Time: approximately 30 minutes (Can be completed in two 15-minute sessions.)
Grouping: whole class and partners
- Refer to the Problem and Solution Chart used throughout the unit to review the texts read and how the characters in each text solved their problems.
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I want you to think of two important things you learned about how we can solve problems. Now face your partner. The people on the Inside Circle are going to speak first, then the people on the Outside Circle will have a turn.
Have students discuss what they learned about solving problems. Use the Inside/Outside Circle strategy (half of the group forms an interior circle facing out and the other half of the group forms an exterior circle facing in toward the people in the interior circle) to allow students to share their ideas with a partner. Provide about 1 minute for each group of students to share.
- Move the Outside Circle two students to the left. Repeat the above process so that students have the opportunity to share with another partner.
- Together with students, reflect on the similarities and differences between their responses.
- Use puppets to role-play various classroom situations/problems (e.g., two students want to be first in line, a friend you are playing with always tells you what to do, someone hit you, there is no red paint in the paint jar, you can’t make the scissors work, your friends won’t let you play). Instruct students to think of advice to give the characters in the various scenarios. Hold a group discussion following each role-play and encourage students to share their solutions.
- Invite students to dramatize the classroom situations themselves using puppets or masks. Remind students to include the problem and a positive way to solve the problem in their dramatizations.
- Conduct another role-play (e.g., two students want to play with the same toy or another recurrent classroom problem). Ask students to think of advice to give to the characters in this situation. Provide paper and have each student draw and write her or his solution to the problem. Use the prompt: ‘To solve the problem, you could…’ Create a bulletin board to display student work entitled ‘Our Best Advice.’