elementary school, but some students, particularly students with attention deficit disorder, may still need work on these skills in high school.</div> <div> A basic rule of conflict management is that the earlier you intervene in a chain of events, the more likely you are to reach a win-win solution. Identifying a conflict early and predicting problems is a basic skill of conflict management.</div> <div> 1. Lead students through plotting the sequence of actions in a short story or novel. Then explain the pattern of a plot and have students put their choice points on a plot line. </div> <div> 2. With more sophisticated students, you might want to point out that not all narratives follow this pattern. Some other cultures conceive life as a series of cycles where things seem to go in a circle. Modern writers sometimes deliberately distort this pattern for effect. More sophisticated students may enjoy looking for exceptions to this pattern.</div> <div> 3. Choose a short story in which the main character obviously makes a series of poor choices. Guide the students through constructing a plot line, marking each of the decision points.</div> <div> 4.  For each of the choice points, have students either brainstorm or role play all of the possible choices.</div> <div> To role play the choice points, call up one student to play the main antagonist and four or five students to play the main character. Have the first pair play the scene as it happened in the story. Have each of the other students demonstrate a different way the main character could have acted. Let them try out all kinds of absurd solutions. Then have the class decide what the consequences of that choice would probably have been. Would they have led to win/win, win/lose, or lose/lose solutions?</div> <div> 5. Discussion:</div> <div> Were there better choices that the main character could have made? If so, why didn't they make a better choice? </div> <bR> <div> <B>HANDOUT: CHOICE POINTS AND PLOT</B></div> <div> Draw a timeline or make a list showing all of the choices that the character in your story made that related to the main conflict in the order in which they happened. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> Match your timeline to the following typical plot of an American story.  </div> <bR> <div> 1. Action is introduced by the exposition in which the situation is presented.  Here we meet the characters and find out the conflicts they face.(Usually first chapter)</div> <div> 2. A characters make a series of choices or actions called the rising action.</div> <div> 3. The choices lead to a final decision called the climax.</div> <div> 3. The resolution of the conflict becomes clear in the denoument or ending.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Assignment:  Personal Choice Points</B></div> <div> 1. Choose a conflict with another person from your journal that continued for more than one day. Draw a timeline or make a list showing all of the choices or actions that you have made related to that conflict. Does this conflict follow the pattern of a short story plot?</div> <div> 2. At each of the choice points list three or more different ways you could have handled the conflict.</div> <div> 3. Write a narrative telling what you think would have happened if you had chosen a different way to behave at one of the choice points.</div> <bR> <div> Activity:  Character and Conflict Style</div> <div>      People do not always make wise choices. Writers explore the character traits and the motives that make people choose one course or another. A good writer describes a character in such depth that the plot grows out of the character's personal weaknesses and strengths. </div> <div>     Conflict management specialists focus on one dimension of character development, conflict management style. A person's conflict management style is their preferred way of dealing with conflicts. It is a combination, perhaps, of an inborn temperment and learned behavior. Every culture teaches preferred ways of dealing with conflicts. In most cultures, males and females are taught different ways of dealing with conflict.</div> <bR> <div> 1. Give students the flight, fight, or think handout and lead them through the questions. Discuss the way your body feels when you are in a conflict. Point out that the body tends to prepare you to fight or flee by tensing muscles and moving blood to muscles instead of your brain. Have students discuss ways of relieving these tensions. </div> <div> 2. Role play several simple conflict situations with students showing fight, flight, and talk responses.</div> <div> 3. Have students fill out the "What is your conflict style" handout. Put the words "flight," "fight," and "think" at the top of columns on the blackboard. Have students put the responses into the three categories. (Note that some, such as argue, could fit under either fight or think.) Have students add up the number of responses of each type they have marked "frequently." Note that no style is right or wrong, but that usually people with a balance of styles or with more in the "think" column are more successful than those with strong fight or flight styles. </div> <div> 4. Discuss the conflict management style of literary characters.</div> <div> Have students role play the conflicts of the story with a character with a different conflict style. How does the story change? Note that plot and character are closely related.</div> <div> Discuss whether the character in the story is capable of learning a new style? If not, why not? If so, why doesn't the character change?</div> <bR> <div> <B>HANDOUT:  FLIGHT, FIGHT OR THINK</B></div> <div>    When two dogs have a conflict, they can either fight or one can run away. Human beings have those two choices, but they have a third choice which is to talk and think about a solution.</div> <div>   <B> Fight:</B>  an aggressive approach.  You seek your goals with no consideration for others.  You can fight with words or physically.</div> <div>    <B>Flight:</B>  a submissive or giving in response.  You can run away physically or you can withdraw or hide or just give in. </div> <div>    <B>Think:</B>  You stop and try to work out a solution that will work for both people.  You may negotiate or divide something fairly.</div> <div>  </div> <div>    Fight and flight are instincts. When you are in a conflict, your body responds by getting you ready to fight or run. Sometimes those are the best choices, but usually they are not. Fight and flight never lead to a win-win solution. You have to learn other ways to deal with conflict if you want to reach win-win solutions.</div> <div> Most people have one style of dealing with conflicts that they jump to automatically. A good conflict manager is able to choose the style that is most likely to work in that situation.</div> <div> 1. Brainstorm situations or think of examples from literature when fighting was the best choice.</div> <div> 2. Brainstorm situations or think of examples from literature when running away was the best choice.</div> <div> 3. Brainstorm situations when thinking and talking was the best choice.</div> <bR> <div> WHAT IS YOUR CONFLICT STYLE?</div> <div> Note which of the following ways you respond to conflict.  Label them as fight, flight or think. </div> <bR> <div> 1. walk away</div> <div> 2. walk away and pout</div> <div> 3. make a rude comment</div> <div> 4. use a put down</div> <div> 5. hit the other person</div> <div> 6. attack with a weapon</div> <div> 7. let someone else solve it</div> <div> 8. compromise</div> <div> 9. stay firm on my position</div> <div> 10. give in to the other person</div> <div> 11. ignore the conflict</div> <div> 12. try to understand the other person's point of view.</div> <div> 13. try to find a solution both of us will like.</div> <div> 14. talk it over with the other person</div> <div> 15. get someone else to help</div> <div> 16. avoid the other person</div> <div> 17. argue</div> <div> 18. try not to hurt the other person's feelings.</div> <div> 19. make a bit deal of it and show off in front of my friends.</div> <div> Writing suggestion: Go through your journal and mark each of your conflicts according to your response F=fight, R=run away, T=think or talk.</div> <div> Write a paragraph describing your usual approach to conflict and how well it works for you.</div> <div> Choose a character from a novel or short story. Write a character sketch focusing on the person's conflict management style.</div> <bR> <div> ACTIVITY: SETTING/SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT</div> <div> Conflicts between two people do not occur in a vacuum. The way two people work out a conflict depends a lot on the culture they have been raised in and the government and social system they are a part of. Almost all societies have a police force to deal with people whose behavior is unacceptable to the whole society.</div> <bR> <div> 1. Ask students which of the following are appropriate foods for breakfast?</div> <div> a. Cereal</div> <div> b. Red beans, rice and tortillas</div> <div> c. Pizza</div> <div> 2. Ask students why some foods seem appropriate for breakfast and others do not? Explain that eating is a basic human need, but each culture decides and trains people in how to fill the need.</div> <div> We become so accustomed to our way of doing things that we find it hard to imagine doing things other ways.</div> <div> 3. Point out that on a deeper level culture influences a person's values and choices. While almost all cultures value love, loyalty, beauty, and honor, they sometimes have different ideas about how these should be expressed, and which is most important if a person has to make a hard choice. One way of looking at cultural values is to look at the kind of people the culture sees as the model. </div> <div> This is a theme you will frequently find in literature--either a character who is held up as a model as in an epic poem or a character who tries to live us to the society's ideals. Note how the character is shaped by the society's ideals. Try to identify the ideals of the culture.</div> <div> 4. As you look at literature of other cultures, look first at the underlying universal human needs. What about this story is true of all people? Then look at cultural differences. What are the small, everyday differences in the way people behave like the choice of breakfast foods. Are there deeper value choices that are different from those that a person in our culture would have made?</div> <div> 5. An important caution in looking at culture and literature is to recognize that literary characters are usually not typical of their culture. Because the impact of a literary work is so powerful, a student may generalize about a whole culture from a literary character. It is important to discuss how this character fits into the society. Is he or she typical or very unusual. Is he someone that lives by his cultural values or rebels against them? </div> <div> Setting the story in its historical, cultural, and statistical context is useful. Have a student for extra credit figure out the date the story is set and the location within the country, and look up economic, urbanization, and educational data to help the class locate the character within the setting. </div> <bR> <div> ACTIVITY: SETTING/GAMES SOCIETY PLAYS</div> <div> The choices that an individual makes are limited and affected by structures of the society. </div> <bR> <div> 1. PECKING ORDER</div> <div> When a group of chickens are put together, they start pecking each other until a clear order is established of from the strongest which can peck on any other chicken to the weakens that all can peck on. Once the order is established, they don't have to peck any more because everyone knows where they stand. This is called a pecking order.</div> <div> Ask students if people form pecking orders? In a story students have recently read, ask if they can rank the characters according to pecking order. What conflicts involved people trying to establish their place in a pecking order?</div> <div> 2. Almost all societies have some kind of pecking order, ranks or status. However, the society can set up a pecking order in two ways. </div> <div> In a win/win society, the pecking order is set up so that people gain status by doing things that help the group as a whole.</div> <div> For example, a person may gain the highest status by hosting a holiday celebration for everyone else or by supporting the school or the church.</div> <div> In a lose/lose society, the pecking order is set up so that people gain status by doing things that hurt the group as a whole.</div> <div> In this type of society, people get high status by cruelty or destructive behavior. Once such a pattern gets set up in a society, it is difficult to change.</div> <div> Have students think of examples from real life or from literature of win/win societies and lose/lose societies. In a complex society like ours, there are usually some institutions that work on a lose/lose pattern and others that work on a win/win pattern.</div> <div> 3. If a person or a character in a book behaves in a way that doesn't seem logical, his behavior is often in response to the status rules of his society. Identify such examples in literature.</div> <bR> <div> Activity:  Winners and Losers (Exploring Theme in Literature)</div> <div> Winning and losing are important concepts in conflict management. Most people confuse defeating an opponent with winning. Skilled conflict managers, however, look for ways in which both sides can win. Writers often ask questions about what it means to win.</div> <bR> <div> 1. Tell students that they are going to begin the class with an activity. Ask them to choose a partner and to sit at desks or a table facing the partner. Choose one student to demonstrate. Put your hands together in the position for arm wrestling. Tell students that the goal is to touch their partner's arm to the desk as many times as possible in one minute.</div> <div> 2. Let them try the activity. Most students will see the "arm wrestling" position and will struggle against their opponents. A few may hear the instructions to get as many points as possible and realize that they can each get far more points by cooperating.</div> <div> 3. After a minute is up, ask how many got thirty points or more. Point out that it is easy to get thirty points and that anyone with less has lost badly. Tell students that those who failed can have two minutes to discuss their performance with their partner and look for another strategy. Then let them try again. </div> <div> 4. Discuss the activity. Why did people assume that the goal was to compete against their partner? How did they change their minds?</div> <div> 5. Explain to students that we usually assume that conflicts have two possible solutions. One or the other person can win. However, most conflicts can have at least four possible solutions. Both sides can lose or both sides can win. Have students give examples of several stories which illustrate each outcome. . </div> <div> 3. Discuss a scene in a work of literature. Who won and who lost? Or did both win?  Or did both lose?  </div> <div> How would the story have been different if both had won or both lost? Can you retell the story making a different person the winner? Making both winners? Making both losers?</div> <div>      Would a different ending really be possible with these characters and this situation? What else would you have to change? </div> <div> 5. In games it's easy to see the winner and loser, but in real life and in literature, sometimes a person wins by losing or loses by winning. A character may win what he wanted, but then discover that something else was more valuable?  Often the main message of a piece of literature is about what it means to win. What would you say that this piece of literature says winning is?  Is this the theme of the novel or story?</div> <bR> <div> ACTIVITY: POINT OF VIEW</div> <div> The concept that different people see things differently is critical to both literary analysis and to conflict management. It is a concept which few early adolescents have mastered.</div> <bR> <div> 1. Begin by illustrating physical point of view--that what a person sees from one physical position is different than what one sees from another place. </div> <div> To illustrate this, arrange several objects on your desk so that some cannot be seen by all students. Ask students to write a list of the things on the desk. Then have them compare their lists. Introduce the term "point of view" and explain that what a person sees depends on where they are. </div> <div> Use photographs to illustrate how the camera angle influences what the person sees. </div> <div> 2. Explain that even two people who are standing in the same place will see different things because they look differently. Ask questions such as the following and point out that some people notice such details and that others do not.</div> <div> a. What colors was I wearing yesterday?</div> <div> b. How many windows are in the front of the school building?</div> <div> c. What was for lunch in the cafeteria yesterday?</div> <div> d. What was the first announcement over the intercom yesterday? </div> <div> 3. Role reversal. Have students role play a conflict from literature. Halfway through, have them shift roles. At the end, have them describe how the conflict looked different from the point of view of each of the characters.</div> <div> 4. Explain that in literature, the author may tell the story from the point of view of one of the characters--leaving the reader to know only what that character knew. Or the author may use omniscient or "all-seeing" point of view in which the reader sees things that the characters do not. The author may use first person point of view in which the character tells the story, referring to himself as "I," or third person point of view, in which the character is referred to as he or she (the third person pronoun.)</div> <div> 5. Explain that culture influences what people see in a situation. Culture trains us to see what is important in a situation. For example, a hunter/gatherer culture trains children to notice plants, animals and the landscape. American culture trains people to keep one eye on the clock. </div> <div> Writing assignment:</div> <div> Choose a conflict from literature. Rewrite it from the point of view of a different character.</div> <bR> <div> ACTIVITY:  STYLE/WORD CHOICE</div> <div> Careful choice of words is important in both writing and in conflict management. </div> <div> Adolescent conflicts often start from name calling or insults.</div> <div> Today's adolescent insult contest may be partly descended from some African societies in which the insult contest was a highly sophisticated form of conflict management which served much as a duel did in Europe. However, the historical insult contest served as a substitute for physical violence, while among adolescents today it often leads to violence.</div> <div> Training students in conflict management involves teaching them skill in word choice. Students need to learn to give accurate and detailed descriptions of their own point of view and their own feelins. They need to recognize the emotional impact of their word choice on the other person.</div> <div> These choices are similar to the choices that a writer makes in choosing words that will both describe the scene accurately and will create the intended effect on the reader.</div> <div> Activities</div> <div> 1. Choose a story in which a character is described in detail. Rewrite the description to make the reader feel differently about the character.</div> <div> 2. Present students with the following situation.</div> <div> Robert and Tina have been going together for a few weeks, but they are starting to fight. Tina thinks Robert does not treat her with enough respect. Robert thinks Tina flirts with other men too much and dresses like she is asking for trouble. In their last quarrel, Tina asked, "Well, how do you want me to dress?" and Robert</div> <div> asked, "How do you want me to treat you differently."</div> <div> Write an answer for Robert or Tina that will explain clearly what they want in words that do not insult or make the other person angry.</div> <div> 3. Discuss the use of language and dialect in literature. Note that most people have a tendency to assume that a person who speaks their own language well or a high prestige language is more intelligence. People particularly tend to judge as dumb someone who uses a different dialect of their own language or who speaks it as a second language and does not speak it well.  Discuss the intentions of an author in using dialect.</div> <bR> <div> ACTIVITY: PROCEDURES FOR RESOLVING CONFLICTS</div> <div> Explain to students that sometimes a conflict can be resolved more effectively if people follow a procedure. Sometimes it is helpful to have a conflict manager or mediator to help them. The following handouts include simple procedures for resolving conflicts and a dramatication of an elementary school peer mediator helping other students resolve a conflict. Many schools have a peer mediator program. If your school has one, invite a peer mediator to explain their procedures to the class.</div> <div> After the class learns the procedure, you can use it to role play conflicts in a book to examine alternative solutions or you can use it to resolve actual class conflicts.</div> <bR> <div> <B>HANDOUT: CLASSROOM MEDIATION OF GROUP CONFLICTS</B></div> <div> Step I:</div> <div> Mediator: Do you both want to solve the conflict? </div> <div> Are you willing to listen carefully to each other and try to understand each other's point of view?</div> <div> Are you willing to explain what you want the other person to do differently?</div> <div> (If both agree, proceed.)</div> <bR> <div> Mediator:</div> <div> First, ask one person to tell as specifically as possible what he or she wants the other person to do differently. Help that person focus on positive changes they want the other person to make. At the end ask the listener to summarize what the speaker said.</div> <div> Second, follow the same procedure in reverse.</div> <div> Third: Depending on the nature of the conflict, either ask both people to brainstorm solutions or ask each person what he or she is willing and feels able to do to solve the conflict.</div> <div> Fourth: Put the solution in writing and have both people sign it. Agree on a time to check back to see how the solution is working.</div> <div> Fifth: Check back to see if the solution is working. If it is not or if there are some problems with it, renegotiate. Point out that it is difficult for people to change habits, and it often takes reminders and renegotiations.</div> <bR> <div> <B>HANDOUT: ROLE PLAYS TO PRACTICE MEDIATION</B></div> <div> 1. John and Mary have been assigned to the same group. The last time they were in the same group Mary felt that John didn't do his share of the work, and John felt that Mary was always putting him down. She did over everything he did anyway. </div> <div> 2. Christal and Brook have gotten in numerous arguments outside class over boys. They refuse to speak to each other, or they start yelling at each other and insulting each other. Try to negotiate and "in-class truce." Do not try to solve the issues they are fighting over outside class.</div> <bR> <div> <B>HANDOUT: Dramatization of Elementary Student Conflict Managers </B></div> <div> Background:</div> <div> Johnny and Joe are 4th grade boys and are playing basketball and are about to get into a fight. The student mediator(s) come up to intervene.</div> <div> Mediator 1: Would you like us to help you solve your conflict?</div> <div> Johnny: (He'd really rather fight, but sees the teacher in the background.) I guess so.</div> <div> Joe: Ok.</div> <div> Mediator 2: Will you agree to the following rules?</div> <div> No name calling.</div> <div> Take turns talking. No interrupting.</div> <div> Try to solve the problem.</div> <div> Johnny and Joe. Yes. I guess so.</div> <div> Mediator 1: Now, Johnny, why don't you tell me your story.</div> <div> Johnny: Well my friends and I were playing basketball and Joe asked if he could play. We didn't want him to play because he always gets rough and bumps into people and starts fights. So we said no. He got mad and pushed me and took the ball away from me.</div> <div> Mediator 2: Ok, Joe, why don't you tell us your side of the story. </div> <div> Joe: Well Johnny and his friends seem to think they own the basketball court. They always come out here and hog it and don't let anyone else play. I've got as much right to play as anyone.</div> <div> Mediator 1: Johnny, do you have any ideas about what you could do to solve the problem.</div> <div> Johnny: (Looking longingly at the basketball court where all of his friends are playing.) I guess we could let Joe play if he wouldn't bump into people or pick fights.</div> <div> Mediator 2: Joe, can you think of anything you could do to solve the problem?</div> <div> Joe: I can be careful and not pick fights.</div> <div> Mediator 1: Do you think this will solve your problem.</div> <div> Both boys: Yes. Can we go back to play.</div> <div> Mediator: Congratulations. You have resolved your conflict.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>