Learning Scenario
Spanish: Conflict Resolution
| Authors: Ginger
Cline & Ricci Hatten Level: Advanced/Native Speaker |
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Using a variety of Web sites and a video clip, students are introduced to the topic of conflict resolution both as a social and a personal issue. They consider risk and protective factors and discuss different responses to conflict or stress in some Spanish-speaking countries. They also discover how conflict resolution skills are marketable professionally and enormously useful personally. Finally, students create posters and produce a skit illustrating what they have learned about conflict resolution issues.
ACTIVITY SET 1: Introducing the Topic
To introduce the topic of conflict resolution, students watch—without
sound—a short video clip from Corte de Pueblo (a Spanish
version of The People’s Court) in which a conflict is
developing. (Stop the clip before a judgment is rendered.) In pairs,
students spend one minute discussing the conflict they see evolving;
then, the whole class watches the clip again with sound. This time
they spend two minutes in pairs describing what they’ve seen
and heard. Once all students have a general understanding of the
video clip, the class lists on the board the behaviors they’ve
observed in two categories: those they believe were helpful and
those they believe were harmful. Students then vote on what they
think the resolution will be before watching the rest of the video
clip to see what the judge decides.
Next, the class considers a stressful “scenario” provided by the teacher, or they can be asked to provide a personal or hypothetical scenario instead. The scenario is used to help students complete a graphic organizer on ways people commonly respond to conflict or stress (see Expansion Ideas). Students share their responses with other groups as well as sharing personal experiences about how they’ve responded in situations of conflict.
ACTIVITY SET 2: Seeking Solutions
Now that the topic of conflict resolution has been introduced, students
learn about methods for resolving conflict. In this activity, students
investigate the Web site of a non-governmental organization in Colombia
called Fundación Gamma-Idear (see Resources) that has been
concerned about the number of people experiencing violence in their
daily lives. This non-profit agency’s work has been realized
primarily in Columbia. However, it has investigated factors that
promote or prevent conflict resulting in violence and has developed
an anti-violence initiative that is potentially universal. Students
are asked to read and find answers to a series of questions (see
Expansion Ideas). In asking these questions, they discover what
the organization hopes to accomplish and learn more about risk and
protective factors. (Risk factors include stress, normalized violence,
experiences, etc.; competencies, relationships, and ethical beliefs
are included among protective factors.) Students are encouraged
to visit several of the links on the Web site that detail the results
of the initiative. These links show positive feedback and continuing
evaluation and improvement of the program.
After reflecting on what they’ve read, students personalize what they’ve learned by writing a journal entry on a topic such as the following:
- Which protective factors do you have in your life? Describe
how
you acquired them or a time they have protected you. - What can you do to help a friend you think is being mistreated?
ACTIVITY SET 3: Resolving Conflict
Once students have learned about protective and risk factors related
to conflict and violence, they begin to learn about conflict resolution
using an online Web site from the Universidad Technológica
Equinoccial of Quito, Ecuador. The eight chapters of the course
(each 5–8 pages in length) are used in a way that best suits
the individual class context. Students work in groups reading and
presenting highlights of an assigned chapter; the class works together
on all the chapters; or certain chapters or portions of chapters
are assigned as time allows. Groups use their creative strengths
to determine how they will share what they’ve learned with
others in the class: a dramatic skit, a song or poem, a PowerPoint
slide presentation, a list of bulleted points, etc. When all presentations
have been completed, the class can complete the “tests”
provided at the end of each chapter to see how well they understood.
ACTIVITY SET 4: Learning from Professionals
In this activity set, students discover that resolving conflicts
is a marketable professional skill. As a class, students look at
the Web site of a Spanish-speaking mediation specialist (see Resources)
to determine basic information: Whose site is it? What is his
job? Where is he? By clicking on the name at the end of the
page, they discover he is a lawyer in Buenos Aires. Students are
encouraged to infer what they can from the information given on
the site. Next, working in groups, students find answers to such
questions as: Who could use the information provided? What is
private mediation? What are some of the client’s rights? What
if mediation does not work? They are also encouraged to follow
links on the page and then share their findings with classmates.
Finally, students use what they’ve learned about the benefits
of conflict resolution to create a television commercial advertising
the services of this mediator. (They are encouraged to think about
commercials they have seen for law firms.) Working in groups, pairs,
or individually, students again use their creativity, props, and
a video camera to record the commercials which are replayed for
the whole class. (On the Web site, the mediator’s name is a
link to an ad for his services. After students have created their
own commercials, they might enjoy seeing his ad.)
Many professionals such as judges, mediators, counselors, police officers, lawyers, sales persons, etc. use conflict resolution skills in their work. To connect more personally to the target culture community, a Spanish-speaking professional is invited to class to talk to students about the benefits of conflict resolution. Students prepare questions in advance, and afterwards, they select a written assignment to complete: a thank you letter for the guest speaker, a list of rules by which the person would expect clients to abide, etc.
ACTIVITY SET 5: Putting it All Together
The following activities provide students an opportunity to express,
orally and in writing, what they’ve learned about conflict
resolution. First, they create posters with slogans in Spanish and
visuals promoting a conflict resolution skill or awareness of an
issue they have identified in the previous activities. Posters are
displayed in the school.
Next, students have an opportunity to put what they’ve learned into practice. The teacher prepares note cards describing a scene where conflict is likely and indicating that the resolution should be either win-win, win-lose, or lose-lose. In small groups, students draw a card and prepare their skit. Each scene is acted out, and the class identifies what kind of result was obtained. When circumstances warrant, they also discuss how the resolution could have been win-win.
- Communication: Interpersonal, Interpretative, & Presentational Modes
- Cultures: Practices & Perspectives, Products & Perspectives
- Connections: Access to Information, Other Subject Areas
- Comparisons: Concept of Culture
- Communities: Within & Beyond the School Setting, Personal Enrichment & Career Development
- Computer with Internet access
- VCR and video clips of Corte de Pueblo
- Video camera and blank videotapes
- Props for making a “commercial”
- Guest speaker
Cultures: Students learn about target culture products and practices such as the use of professional mediators and the legal system to resolve conflicts, and they understand target culture perspectives on violence.
Connections: Students use the target language to access information through Internet resources, a television program, and a guest speaker. They connect to social studies through the study of conflict resolution.
Comparisons: Students compare their own responses to stress/violence and conflict resolution with that of some Spanish-speaking countries.
Communities: Students connect with the Hispanic community through the Internet and the guest speaker. They use Spanish to learn about a potential career in mediation.
- Several of Ana María Matute’s works on social conflict would provide a wonderful springboard for the discussion of conflict resolution. Consider also the historical conflict between social classes in Mexico and the U.S. (Look for information on César Chávez, the colonization of Texas by Anglos, and the subsequent acts of injustice toward Hispanics, for example.)
- After students watch the Corte de Pueblo video, ask them to imagine that the characters in the video clip are different (both female, both of another race, both older or younger, one rich and one poor, etc.) and to suggest what might be different. Present findings by Ruby Payne, nationally recognized speaker and author of A Framework for Understanding Poverty, on how different social classes view and respond to conflict. Ask students to verify their predictions in light of her research or verify her research in light of their own opinions or experience (see http://ahaprocess.com/).
- To support Activity Set 1, use a table (see Resources for a sample) to graphically organize the ways people respond to conflict or stress.
- Questions for Activity Set 2 Web readings include the following. On the first page of the site: Where is this program being developed? What do they hope to accomplish? On the second page of the site, there is a chart of risk factors and protective factors. Define each factor, give examples, or illustrate what each factor might refer to. (Choose the response method that best suits the abilities of the students.) There are four types of weapons listed. Illustrate each and tell what kind of damage they can cause. What would happen to the person who uses the “weapon” and the person it is used on? On the third page of the site, the chart of risk factors and protective factors is elaborated. Verify your predictions from page 2. Which are the same? Which are different? Do you think any of your differences should be added to their list? Explain.
- Students write in a journal. What would make you fight? What would you do in this (give one) situation?
- Students assume the rationale of the Colombian organization of the Web site on Activity Set 2 and look for comparative data on violence in the U. S. and other countries. Colombia was alarmed to find such overwhelming statistics on domestic violence in their country. (Students may be interested in an article—Ann Landers in the Dallas Morning News, 7/24/01—with statistics about guns being a major killer of children and youth in the United States.) Students present a summary or highlights of the data they find in Spanish.
- Students learn peer mediation techniques and hold mock mediations. Ask about involving the established peer mediation program of the school.
Sample Table for Activity Set 1
| Behavior | Consequences for both parties specifically and if they are win-win, win-lose, or lose-lose | When the behavior is appropriate | Alternative behaviors |
| Call names | |||
| Yell | |||
| Clam up | |||
| Hit | |||
| Submit | |||
| Other? |
Webliography
NOTE: These Internet resources may have changed since publication or no longer be available. Active links should be carefully screened before recommending to students.
Activity Set 2
Activity Set 3
- http://www.c-electronico.com/negociacion/internegconte.html (link no longer active 11/2008)
Activity Set 4
Other
