Behaviour which Hurts, Helping to Resolve a Conflict

This is a single activity session plan.

Purpose of activity: To explore how to help as a go-between in a conflict.

Life skills: problem-solving, creative thinking, empathy

Steps:

1.            Remind the participants of the discussions they have had in Activities 43 and 44. Explain that sometimes it is hard to sort out conflict or arguments, for example when:

 All people in the argument think they are right and will not back down

If one side is not telling the truth, if one or other or both are VERY angry

When this is the case, someone may be needed to act as a go-between: this is someone who negotiates between people in an argument.

2.            Ask participants to give examples of when this has happened. Discuss who helped and how - teachers? Friends? Relatives? Colleagues?

3.            Divide participants into groups of three or four and ask them to do a role-play either around a situation known to them or give them an example. In this role-play, the problem is not resolved so another person is called in to help. The groups have to decide who this person is.

4.            Participants perform the role-plays and after each, the whole group comments on how this extra person helped solve the argument (for example by calming everyone down, by suggesting a compromise or an alternative that no-one had thought of.)

Final discussion: How can a go-between help sort out an argument. Is it good to be a go-between? Why / why not?  Have you ever been a go-between?

Behaviour that Hurts, What Happens to Us When We Get Angry? Avtivity!!!!!! Happy Diwali!!!!!

Purpose of activity: To become aware of our physical reactions when we get angry and how anger might be controlled.

Life skills: problem-solving, creative thinking

Steps

1.            In pairs, ask the children select one idea from the list they made: What makes me get angry? In pairs, children act out one of these situations.

2.            In the whole group, ask the children to say what happens to their bodies when they get angry (these responses are different for everybody and in different situations). Some of them can be:

shouting

head pulses

stomach aches

clenching the fists

frown

face turns red

crying

feeling scared

3.            In the whole group ask children to say what people might do when they angry: hit someone-     throw something-                shout sounds-   shout insults (which they may later regret)

4.            In pairs, the children make two short role-plays from one of the situations identified in the Activity. In the first role-play, shows how things quickly go from bad to worse when someone gets angry. The second shows how the person controlled their anger.

For example by:

walking away

reasoning

ignoring

getting someone else to help

5.            The pairs perform their plays. After each, the whole group can comment on how the anger was controlled.

Final discussion: In an argument, is one person always more to blame than the other? Can you do something about your anger in the same way each time?