Content Area: Health and Physical Education

 

Index: 2.1F Grade 12 CPI 4

 

Standard: 2.1 - Wellness

 

Strand: F -  Social and Emotional Health 

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 4 - The student will predict the consequences of conflict, harassment, bullying, vandalism, and violence on individuals, families, and the community.

 

Grade: 12

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        FIGHTING - WHAT ELSE IS THERE? - Discuss various ways to prevent a fight (see list that follows) then divide the class into small groups.
Give each group a situation where fighting or fleeing may be options. Each group studies the situation, develops a response, and shares it with the class. Discuss the following: “Are the responses realistic? Why or why not? Would you use those strategies?” Discuss the students’ perceptions of fighting, the various degrees of conflict, and pressures to fight. Compare male and female attitudes about the same. Is there a difference? Brainstorm ways to prevent a fight from occurring and practice the various techniques through role-play. Videotape the role-plays, review, and critique.

WAYS TO PREVENT A FIGHT
-        Stay in control.

      -        Keep cool.
-        Give an opponent a way out.

      -       Apologize.
-        Make excuses.

      -        Keep comments light.
-        Imagine standing in the other person’s shoes.

 

·       WHAT IS CONFLICT? - Brainstorm examples of positive conflict (e.g., differences in political ideology between two political parties) and negative conflict (e.g., intense disagreements between two countries that leads to war). Ask students: “When do you think conflict becomes negative?” Explain that conflict becomes negative when people use destructive tactics to deal with healthy, normal conflict.

DESTRUCTIVE TACTICS
-       Becoming over-involved in the conflict: person has a chip on the shoulder and is always looking for action
-       Clamming up: person becomes unresponsive
-       Expecting the worst: person believes its destiny
-       Hanging on to the conflict: person can’t admit he/she is wrong

Organize five conflict management “teams”. Each team develops a list of positive, constructive tactics to address a conflict that occurs with one of the following groups/individuals: parents, other family members, friends, employers, or school staff. Each team presents its list of strategies and contributes its best ideas to a class master list.

 

      Variation: In a journal entry, students write about a time when they tried to avoid a conflict. What tactics were used? Did they work? What happened?

Variation: Students develop an essay that describes a conflict they are presently experiencing. How might cooperation resolve the conflict?

 
Variation: Students explain how conflicts become negative when people add “fuel to the fire”. What does this mean? How can people deal with someone who uses this approach? Students develop a short story or one act play that illustrates the use of this negative tactic and shows ways to resolve
the conflict using positive tactics.

 

      Variation: Students interview an employer and human resources manager to discover how conflict between employer and employee may be resolved. What about conflicts between employees? What resources exist to mediate conflict in the workplace?