Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Conflict with The Zax


Conflict is a normal thing that happens in life when two or more people disagree about something.  I read The Zax by Dr. Seuss because it is a short & sweet, perfect example of conflict.  There is a north-going Zax and a south-going Zax that both refuse to stray from their path when they bump into each other.  They try to resolve their conflict by yelling and each refusing to move...for 59 years!  Students cannot believe the Zax have not heard of Kelso's choices and immediately start offering up suggestions.

We focused on "Talk It Out" as our Kelso strategy for this lesson.  I explained to students that by using "I Messages" we can let others know how we are feeling and why their behavior is causing this to happen.  We also learned how to respond empathically with "You Statements," showing the other that we are listening and will try something different to fix the problem.  We modeled this communication by using the Kelso and Lilly puppets and real problems that they have experienced.  In addition to practicing a couple of scenarios, we noticed that there are some similarities in each of the statements (feeling, behavior).

Next students were charged with helping these poor Zax talk it out.  They each received a handout with 2 speech bubbles and a list of feelings faces on the back.  Here is what they came up with:








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