At the end of this activity, students should be better able to (select as many as apply):
manage conflict
This activity works well when the students have a project to do or something that involves multiple components to complete.
Divide the class into groups of 5 to 6.
Start off by asking the groups to divide the work equally between them.
About 5 minutes into the work, select one person from each group and call them to the front. Tell them that they are going to perform a special role. When they go back to the group, they basically have to give up on the task. They should complain its too difficult to do or that they have been given the worst part to do, or something of the like. They should refuse to do anymore work or basically just do the simplest thing.
The rest of the group will have to figure out how to handle them. If they come to you to complain, tell them they have to handle their own problems and sort it out. In another 5 minutes, select another group member from each group. This time, tell them to intentionally start a fight with another group member. Either say they are not pulling their weight or their work is unacceptable or they disagree with their approach, or something like that.
Once again, the rest of the group will have to manage how they handle this.
After about 10 minutes, alert the class to the fact that their difficult group mates were of course intentional (they would have figured this out by now) and the point was to not only work towards a common goal, but to do it even when some people are not doing their part.
For the rest of the task, get the students who were play-acting to stop and resume their normal roles.
30 MINUTES
None
The lesson here is quite explicit. Working together sometimes leads to disagreements, especially when people have different agendas or are just lazy. Students will have to learn how to handle this, and through this figure out different ways to manage conflict.
This activity works well when the students have a project to do or something that involves multiple components to complete.
Divide the class into groups of 5 to 6.
Start off by asking the groups to divide the work equally between them.
About 5 minutes into the work, select one person from each group and call them to the front. Tell them that they are going to perform a special role. When they go back to the group, they basically have to give up on the task. They should complain its too difficult to do or that they have been given the worst part to do, or something of the like. They should refuse to do anymore work or basically just do the simplest thing.
The rest of the group will have to figure out how to handle them. If they come to you to complain, tell them they have to handle their own problems and sort it out. In another 5 minutes, select another group member from each group. This time, tell them to intentionally start a fight with another group member. Either say they are not pulling their weight or their work is unacceptable or they disagree with their approach, or something like that.
Once again, the rest of the group will have to manage how they handle this.
After about 10 minutes, alert the class to the fact that their difficult group mates were of course intentional (they would have figured this out by now) and the point was to not only work towards a common goal, but to do it even when some people are not doing their part.
For the rest of the task, get the students who were play-acting to stop and resume their normal roles.
None
The lesson here is quite explicit. Working together sometimes leads to disagreements, especially when people have different agendas or are just lazy. Students will have to learn how to handle this, and through this figure out different ways to manage conflict.
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