Activity

Don’t Fight, Mediate!

Duration: 2 period(s)
Suggested level: Elementary Cycle Three
Subject: Culture and Citizenship in Québec, English Language Arts

Description

Students are asked to take on specific roles in a simulated mediation session to resolve a conflict between two teens and their families. The activity calls on students’ cooperation skills to find a solution they can all live with.

The suggested level for this activity is Grade 6, but it can be adapted easily for high school students.

Educational objectives

  • To raise awareness of the use of cooperation and dialogue to manage and resolve disputes
  • To become familiar the mediation process and its advantages
  • To put into practice: cooperation, listening skills, empathy, respect for the other person in a dispute-resolution situation

Subjects and subject-specific competencies

Culture and Citizenship in Québec - Elementary Cycle Three

Cultural realities: Relationships between people - Collective life.

Compulsory content, and related topics and examples: Rights and freedoms.

  • Competency in Cycle Three: Reflects critically on cultural realities:
    • Engages in dialogue:
      • Puts into place conditions conducive to interaction.
      • Considers own feelings.
    • Examines points of view:
      • Identifies discrepancies or tensions.
      • Identifies points of view as well as the associated ideas and reference points.
      • Compares ideas and reference points.
      • Draws up findings.

English Language Arts

  • Competency 1: Uses language/talk to communicate and to learn

Duration

Two periods

Broad areas of learning

  • Citizenship and Community Life: Promotion of the rules of social conduct and democratic institutions

Cross-curricular competencies

  • Solves problems: Tests possible solutions
  • Cooperates with others: Interacts with an open mind in various contexts

Related content

External pedagogical tools

  • Équijustice offers a conflict-management program for schools: Passerelles (French only)
  • L’Institut Pacifique provides several programs concerning social mediation and dispute resolution (French only).
  • Video (French only) prepared by the organization Cliquez Justice on alternative dispute-resolution methods. (Cliquez Justice is a website that offers legal information for francophones outside Quebec).