Allison Miller

ED 619
November 13, 2017

Responsibility Lesson

Candidate Name: Allison Miller Host Teacher Name: Karen Bornheimer

School: Susan B. English Grade Level: K-6 # of Students: 19
Date & Time of Lesson: 11/7/17, 1:10 pm Length of Lesson: 3/4 hour
Topic of Lesson: Conflict Resolution Content Area: Health
Materials:
“Temper Keeper”- Chart paper with a large thermometer drawn against the edge of one
vertical side to chart student input
Arguments Between Friends handouts

Alaska Standard: Health Education Standard B. 1

STAGE ONE STAGE TWO

Objective(s) Student Assessment

1.Students will be able to resolve conflicts
peacefully,
2. Students will classify different reactions
to conflict
3. Students will apply what they have
learned by role-playing real life
conflicts
1. Input on “Temper Keeper” (formative)
2. Solutions listed on Arguments Between
Friends handouts (summative)
3. Teacher observations of students role-
playing their solutions (Performance)

STAGE THREE: Opportunities to Learn

Introduction/Hook
Has anyone ever had a problem or an argument with a friend? Raise of hands.
What is an argument? Ask for a younger student’s definition.
Two or more people don’t agree or have different wishes.
Disagreements aren’t always a bad thing! They can be good sometimes, because if we solve
them peacefully, we can learn new things!
What does that mean? To solve a problem peacefully?
Today we are going to learn about some ways that we can solve problems with friends
peacefully.
Processes and Products
Temper Keeper: This is a thermometer
for our reactions. We are going to think
of some reaction we might have to
arguments and decide whether they’re
hot or cold reactions. For example my
sister and I once got in an argument at
our family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Our
dad always ate one of the drumsticks,
and both my sister and I both wanted
the other one. I stuck out my tongue at
her and stomped off. My head was
steaming and I was angry! Do you
think my reaction was hot or cold? My
sister pretended to cry so that I would
feel really bad and ignored us all until
she got the other drumstick. She was
like a black cloud at the table
threatening to rain. Was her reaction
hot or cold?
Students will give their input on
different possible reactions to conflict.
Teacher will write examples down in
the approximate temperature range.
Write down a good variety of hot, cold,
and medium temperature responses:
yell, ignore, hit, apologize, talk it out,
take turns, etc. Make sure to include
Kelso’s choices: wait to cool down, go
somewhere else, talk it out, share and
take turns, ignore it, walk away, tell
them to stop, apologize, make a deal.
Differentiation/Accommodations/Modifications
The method used in this activity should not
exclude any learning differences. In order to be
sure all students are participating and the
teacher can pre-assess all students, the teacher
may wish to employ the cold-calling strategy to
involve those students less likely to raise their
hands. Or the teacher could do a round-robin
input strategy. Any way the teacher chooses to
assess prior knowledge, it’s important that the
teacher gets a good variety of input.
It’s also important that the teacher attempt to
connect all student input to the Temper Keeper,
even if it is a repeated suggestion or maybe too
specific to write down, or maybe a little off base.
Try to relate what each student says to the
reaction continuum.
Also be sure to refer orally frequently to the place
you’re putting the comment on the continuum.
Request more reactions from the end of the
spectrum with less input so there are
approximately equally distributed reactions
throughout the entire thermometer.
Role-play scenarios: Students partner
up… receive a scenario handout,
discuss and decide on what the
characters could do to come to a
peaceful solution.
You and your partner will first read
the scene, then work together to find a
peaceful solution. Use the space on the
handout to write down ideas and
summarize your solution.
Support students by walking around
while pairs are working. Allow about
ten minutes.
Now that you and your partner have
come up with a solution for the
characters, you are going to act out the
scene using the peaceful solution you
and your partner thought of. Pay
attention to your tone of voice and body
language.
Circulate and observe. Allow another 5
to 10 minutes.
For younger students or those who aren’t quite
literate, I read the scenario for them and asked
them to draw their responses for each character.
For students who may not like to work with
other students (we have a student who is very
much into his own space and solitary work), coax
them out of their comfort zone by requiring them
to still work with a partner, but assigning roles
within their partnership. One can write, one can
decide who will play each character. This gives
them a sense of duty and a separate role for
which they are responsible.
Think about how you will pair students in
partnerships that work for your class. Friends
have real life connections to the scenarios more
naturally. Particular students may have certain
issues they are working on- give them scenarios
that are most appropriate or create your own
suitable ones.

Closure: Debrief the activity: What choices did your characters make? How did they solve
their argument? Ask for volunteers who think they came up with a really good solution to
the problem and would like to share it with the class.

Reflection:

The students were totally engaged in this lesson. Quite a few of them had been
experiencing some troubles resolving arguments recently, so when I asked them in
the hook for a show of hands of who has experienced disagreements with friends,
they all were very enthusiastically responsive. It was the right timing for this lesson.

Having the students help come up with a large variety of reactions people can have in the
case of disagreements really helped keep them engaged. Everyone had an idea, and
although some of the younger students duplicated responses in subtle ways or went a
little off in left field, it was easy to really validate each response and relate it back to
what I was looking for. That way, students were less likely to be reluctant in fear of
giving a wrong answer.
When I broke students up into partners, I intentionally grouped close friends or students I
knew had recently been having disagreements with one another. I thought about
allowing students to choose their own partners, but after discussing this briefly with
 my host teacher, we agreed that some students might feel left out (which would
defeat a focus of the lesson- everyone being happy with the solution).

There was one situation in which I panicked a bit. After breaking into partners, I noticed
that the one threesome I have grouped was having problems. The one first grader in
the group was taking all responsibility for writing, and they were all crowding in on
the one student in the group with an IEP. He typically has issues with making
friends, being involved in groups, and others invading his space. He broke down in
tears. I quickly made my way to their group, moved them away from his desk into a
neutral area and read their scenario to them.

I circulated the class and checked in with everyone, asking them what they had come up
with to solve the disagreement in their scenario. I also let them know that their next
step would be to act out their solution. Then I put out another fire with the
kindergarten/first grade threesome. The first grader was apparently insisting that he
be the one to write their responses “because they don’t know how to write” (he
barely does either). In retrospect, this was a real life situation unfolding in real time,
and I missed the opportunity. I should have used the disagreement to illustrate and
make connections. But I didn’t- instead I delegated that they should all be able to
write or draw their responses by taking turns doing so. That turned out to be a
peaceful solution for all, but it would have been so much richer if I would have had
them practice their peaceful reactions right them and there!

My host teacher observed that I could have improved the lesson by circling back around
to connect the role-playing with the Temper Keeper activity at the beginning. I
thought I had done this, although not in an explicitly direct way. I recall reminding
students that they can use the Temper Keeper and the visual representation of our
different reactions and how each one can be hot and angry, cold and sad, or
comfortable and happy. But I guess a more explicit way to make this connection
would have been to have a class discussion about what solutions they tried, how they
worked out, and whether they might use them again.