Negotiations- Two interested parties figuring out a problem

Mediation: Neutral third party facilitates the conversation and sets the ground rules.

Arbitration: Neutral third party tries to help work it out. Gives suggestions to help solve the problem.

Objectives: To help classmates have a way to solve problems without always needing the teacher. To help have responsible children help other children in the class by giving suggestions to problems.

Procedure:

Talk to your class about what it means to have a conflict. It means that two or more people do not agree. Ask your students if anyone has ever had a conflict and have them share it with the class if they want. Talk to the class about how sometimes conflicts are hard to work out. There might not be an easy anwer and you might need someone else to help solve the problem. Talk to the kids about working problems out with each other and not having to have the teacher intervene all the time. Talk to the students about the posters and what each word means. Then hang them up in the classroom. You might want to chose students to be each one of the descriptions and keep track of who has been what. Let them know that everyone will have a chance to be all the different roles during the year! Then pick students to be each of the three components of the posters. You might want to have some time with these students and give them some ideas on how to deal with a problem. At first you might want to be involved until all the students understand what it is they are supposed to be doing. Once they have the idea you will watch your students become more independent and able to think out problems on their own!!

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