Don’t Fight, Mediate!

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

• Solving Problems Without Going to Court
• Choosing the Best Way to Solve a Conflict
• The mediation process
• Finding a mediator
• A volunteer legal professional can visit your class to lead the workshop Our conflict, our solution. In this activity, students work together to find a win-win solution to a dispute.

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).