Classroom Unit: Conflict Resolution

Lesson Plan for Conflict Resolution: Journaling

School Counselor: Aaron Riley

Target Audience: High School Students (grades 9-12)
Mindsets & M2: Sense of acceptance, respect, support and inclusion for self and others in
Behaviors: the school environment.
(limit of three) B-SS 2: Positive, respectful and supportive relationships with students who are
similar to and different from them.
IN SEL Competencies: 3A. Students recognize life stressors and have strategies to manage them.
(limit of 2) 5A. Students treat others fairly and respectfully, are able to see multiple
perspectives, and are open-minded.
Lesson 2 Of 5

Learning Objective(s)/Competency
Students will: Work on learning how to cope with different conflicts in a healthy and
developmentally appropriate way.
Students will: Discuss and journal about a previous conflict they have experienced and engage
in an activity that demonstrates the need to see conflict from a point of view
other than their own.
Materials:
● One sheet of 8.5x11 paper (plain or ruled)
● Colored pencils, markers, pens, pencils

Evidence Base:
Best Practice
Action Research
Research-Informed
Evidence-Based
Procedure: Describe how you will:
Introduce: This lesson will be introduced by:
Facilitator will say: “Hello friends! How many of you have experienced a
situation recently when someone did or said something that made you
uncomfortable, or irritated, or even angry?”
Facilitator looks for student responses.
Facilitator calls on a student to give an example.
 Facilitator comments on student response in a positive manner. Facilitator may
say: “Thank you for sharing. I’m sure that was not a pleasant experience.” or
Thank you for sharing. That sounds like you may have been a little upset with
that experience.”
Facilitator responds to student saying: “What did you do in response?” or “How
did you react when that happened?”
Facilitator listens for student response and replies: “Thank you for sharing your
experience.”

Communicate Facilitator will say: “Today we are going to discuss conflict resolution and we’re
Lesson Objective: going to have a little activity that helps us learn about how people may feel
when conflict happens.”
Facilitator will say: “When we try to understand someone else’s feelings or look
at a situation through their eyes, we may want to stop and think before we say
or doing something that might hurt someone else’s feelings.”
If facilitator used previous conflict resolution lesson plan, the facilitator will say:
“Remember from our early lesson on conflict resolution, one of the strategies
for coping with conflict is ‘Think before speaking or acting’.
Facilitator will say: “We’re also going to learn that sometimes it’s not very easy
to undo something that makes someone else feel bad or upset.”
Teach/Practice Facilitator will say: “Let’s start off by taking a few moments to think about a
Content: conflict we have had with someone in the past.”
Facilitator will wait a few seconds allowing student to ponder the statement.
Facilitator will check for understanding by saying: “Does everyone have an
example in mind?”
Facilitator waits for positive responses (either silent responses or vocal
responses.)
Facilitator says: Okay, what I would like for you to do is journal the conflict
experience you thought of a moment ago on the paper in front of you. Please
write about the experience. You may add drawings, or doodles, or decorations
to your journal entry on the paper. I’ll give everyone seven or eight minutes to
write their experience down.”
Facilitator checks for questions by asking: “Are there any questions? Does
everyone understand what we are doing?”
Facilitator helps anyone that may have a question or doesn’t understand
directions.
Facilitator sets timer for seven or eight minutes and observes student progress.

After timer runs out, facilitator checks to see if students need more time by
asking: “Does anyone need more time?”
If students need more time say: “Okay, I’ll give everyone three more minutes.”

After time has expired facilitator will ask: “Each of us will share their experience
by reading what they wrote. Who would like to go first?”
Facilitator calls on a student to share and thanks each student for sharing when
they are finished. Each student will share with the group.
 After final student has shared their experience say to students: “Good job
everyone. Now take your journal entry and exchange it with someone in the
group.”
Facilitator will now say: “Now we’re going to do something a little unusual so
please do not get upset. Take the journal entry that you have been given and
crumple it up into a ball.”
Facilitator checks for compliance.

Facilitator says: “Now take the crumpled journal entry you have been given and
try to flatten it out as best you can.”

Facilitator askes: “How well have you been able to flatten out the journal entry
you were given?”
Facilitator checks for responses and might reply: “It’s not easy to make it right
again, is it?”
Facilitator says: “That’s why we stop and think before we respond to someone
when there might be a conflict. It’s easy to make a mess of things by something
we say or do, but it’s not always very easy to make things right again with the
other person.”

Summarize: Facilitator asks students: “When a conflict happens, what should we do before
we respond to someone?”
Facilitator looks for a response and affirms a correct answer.
Facilitator asks: “Why should we stop and think before responding to something
or someone?
Facilitator is checking for the answer: “We may hurt someone else’s feelings” or
“It might make the situation or conflict worse.”
Close: Facilitator says: Thank you all for sharing. You did a wonderful job. Please
clean-up any mess that you may have made and put things away that you may
have used.”
Data Collection Plan – For multiple lessons in a unit, this section only need be completed once
Participation Data: 
Anticipated number This lesson can be used for small groups (6-8 students) or for an entire class.
of students:
Planned length of 20-30 minutes
lesson(s):
Mindsets & Behaviors Data:
Data to be determined by pre/post data collected during unit.
Outcome Data: (choose one)
Discipline:
Students learn how to better communicate with each other and how to process conflict in more
respectful ways. By creating a more respectful environment one can also create a sense of belonging
and community which can help students feel as though they have others who understand and support
them. This feeling of support and community can help these students be more successful in the
classroom and beyond.

Pre/Post Assessment:

1. Please rate your current general sense of well-being:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Worst Best

2. Which of the following statements best describes your ability to cope with conflict?
a. I feel I don’t cope with conflict well.
b. I feel I can sometimes cope with conflict well.
c. I feel I usually cope with conflict well.
d. I feel I always cope with conflict well.

3. Which of the following statements best describes your conflict coping knowledge?
a. I don’t know any ways to cope with conflict.
b. After today’s lesson, I know one way to cope with conflict.
c. Today’s lesson added to my already existing ways of coping with conflict.

4. Before today’s lesson how did you view a conflict you might be in?
a. I never thought of how the other person might feel.
b. I sometimes thought of how the other person might feel.
c. I usually thought of how the other person might feel.
d. I always thought of how the other person might feel.