The Solution Square: Strategies for Conflict Resolution

Overview

From Theory to Practice

OVERVIEW

This lesson uses literature as a springboard for learning about conflict-resolution strategies. Following a series of read-alouds from the Toot & Puddle series, students discuss and record their thoughts on how friends use strategies to solve problems. Students respond as a whole class, in small groups, and individually. This discussion is captured on a class literature chart and also on individual response sheets. Based on the discussion, students develop a Solution Square of effective conflict-resolution strategies. Small groups create and perform short role-plays to demonstrate how students can solve problems in their everyday lives using these strategies.

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Galda, L., & Beach, R. (2001). Response to literature as a cultural activity. Reading Research Quarterly, 36(1), 64–73.

• Readers use tools such as language, drama, and discourse to construct knowledge and share their experiences with texts.
  
  
• Teachers can support students' abilities to make sense of text and the world by providing opportunities to read and respond to literature.
  
  
• As suggested by sociocultural perspectives, students can learn by interpreting characters' actions, examining social context, and identifying conflicts and issues from texts and their own life experiences.

Taylor, B.M., Peterson, D.S., Pearson, P.D., & Rodriguez, M.C. (2002). Looking inside classrooms: Reflecting on the "how" as well as the "what" in effective reading instruction. The Reading Teacher, 56(3), 270–279.

Active pupil engagement (versus passive involvement), coaching (versus telling), and the use of high-level thinking skills are characteristics of effective teaching practices and correlated with greater student achievement.

Nelsen, J., Lott, L., & Glenn, H.S. (1997). Positive discipline in the classroom. Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing.

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