Most relationships will experience disagreements or arguments at some point or another. Students should learn that they can mitigate the impact of conflicts and perhaps even strengthen their relationships by approaching difficult situations with respect, empathy, and active listening.
Create a Class Resource
Recommended for all grades
As a class, examine this handout on Relationship Conflict Resolution. For younger students, you may wish to simplify this handout or transform it into a graphic text. Using the information from the handout and drawing from students’ own prior experiences, create a “Dos and Don’ts of Conflict Resolution” Chart. Display the resource in the classroom. |
Media Analysis Learning Stations
Recommended for all grades
For this activity, students will need headphones and technology to play videos (i.e. mobile device or ipad). If the technology can not be provided or accessed, this activity can be done in other formats (i.e. whole class or using comic strips/stories instead). At each learning station, students will move in groups to view a clip from different films, T.V. shows or commercials showing a specific type of conflict that is relevant to students’ experiences (i.e. with parents, with siblings, with teachers, with friends). Some ideas of media to choose from include: Mean Girls, Hunger Games series, Finding Nemo. As a group, students will discuss, analyze, and record ways in which characters approached the conflict effectively and ways in which they did not, drawing on the class resource that was previously created. When consolidating the activity as a class, reflect on how each of the conflicts students looked at could be handled more effectively by each party involved. Finally, have students make real-world connections between what they saw dramatized and their personal experiences in either partnered discussions or a journal, reflecting on any new individual goals for conflict resolution they constructed from the learning activities.
For this activity, students will need headphones and technology to play videos (i.e. mobile device or ipad). If the technology can not be provided or accessed, this activity can be done in other formats (i.e. whole class or using comic strips/stories instead). At each learning station, students will move in groups to view a clip from different films, T.V. shows or commercials showing a specific type of conflict that is relevant to students’ experiences (i.e. with parents, with siblings, with teachers, with friends). Some ideas of media to choose from include: Mean Girls, Hunger Games series, Finding Nemo. As a group, students will discuss, analyze, and record ways in which characters approached the conflict effectively and ways in which they did not, drawing on the class resource that was previously created. When consolidating the activity as a class, reflect on how each of the conflicts students looked at could be handled more effectively by each party involved. Finally, have students make real-world connections between what they saw dramatized and their personal experiences in either partnered discussions or a journal, reflecting on any new individual goals for conflict resolution they constructed from the learning activities.