Managing Interpersonal Conflict for Everyone

In this chapter, research conducted over the past 20 years on the social skills of children with LD is reviewed. Agaliotis and Goudiras uncovered important insights regarding interpersonal social skill deficits for those with LD. For Weiner and Schneider (2002), samples of children with LD were identified from a specific school district.

Children with LD also appear to be limited in their ability to elicit rewarding responses from others. For decades, researchers have hypothesized that children with LD exhibit a unique deficit in social perception (Tur-Kaspa & Bryan 1994). Formal social skills assessments, curricula, and numerous intervention studies have emerged for students with LD.

McIntosh, Vaughn, and Zaragoza (1991) reviewed twenty-two social skills training and intervention studies with 572 children with LD. Overall, social skills interventions appear to be only minimally effective in changing the behavior of students with LD. More (2008) identifies several strengths of social stories as an intervention piece for students with LD.

In the primary classroom, social stories can be used to help TD children and children with LD with numerous social skills.

MICE)

Introduction

Activities

Rationale

Managing Interpersonal Conflict for Everyone MICE

Learning Goal

Suggestions for Long Range Planning

Overview of Activities

Activities 1. Friendship

Active Listening Description
BLM 1.3 40 minutes

Introducing the Social Skill Literature Strategy (SSLT) Description

BLM 1.4-1.5, scissors, blank booklets, and art supplies 40 minutes

Applying the Social Skill Literature Strategy Description

BLM 1.6 45 minutes

Other Strategies: Compromise and Accommodation Description

BLM 1.8 and BLM 1.9, Chart paper 45 minutes

Four Ways to Remember Description
Managing Interpersonal Conflict (Evaluation) Description

Students have a senior student-led discussion on the use of compromise and accommodation as interpersonal conflict strategies. Shared Reading Text: "Hate Pie." By Derek Munson or Text from George and Martha: The Complete Stories of 2 Best Friends by James Marshall, Chart Paper, Poster Materials.

Shared Reading Texts Included in Module

Extension for Module: Suggested Texts

Resources

Time

Introduce the module
Students individually complete the Making a Friend self- assessment
Introduce the topic of Friendship for the shared reading exercise
Shared Reading of “Will I Have A Friend”: Introduce the text
Read the Story
What does Jim want or who does he want to meet?
Who are some of the people in his class?
What does Jim enjoy doing?
Who does Jim talk to?
What did he say?
How did Jim feel before he entered his class?
When was Jim happy during the story?
When was Jim nervous during the story?
Who is Paul? How do you know?
Present steps for making a new friend as an interpersonal skill
Students form groups of two
Students assign roles within pairs

In a Think-Pair-Share exercise, each student is given a few minutes to think about the question posed. Students should find a partner they feel comfortable with and then each student shares their thoughts on the questions posed. Circulate among students to keep the conversation on task as the sharing should not last more than 6-8 minutes.

Form the pairs yourself if you are concerned about some students who may not be chosen by any classmate. Explain that after reading and discussing the book, they will have an opportunity to practice the Friend-Making skills used by the main character. During the story, ask open-ended questions for all the students to answer or think about.

For example, you can decide on student placement before class, students can be randomly paired, or students can find their own partners. Because the current activity requires students to make a new friend, students will be more successful and comfortable if you choose the partners before the activity.

Extension

Making A Friend

Do you like making friends?

Do you know how to make friends?

Do you like talking to new people in your class?

Do you like talking to new people outside?

Steps for Making A Friend

Choose someone
Smile and approach the person
Introduce yourself 4. Ask a question
Listen to the person
Suggest something to play or do together
You will perform a role-playing exercise to model active listening to the class
Discuss the role-playing exercise with the class
Students generate a list of topics for conversation
Students form pairs
Students role play active listening
Students complete the Active listening activity

Choose a typically developing student to share what happened in their life this past week. Look at the student the whole time she/he is speaking - Respond to what she/he is sharing, without interrupting. Place the chart paper at the front of the class in a place where it can be easily referred to.

You may want to select the pairs before class so that students with learning disabilities can work with typically developing students. Allow one to two minutes for each student to talk about a topic from the list created by the students. Encourage each student to share what active listening looked, sounded, and felt like while role-playing with their peer.

Encourage students to complete these sheets and attach them to their writing journal for this module.

Active Listening

LOOKS LIKE…

SOUNDS LIKE…

FEELS LIKE…

Shared Reading of: The Way I Feel Introduce and Read the Story
Discuss the Story
Model the Emotion Game
Students form groups of four
Students play the Emotion Game
Students discuss the Emotion Game
Facial Expressions
Shared Reading of Sir Lofty and Sir Tubb OR Talk and Work it Out
Students form groups of four
Groups brainstorm interpersonal-conflict situations
Groups present their chart paper to the class
Students depict how they deal with interpersonal conflict
Students display their interpersonal conflict strategies to the class
Review how the students deal with interpersonal conflict
Read the Social Story
In pairs, students create a social skill story
Each student thinks of a new interpersonal conflict situation to discuss

Tell students about the book and how the illustrations show how the characters feel and act. Emotion game cards and place them face down in the middle of the group in front of the class. During the Emotion Game, did you find it easy to guess what feelings were expressed?

Allow students to play the emotion game during class during the week. Explain that after reading and discussing the book, they will have the opportunity to creatively share their own interpersonal conflict skills as well as those used by the main characters. You may want to structure the brainstorming by instructing students to think only about interpersonal conflict situations within one domain, such as outside during recess.

As much as possible, students should think of personal instances when they have been involved in interpersonal conflicts. These students may feel more comfortable discussing the interpersonal conflict they have witnessed in others. This list of classes will be used frequently in the module to help determine the problems that are most relevant to the students' needs.

In this step, give each student art paper and markers to draw or write about a situation when they had interpersonal conflict and how they responded to the event. Instead, have the students display their pieces so that their peers can circulate from desk to desk. Through social stories, the students will be exposed to a technique that will address interpersonal conflict.

During this sharing, list on the blackboard/white card paper the different strategies suggested by the students in their portrayal. During the discussion, help the students to think about the different categories these strategies fall into, for example negotiation, avoidance, hostility, compromise and accommodation. Introducing students to social stories may have developed the students' ability to think individually about interpersonal situations.

Scott and Sophie

Scott and Sophie’s Conflict

The class selects an interpersonal-conflict situation for discussion
Students discuss strategies to resolve the conflict
As a class, students complete an enlarged copy of Social Skill Booklet ( BLM 1.6)
Student pairs create a social skill literature book
Pairs create a social skill story based on the worksheet
Invite a junior/ intermediate teacher to participate in this activity
Students form the same number of groups as there will be
Visitors present interpersonal conflict scenarios to the groups
The visitors present the interpersonal conflict scenarios
Each group summarizes the visitors’ comments and group discussion for each scenario
The class discusses the different strategies employed for each scenario
Role-play a seated situation with a partner to the class
Randomly distribute the Role-play Scenarios ( BLM 1.9) to the student pairs
Pairs practice the role-play scenarios
Pairs share their role-play resolutions to the other pair with the same role-play situation
One pair per group demonstrates the situations for the class. One pair per group shares the strategies for interpersonal conflict

As a class, you will instruct the students to take the interpersonal conflict situation and complete a Social Skills Book using an enlarged copy of (BLM 1.6) on graph paper. You may want to select the pairs before class so that the students with learning disabilities will be working with typically developing students. To learn about other interpersonal conflict strategies, specifically compromise and accommodation, used by junior and intermediate students.

Young/middle students as guests in the classroom Interpersonal conflict scenarios for elementary (BLM 1.7). Inform these students of the purpose of the exercise so that there is a clear focus on interpersonal conflict. You may want to select groups before class so that students with learning disabilities work with typically developing students.

However, there is also the worksheet Interpersonal conflict situations for primary (BLM 1.6) in this activity. The purpose of this activity is to see what kinds of strategies people use to successfully manage interpersonal conflict. As far as possible, the summary should concentrate on the strategies used to deal with the interpersonal conflict.

Reenact some of the situations that often provoke interpersonal conflict in the school environment. A teacher's copy of Interpersonal Conflict Teacher Modeling (BLM 1.8). Student copies of Role Play Scenarios (BLM 1.9). Work through this conflict as much as possible by using more than one strategy (adaptation, compromise, hostility, avoidance) with the students.

The situations focus on general interpersonal conflict problems that often occur at school among primary school students. However, to make this activity more authentic, it may be helpful to monitor your students for interpersonal conflict scenarios that arise in your own classroom. One pair per group shares strategies for interpersonal conflict. One pair per group shares the strategies for interpersonal conflict.

When Jill tells a friend that her goldfish died, she starts to cry. Her friend laughs
Sean’s two friends are playing soccer and not letting others play
Matthew lines up after recess. Kaeden pushes him so he can be first
Alex and Lily are colouring a picture. Alex starts calling Lily’s picture stupid
Jason and Luke start pushing their friend Michelle in line
David and Anthony are partners for a project. Anthony does not want to do anything, and tells David to finish the project

Shared Reading of Enemy Pie OR A text from George and Martha: The Complete Stories of 2 Best Friends
Demonstrate how to address an interpersonal conflict situation using the four specific strategies (compromise, negotiation, hostility
The student selects one strategy from the list of solutions
Briefly review the four strategies to interpersonal negotiation

Circulate among students to provide support for the use of more than one strategy for dealing with conflict. Pairs share their roleplay solutions with the other pair with the same roleplay situation. Once the groups are made, pairs share their chart paper strategies with each other.

Understand and apply four specific strategies (compromise, negotiation, hostility, and avoidance) for resolving interpersonal conflict. Shared reading text: Enemy Pie OR a text by George and Martha: the complete stories of 2 best friends. Shared reading of Enemy Pie OR a text of George and Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends.

As students exhaust the text, encourage them to think of other strategies for the characters. Demonstrate how to handle an interpersonal conflict situation using four specific strategies (compromise, negotiation, hostilityusing four specific strategies (compromise, negotiation, hostility, and avoidance). Ask students to make a list of interpersonal conflicts they have experienced in the last day. in school.

Students can use illustrations and words to highlight how this strategy can resolve or increase interpersonal conflict. During the week, give the students the opportunity to make another poster for different interpersonal conflict scenarios that they have experienced. Don't limit the interpersonal conflict scenarios to school life, encourage students to think about scenarios in different contexts (home, baseball, hockey, girl guides, etc.).

Compromise, Negotiation, Hostility and Avoidance)

Students independently complete ( BLM 1.10-1.13)

Cognitive processing deficits and students with specific learning disabilities: A selective meta-analysis of the literature. Social behavior and social perception in learning disabled children: A review with implications for social skills training.