Every year more and more of my fourth graders demand attention by acting out. They interrupt lessons, annoy classmates, or damage classroom materials. I know a lot of other teachers who deal with these same disruptions, can you recommend books that deal with conflicts that erupt so often in classrooms?
Classrooms are filled with so many emotional issues that teacher descriptions might just as well include parent/psychologist for all the feeling-level work that surfaces. Acting out and anger beg for resolution and authentic teaching today means helping children look at the issues that burn inside them. Books can be great openers to discuss the issues that surround children and the feelings that surface because of their difficulties.
Betsy Everitt gives young children playful ways to cope with anger in Mean Soup (HBJ, $13.95; $5.00 ;ages 5-9). "It had been a bad day for Horace," begins the picture book and there follow a list of complaints that range from the common to the comical situation of Lulu, the show-and-tell cow, stepping on Horace's foot. Horace arrives home in a horrible state and his mother responds by suggesting they make mean soup. Together they scream into the pot, stick out their tongues, and breathe "dragon breath" before "stirring away a bad day." The flamboyant colors and loose style of the art are perfect models for losing a little control before gaining it back.
Mean Soup is a great inspiration for young children to describe a day gone wrong and then dictate or write their own recipes for recovery. Young chefs will develop skills of identifying and expressing personal frustrations and disappointments and understand there are constructive and valid places to communicate feelings and their resolutions. Teachers can provide physical release by including a pounding stump in their classroom. Students can develop fine motor skills at the same time as they get rid of tension by hitting those nails right on their heads. (Warning: This is an individual activity requiring child safety goggles and a high tolerance for noise on the teacher's part!)
Writer Ken Mochizuki and illustrator Dom Lee have produced two books that show children dealing with conflicts. Baseball Saved Us (Lee and Low, $14.95 , $5.95, ages 9 and up) is the story of a young Japanese-American boy sent to an interment camp during World War II. Furious at his situation and the prejudice surrounding him, the boy channels his anger into baseball and finds resolution and power. Heroes (Lee and Low, $14.95; ages 9 and up) takes place after WW II when another young Japanese-American boy faces the stereotyping of friends who cast him in the role of enemy in their war games because he looks like "them". Both books are great openers to speak of prejudice, history, anger, and authentic actions.
Extend this age group's awareness of bias issues by reading books like Barbara Cohen's Molly's Pilgrim (Lothrop, $12.95; Bantam, $2.99) the story of a Jewish girl's struggle to assimilate when she immigrates to America. Compare and contrast through discussing variables like historic periods, ethnicity, race, gender, and responses of the characters. Once students understand prejudice throughout history, challenge them to apply their perspectives by reading newspaper coverage of events in Bosnia. For closure, stimulate divergent thinking by designing bumper stickers that propose eradicating bias from our world forever.
One of the hardest things young children have to learn is how to get along with difficult people. Kathleen Leverich takes a comic approach in her three beginning chapter novels for ages 7-11 which are great for either read-aloud or independent readers. Best Enemies, Best Enemies Again(both Greenwillow, $14.00; Bullseye Books$4.99) and most recently, Best Enemies Forever (Greenwillow, $14.00) star Priscilla Robin, a young heroine who has to face the crazy-making manipulations of classmate, Felicity Doll. The books show her struggles, triumphs, give a realistic picture of the powers of conniving peers and an anti-hero children will love to hate! What a great way to let children know that some enemies aren't easy to deal with and resolutions aren't always two-sided.
Connect your students' knowledge of book characters, their own relationships, and critical thinking skills while expanding their awareness of personality traits through acrostics. Each student writes the name of a favorite character or friend and creates an acrostic by using each letter in the name as the initial consonant or vowel of an adjective that describes the positive attributes of this person. Display these acrostics along with portraits of their subjects to form a "Circle of Best Friends" in your classroom.
Martin Sandler retells history with themes that serve as guiding principals for children faced with problems, modeling the way individuals and groups have used inner resources to solve their conflicts. The theme of determination runs strongly through Pioneers; Cowboy shows the heroism of those who dared to live out their love of independence and adventure; Immigrants shows people willing to sacrifice everything to make their dreams come true, and Presidents emphasizes the human side of American leaders. Sandler, given free reign to collect photos, art and stories in the Library of Congress, packs his volumes with meaningful pictures, accessible writing, and poignant stories. (All from HarperCollins, $19.95; ages 7-12)
Encourage students to photograph and interview community leaders about their dreams and ideas for identifying local political or social problems and resolving these issues and conflicts. Like Martin Sandler, compile these photographic essays to create a classroom or school archive collection that documents events and life in your community. By taking on the role of historians and photojournalists, your students will experience a sense of audience and purpose in writing for the record.
Caring for the earth has become a conflict for children and a subject that is worthy of talking about from both science and humanistic viewpoints. Two tape-book combinations by Grateful Dead singer Bob Weir and his sister Wendy Weir feature young protagonists who show their concern and desire to heal the wounds of the African rainforest in Panther Dream (Hyperion, $19.95; $8.95; ages 8-12) and the Australian Coral Reef in Baru Bay Australia (Hyperion, $19.95 ;ages 8-12). The amazing sound tracks have a way of informing children about these environments so that animals and peoples children have only read about become more real to them.
Turn classroom into rainforest or coral reef by supplying students with materials for creating papier mache' animals indigenous to these environments. Use tissue paper, cardboard, and scraps to construct vegetation. The Weir audiotapes played in your own environments will become even more real. Help concerned students organize and take action by writing letters and perhaps even supporting the preservation of an endangered rain forest. Purchasing one acre in Costa Rica for the cost of $100 might become focus for a lasting and meaningful classroom project. (For more information, contact Monteverde Conservation League, Apdo.10581-1000, San Jose', Costa Rica)
Chris Crutcher's Ironman (Greenwillow, $15.00; ages 12 and up) is the story of Bo Brewster, a young man determined to stand his ground. Tangling with a sadistic teacher lands him in Mr. Nak's before-school Anger Management class. Mr. Nak, an Asian cowboy, is committed to his hardened group of hurting young students. This support transfers as fellow students help Bo takes on the hardest battle of his life, winning a triatholon against opponents supported by his punitive father. Crutcher's books are not for the feint of heart he speaks strongly for all young adults whose parents have hurt them "for their own good."
Launch into a study of sports heroes, researching national sport celebrities (past and present) and by interviewing local athletes. Guiding questions in this unit on conflict resolution for young adolescents might include:
Here's a slam dunk finale to this unit...view the much acclaimed, documentary movie Hoop Dreams (PG-13).
(We've added a brief statement about the book's contents in some cases)
Eve Bunting Smoky Nights (HBJ, $15.00 ; ages 9-12; looting and riots)
Janice Cohn Why Did it Happen? Helping Children Cope in a Violent World ( Morrow,$14.95; ages 5-10)
Dolores Johnson Your Dad Was Just Like You (Macmillan,$13.95 ; ages 6-10; anger with a father)
Eve Bunting Summer Wheels (HBJ, $14.95; $5.00; ages 9-12; anger at lack of integrity)
Phyllis Naylor Shiloh (Atheneum, $12.95; Dell, $3.99 ;ages 9-12; lying to save a dog from abuse)
Patricia MacLachlan Journey (Doubleday, $13.95;Delacorte,$3.50; ages 9-12; anger of child deserted by mother)
Trudy Krisher Spite Fences (Delacorte, $ 14.95; ages 12 and up; unpreferred daughter deals with racial conflicts in her town )
Restitution by Diane Chelsom Gossen, New View MultiMedia (New View Publication, $11.00; phone this small publisher at 1-800-441-3604) This book offers teachers a means of promoting students' self-discipline by providing them with opportunities to resolve conflicts through non-violent, positive methods.