Which Way to Stop the Drama?
|
Entry Event
- Which Way to Stop the Drama? - Project Sheet
- Which Way to Stop the Drama? - Practical Problem-Solving REASON Sheet
Conflict is a part of everyday life, and it is essential to learn to recognize conflict and what can be done about it. For this project, you will assume the role of a bully or a bully’s victim and create a choose your own adventure story. The story should begin with a conflict or bullying scenario and leave the reader with choices or options of how to resolve the conflict. As in any choose your own adventure story, each option will lead to a different consequence or outcome, as well as to an additional choice or option for the reader to make. The goal of the options is to find "a way to stop the drama" (excitement, performance, hurt, and frustration) often experienced in conflict. The story should include emotional, social, and/or physical differences that may contribute to conflict, effective ways to communicate and express emotions, strategies to handle conflict, and the positive and negative consequences associated with each strategy. The story should be creative and organized in binder or book format, include illustrations, and have a minimum of four options for the reader to choose from throughout the story. You will start the project in groups of four, reading sample choose your own adventure stories, reading and sharing what you are learning about conflict and skills to resolve conflict, and constructing your conflict scenario. Use the Practical Problem-Solving sheet to map out four alternatives and consequences. After you have mapped out the scenario (setting, characters, exposition, and narrative hook) and four possible directions, you will break up into two groups of two to construct the alternative choices. Your four-group continues to be your base group where you go to review each others’ progress and make sure the story is still working. In the two-groups, you start to construct the choices and directions for the scenario. Come back together in the four-group to finalize, edit, and conduct a group assessment of your story.
Example scenario:
You are in the lunchroom and you see your new neighbor, Raul, sitting by himself. Raul just moved to town from the West Coast and has a little difficulty speaking English. You want Raul to feel welcome in his new school, so you decide to go sit next to him. Just as you are walking over to the table, you see Jon Jon, the class bully, approaching Raul. Jon Jon has been in the 6th grade twice and is twice the size of every sixth grader, and even has facial hair. It’s rumored that Jon Jon can punch a hole in a tree trunk without even getting a scratch. Everyone is afraid of Jon Jon because of his size and also because he threatens to beat you up if you don’t do as he says. You have even given him your lunch money a couple of times.
As you walk closer to the table, you hear Jon Jon tell Raul to hand over his dessert. (It’s strawberry-shortcake day in the cafeteria.) Raul has a confused look on his face and you fear that he may get hurt if he doesn’t do as Jon Jon says. What should you do?
- If you choose to walk by the table and do nothing, turn to page 4.
- If you choose to go and get a teacher, turn to page 7.
- If you choose to speak up and tell Jon Jon to leave Raul alone, turn to page 9.
- If you choose to go stand by Raul to show your support, turn to page 11.
When your choose your own adventure story is complete, it will be read and assessed by two other groups in the classroom who have been chosen randomly as reviewers.
