The ABCs of Problem Solving

Following up from my last post, I've been teaching Habit 4: Think Win-Win to my students this month.  I have been doing a lot of research over the past year for an easy to remember problem solving model that will help my students learn those super important conflict resolution skills.  I settled on the ABCD problem solving model and created this poster to leave in the classrooms after I taught the lesson.

I think that it will be easy for them to remember!  We practiced problem solving together as a class in 2nd and 3rd grade this week using this model.  I wanted to start very simply when explaining it because I didn't want to overwhelm them.  I took a soccer ball with me and used two volunteers to "practice" using the model together.  The problem was very simple-- there was one ball, but 2 people wanted to play with it.  The kids were eager to jump to the conclusion of sharing, but I wanted them to understand the 3 outcomes of conflict first-- win/lose, lose/lose and win/win.  The students acted out the different scenarios: win/lose-one person got what they wanted but the other person had to "lose"; lose/lose- getting in a fight over the ball (I was sure to use the words being reactive instead of proactive) and having it taken away by a teacher; win/win- agreeing to share the ball or take turns using it.  I also had the students use Heart Talk during the win/win example and explained that it is a way they can be proactive and in control of their feelings rather than reactive like in the lose/lose example.  Once the model was demonstrated in an easy way for them, we talked about more complex examples of conflict and did more practice using this model.

I made one for my office wall too and think that I'm going to give one to our AA.  She sees a lot of the student's problems after they have made the more reactive choice.  What a great reflection and learning tool to review what could have been done differently to avoid getting in trouble.