Phase 2: Description of Implementation
For phase 1, every week I taught 3-4 conflict resolution lessons for 20 minutes each. I was planning to do the same thing for phase 2 but again due to the large amount of academic content that needed to be covered during the time period of my phase 2, my master teacher felt it would be best if my conflict resolution/ appreciation lessons were reduced to 2-3 times a week for 20 mins each. My phase 2 lasted three weeks. However, due to the nature of the topic I chose to focus on for my action research, I was able to monitor if students were applying the skills I taught them both inside and outside of my lessons. For phase 2, I continued to track the same seven students I tracked in phase 1. In phase 2 my goal would be to see if teaching direct lessons on independent problem solving, would improve my students ability to independently solve their own social conflicts. An additional goal would be to see if teaching the class how to appreciate friends would restore the class community and impact conflict resolution.
Week 1 (Jan 6- Jan 10)
My final lessons of phase 1 ended with students just focusing on the wrong doings other students had done and in turn this was producing a negative classroom atmosphere. Therefore, in phase 2 I wanted to try to also get my students to recognize the positive contributions other members of their class were making. I felt having this balance would allow each student to grow socially/emotionally and strengthen the class community. Therefore, I decided to kick off phase 2 by introducing an Appreciation I-Message. I made the Appreciation I-Message the focus for this week so that my students could get a good understanding of when to use it and how to use it.
On Monday, I opened the lesson by telling the students that I was happy with the way many of them had been solving their problems with friends using the I-Message but many friends were taking the I-Messages said to them in the wrong way. Many friends felt accused and felt like everything they were doing was wrong after an I-Message was told to them. I told the class that we need to also remember to recognize our friends for nice things they do for us so our friends know that we appreciate things they do. In order to do this we can tell our friends another kind of I-Message called an "Appreciation I-Message". The previous I-Message I taught them would be called "Problem Solving I-Message" in order to distinguish the two different I-Messages. I had already made a poster for the Problem Solving I-Message on yellow paper so I made another one for the Appreciation I-Message and put it on blue poster paper. Due to the difficulty of the words "Appreciation" and "Problem Solving", many students referred to the Appreciation I-Message as the blue I-Message and the Problem Solving I-Message as the yellow I-Message. I hung both of these posters up on the board so they were always in clear view to all of the students to see and reference. The Appreciation I-Message would follow the structure "I feel _______ when you _________. Thank you." This was written on the poster. The first blank would be filled with the feeling the person feels when their friend did a nice deed for them and the second blank would be filled with the nice deed their friend did for them.
My final lessons of phase 1 ended with students just focusing on the wrong doings other students had done and in turn this was producing a negative classroom atmosphere. Therefore, in phase 2 I wanted to try to also get my students to recognize the positive contributions other members of their class were making. I felt having this balance would allow each student to grow socially/emotionally and strengthen the class community. Therefore, I decided to kick off phase 2 by introducing an Appreciation I-Message. I made the Appreciation I-Message the focus for this week so that my students could get a good understanding of when to use it and how to use it.
On Monday, I opened the lesson by telling the students that I was happy with the way many of them had been solving their problems with friends using the I-Message but many friends were taking the I-Messages said to them in the wrong way. Many friends felt accused and felt like everything they were doing was wrong after an I-Message was told to them. I told the class that we need to also remember to recognize our friends for nice things they do for us so our friends know that we appreciate things they do. In order to do this we can tell our friends another kind of I-Message called an "Appreciation I-Message". The previous I-Message I taught them would be called "Problem Solving I-Message" in order to distinguish the two different I-Messages. I had already made a poster for the Problem Solving I-Message on yellow paper so I made another one for the Appreciation I-Message and put it on blue poster paper. Due to the difficulty of the words "Appreciation" and "Problem Solving", many students referred to the Appreciation I-Message as the blue I-Message and the Problem Solving I-Message as the yellow I-Message. I hung both of these posters up on the board so they were always in clear view to all of the students to see and reference. The Appreciation I-Message would follow the structure "I feel _______ when you _________. Thank you." This was written on the poster. The first blank would be filled with the feeling the person feels when their friend did a nice deed for them and the second blank would be filled with the nice deed their friend did for them.
Then I turned it over to the students. I asked the students, how do you feel when someone does something nice for you? I wrote their responses directly under the first blank on the poster and included a corresponding image of the feeling. Then I asked the class, "What are nice things friends do for you or you do for friends that could deserve this Appreciation I-Message?". I put this question on a circle map and recorded students responses. The students came up with a variety of appropriate responses. This circle map and their responses can be seen to the right. I told the students that all of these suggestions could be put in the second blank of the Appreciation I-Message. After this exercise, I wanted to model using an Appreciation I-Message in correct form and at an appropriate time. Therefore, I choose a volunteer student to come up and pretend to tie my shoes then said to the student, "I feel cared when you tie my shoes. Thank you". I called on several more volunteers to practice saying an Appreciation I-Message to me after I did a nice deed for them. Almost all the volunteers said an Appreciation I-Message to me in correct form and structure. Throughout the rest of the day, I began to notice some students start to use the Appreciation I-Message. I caught one of the students I was following say to her friend, "I feel cared when you help me tie my shoes. Thank you" and another student say to his friend, “I feel happy when you want to be my friend. Thank you”.
The next day, I held a class meeting and asked students to report any Appreciation I-Messages they said to friends, wanted to say to a friend, or received from friends. Two of the students I was following reported Appreciation I-Message they wanted to say to a friend and I let them both say them to their friends. One student said to her friend, "I feel happy when you say you will be my friend. Thank you" and the other student told a friend the Appreciation I-Message, "I feel happy when you play with me. Thank you". Students who received these Appreciation I-Messages gladly accepted them with a smile. I could see that these students were so honored to receive an Appreciation I-Message. Not a single student refuted the Appreciation I-Message they received. This was unlike the class meetings at the end of phase 1. I could already see a drastic change in the mood of the class meeting compared to the final class meetings held in phase 1. Students seemed happy and content with one another.
On Thursday of this week, my lesson took the form of a puppet show. Instead of having the puppets encounter conflicts, I role played the puppets doing nice deeds for each other. After each nice deed, I stopped and asked the class what the puppet could say to the other puppet for doing a nice deed. Students automatically responded in unison, "A BLUE I-MESSAGE". This told me that my students were able to recognize appropriate times to say a blue I-Message or an Appreciation I-Message. After I would ask for example Appreciation I-Messages the puppets could say. Several students (including three of the students I am tracking) responded with appropriate Appreciation I-Messages.
On Friday of this week, I was able to conference with each of the students I was tracking and fill out a student self report on each student to get a personal insight on their week. The interesting part is that when I met with each of the students at the end of the week, several of the students I witnessed having social conflicts with friends during the week reported not having any social conflicts with friends during the week. This made it difficult to trust the data from the student self reports. Looking over all my data I collected for the week, I noticed that each of the students I'm tracking used an Appreciation I-Message at least once. Several of the students even said an Appreciation I-Message more then once. There were a total of 15 Appreciation I-Messages said by my students this week. These were Appreciation I-Messages that I witnessed being used or students reported using during our conference. I was very pleased with this progress. On the other hand, I witnessed 1 instance where a student I am tracking was trying to solve a social conflict by getting physical. I noted 4 social conflicts that were reported to me before trying to solve it own their own with a Problem Solving I-Message. However, when these were reported to me, I didn't solve the conflict for the student. Instead, I prompted the students and said, "How are you going to solve it" and the students would reply "A yellow I-Message" then go about solving it with a Problem Solving I-Message. I noted 3 instances where a student went directly to solving their problem with a Problem Solving I-message. This made for a total of 8 social conflicts and 15 appreciation moments. I was happy to see that way more appreciation moments were occurring then social conflicts but disappointed that when the conflicts did occur during the week, many of my students were still reporting them me or responding with an act of violence instead of directly using a Problem Solving I-Message. My findings from this week made me realize that in week 2 I would have to reinforce the Problem Solving I-Message again.
The next day, I held a class meeting and asked students to report any Appreciation I-Messages they said to friends, wanted to say to a friend, or received from friends. Two of the students I was following reported Appreciation I-Message they wanted to say to a friend and I let them both say them to their friends. One student said to her friend, "I feel happy when you say you will be my friend. Thank you" and the other student told a friend the Appreciation I-Message, "I feel happy when you play with me. Thank you". Students who received these Appreciation I-Messages gladly accepted them with a smile. I could see that these students were so honored to receive an Appreciation I-Message. Not a single student refuted the Appreciation I-Message they received. This was unlike the class meetings at the end of phase 1. I could already see a drastic change in the mood of the class meeting compared to the final class meetings held in phase 1. Students seemed happy and content with one another.
On Thursday of this week, my lesson took the form of a puppet show. Instead of having the puppets encounter conflicts, I role played the puppets doing nice deeds for each other. After each nice deed, I stopped and asked the class what the puppet could say to the other puppet for doing a nice deed. Students automatically responded in unison, "A BLUE I-MESSAGE". This told me that my students were able to recognize appropriate times to say a blue I-Message or an Appreciation I-Message. After I would ask for example Appreciation I-Messages the puppets could say. Several students (including three of the students I am tracking) responded with appropriate Appreciation I-Messages.
On Friday of this week, I was able to conference with each of the students I was tracking and fill out a student self report on each student to get a personal insight on their week. The interesting part is that when I met with each of the students at the end of the week, several of the students I witnessed having social conflicts with friends during the week reported not having any social conflicts with friends during the week. This made it difficult to trust the data from the student self reports. Looking over all my data I collected for the week, I noticed that each of the students I'm tracking used an Appreciation I-Message at least once. Several of the students even said an Appreciation I-Message more then once. There were a total of 15 Appreciation I-Messages said by my students this week. These were Appreciation I-Messages that I witnessed being used or students reported using during our conference. I was very pleased with this progress. On the other hand, I witnessed 1 instance where a student I am tracking was trying to solve a social conflict by getting physical. I noted 4 social conflicts that were reported to me before trying to solve it own their own with a Problem Solving I-Message. However, when these were reported to me, I didn't solve the conflict for the student. Instead, I prompted the students and said, "How are you going to solve it" and the students would reply "A yellow I-Message" then go about solving it with a Problem Solving I-Message. I noted 3 instances where a student went directly to solving their problem with a Problem Solving I-message. This made for a total of 8 social conflicts and 15 appreciation moments. I was happy to see that way more appreciation moments were occurring then social conflicts but disappointed that when the conflicts did occur during the week, many of my students were still reporting them me or responding with an act of violence instead of directly using a Problem Solving I-Message. My findings from this week made me realize that in week 2 I would have to reinforce the Problem Solving I-Message again.
Week 2 (Jan 13- Jan 17)
Although I wanted to dig right back into focusing on Problem Solving I-Message, I knew I had to start the week off by reminding the students of the Appreciation I-Message since they had only been using it for a week. Therefore on Monday of this week, I read the students the book, How Full Is Your Bucket. This book tells a story about a little boy who has an invisible bucket over his head and whenever someone does something nice for him water goes into his invisible bucket but whenever someone does something mean to him water spills out of his bucket. After I read this book to them, I asked the students a series of questions. First, I asked the class, "What are some of the nice things people did to fill the little boys bucket?" The class mentioned a few from the book. Then I asked the class, "Have people done nice things like that to you?" They responded, "Yes". Lastly, I asked, "What could you say to friends when they do nice deeds like these and fill your bucket?" One of the students I am tracking replied an "Appreciation I-Message". This helped verify to me that my students knew the appropriate times to use an Appreciation I-Message. Later that day I heard one of my students say an Appreciation I-Message to a friend for picking up his glue stick cap off the floor. He said to his friend, " I feel cared when you pick up my glue stick cap off the floor then give it to me. Thank you." His friend responded with a "You're welcome" and gave him a big hug. However, that same day, I witnessed one of my students hitting another student to get the basketball from them.
Similarly on Tuesday, I witnessed the same student pushing and kicking another student to get a bouncy ball from him. It was clear that the Problem Solving I-Message needed to be reinforced to the class.
For my lesson on Wednesday, I held a puppet show. I had the puppets reenact the social conflict over the basketball that I had witnessed my students having on Monday. After I asked the students, "Did the puppet solve the problem in a good way?". My students immediately replied, "NO!!". Then I asked the students, “How could the puppet have solved it instead?”. The class responded by saying, "a yellow I-Message". I responded by saying "Yes thats a great idea! Could anyone tell me a Problem Solving I-Message the puppet could say?". One of my students said the puppet should say, "I feel sad when you hit me to get the ball. I'd like it if you ask for the ball instead". I told the class that is a very appropriate way for the puppet to respond and avoids hurting the other puppet. After this my students demanded, "Another puppet show!! Another puppet show!!" Next I role played one puppet drawing a picture of a flower and the other puppet complementing the puppet on how beautiful the flower looked. Then I asked the class what this puppet could say to the other puppet for giving her such a nice complement. One of my students suggested the puppet say, "I feel happy when you say you like my flower. Thank you" and I had the puppet use this suggestion. This told me that this student understood the how and when to use an Appreciation I-Message.
On Friday, I held a class meeting and asked the students to first report any Appreciation I-Messages they did or needed to do. Two of my students needed to say an Appreciation I-Messages to friends so I let them. One student said the Appreciation I-Message, "I feel happy when you play duck duck goose with me. Thank you" and the other student said the Appreciation I-Message, "I feel glad when you say you want to be my friend. Thank you". After receiving the Appreciation I-Messages, these friends were smiling and I could see that they felt good about themselves. Then I asked the students to report any Problem Solving I-Messages they had done or still needed to do. None of my students had Problem Solving I-Messages to report or still needed to do. This came as a shock to me since during class meetings in phase 1 students always had Problem Solving I-Messages to report or still needed to say. Students seemed to be getting along better and were more friendly with each other.
Towards the end of the day on Friday, I was able to conference with each student and fill out the Student Self Reports. The last thing I did this week was look at all the data I had gathered on my observational guide and on each Student Self Report. I counted the amount of Appreciation I-Messages that my students said through out the week and it came out to 13. Although this was a slight decrease from week 1, I was happy to see that my students were still using them pretty frequently. Next, I tallied the amount of social conflicts that occurred and it came out to 8. Out of the 8 social conflicts that occurred, 4 were solved with a Problem Solving I-Message, 2 were solved by telling the teacher then doing a Problem Solving I-Message, and 2 were solved with violence. That made for a total of 13 Appreciation moments and 8 social conflicts. Again this week, there were more Appreciation instances then social conflict instances. However, not all of the conflicts were being solved directly with a Problem Solving I-Message so I felt I needed to address this again in week 3.
Although I wanted to dig right back into focusing on Problem Solving I-Message, I knew I had to start the week off by reminding the students of the Appreciation I-Message since they had only been using it for a week. Therefore on Monday of this week, I read the students the book, How Full Is Your Bucket. This book tells a story about a little boy who has an invisible bucket over his head and whenever someone does something nice for him water goes into his invisible bucket but whenever someone does something mean to him water spills out of his bucket. After I read this book to them, I asked the students a series of questions. First, I asked the class, "What are some of the nice things people did to fill the little boys bucket?" The class mentioned a few from the book. Then I asked the class, "Have people done nice things like that to you?" They responded, "Yes". Lastly, I asked, "What could you say to friends when they do nice deeds like these and fill your bucket?" One of the students I am tracking replied an "Appreciation I-Message". This helped verify to me that my students knew the appropriate times to use an Appreciation I-Message. Later that day I heard one of my students say an Appreciation I-Message to a friend for picking up his glue stick cap off the floor. He said to his friend, " I feel cared when you pick up my glue stick cap off the floor then give it to me. Thank you." His friend responded with a "You're welcome" and gave him a big hug. However, that same day, I witnessed one of my students hitting another student to get the basketball from them.
Similarly on Tuesday, I witnessed the same student pushing and kicking another student to get a bouncy ball from him. It was clear that the Problem Solving I-Message needed to be reinforced to the class.
For my lesson on Wednesday, I held a puppet show. I had the puppets reenact the social conflict over the basketball that I had witnessed my students having on Monday. After I asked the students, "Did the puppet solve the problem in a good way?". My students immediately replied, "NO!!". Then I asked the students, “How could the puppet have solved it instead?”. The class responded by saying, "a yellow I-Message". I responded by saying "Yes thats a great idea! Could anyone tell me a Problem Solving I-Message the puppet could say?". One of my students said the puppet should say, "I feel sad when you hit me to get the ball. I'd like it if you ask for the ball instead". I told the class that is a very appropriate way for the puppet to respond and avoids hurting the other puppet. After this my students demanded, "Another puppet show!! Another puppet show!!" Next I role played one puppet drawing a picture of a flower and the other puppet complementing the puppet on how beautiful the flower looked. Then I asked the class what this puppet could say to the other puppet for giving her such a nice complement. One of my students suggested the puppet say, "I feel happy when you say you like my flower. Thank you" and I had the puppet use this suggestion. This told me that this student understood the how and when to use an Appreciation I-Message.
On Friday, I held a class meeting and asked the students to first report any Appreciation I-Messages they did or needed to do. Two of my students needed to say an Appreciation I-Messages to friends so I let them. One student said the Appreciation I-Message, "I feel happy when you play duck duck goose with me. Thank you" and the other student said the Appreciation I-Message, "I feel glad when you say you want to be my friend. Thank you". After receiving the Appreciation I-Messages, these friends were smiling and I could see that they felt good about themselves. Then I asked the students to report any Problem Solving I-Messages they had done or still needed to do. None of my students had Problem Solving I-Messages to report or still needed to do. This came as a shock to me since during class meetings in phase 1 students always had Problem Solving I-Messages to report or still needed to say. Students seemed to be getting along better and were more friendly with each other.
Towards the end of the day on Friday, I was able to conference with each student and fill out the Student Self Reports. The last thing I did this week was look at all the data I had gathered on my observational guide and on each Student Self Report. I counted the amount of Appreciation I-Messages that my students said through out the week and it came out to 13. Although this was a slight decrease from week 1, I was happy to see that my students were still using them pretty frequently. Next, I tallied the amount of social conflicts that occurred and it came out to 8. Out of the 8 social conflicts that occurred, 4 were solved with a Problem Solving I-Message, 2 were solved by telling the teacher then doing a Problem Solving I-Message, and 2 were solved with violence. That made for a total of 13 Appreciation moments and 8 social conflicts. Again this week, there were more Appreciation instances then social conflict instances. However, not all of the conflicts were being solved directly with a Problem Solving I-Message so I felt I needed to address this again in week 3.
Week 3 (Jan 21- Jan 24)
Since Monday January 20 was a holiday, my final week of phase 2 started on Tuesday Jan 21 and only lasted 4 days. I still felt that a good number of my students were coming up to me and other authority figures to report their problems before trying to solve it on their own. After we would tell them that they needed to try to solve their problem on their own, most students would try to solve it on their own with a Problem Solving I-Message and this usually worked to solve their problem. However, I still felt that this was not solving their problem completely independently and that was the initial goal of my action research project so this week I really wanted to focus on getting students solve their problems INDEPENDENTLY with no teacher involvement. I knew it was going to be hard for my students to completely eliminate the teacher from their problem solving so I decided I would teach my students that they could tell the teacher about a conflict they had but only after they had tried to solve it on their own.
Since my students loved the puppet shows and were usually always engaged during the puppet shows, I decided to use this method to teach them an explicit lesson on this. I started by having the puppets, Michelle and Jack, encounter a typical kindergarten problem. Jack took Michelle's glue stick. Then I stopped and said to the class "Looks like there is a problem". Together we identified the problem then I asked the class, "Should Michelle report this problem to the teacher?". They responded, "No she should do a yellow I-Message". I said, "Yes, I think that would be the best way to solve it". Then I asked the class, "After Michelle solves her problem, can she tell the teacher about how she solved it?" Some students responded yes and some responded no. I informed the class that a student can always tell the teacher about how they solved a problem on their own. Then I went back to the puppet show and role played Michelle solving her problem with a Problem Solving I-Message. I also role played Michelle telling me about how she solved her problem and then praising the way she solved it. Below are some of these moments captured.
Since Monday January 20 was a holiday, my final week of phase 2 started on Tuesday Jan 21 and only lasted 4 days. I still felt that a good number of my students were coming up to me and other authority figures to report their problems before trying to solve it on their own. After we would tell them that they needed to try to solve their problem on their own, most students would try to solve it on their own with a Problem Solving I-Message and this usually worked to solve their problem. However, I still felt that this was not solving their problem completely independently and that was the initial goal of my action research project so this week I really wanted to focus on getting students solve their problems INDEPENDENTLY with no teacher involvement. I knew it was going to be hard for my students to completely eliminate the teacher from their problem solving so I decided I would teach my students that they could tell the teacher about a conflict they had but only after they had tried to solve it on their own.
Since my students loved the puppet shows and were usually always engaged during the puppet shows, I decided to use this method to teach them an explicit lesson on this. I started by having the puppets, Michelle and Jack, encounter a typical kindergarten problem. Jack took Michelle's glue stick. Then I stopped and said to the class "Looks like there is a problem". Together we identified the problem then I asked the class, "Should Michelle report this problem to the teacher?". They responded, "No she should do a yellow I-Message". I said, "Yes, I think that would be the best way to solve it". Then I asked the class, "After Michelle solves her problem, can she tell the teacher about how she solved it?" Some students responded yes and some responded no. I informed the class that a student can always tell the teacher about how they solved a problem on their own. Then I went back to the puppet show and role played Michelle solving her problem with a Problem Solving I-Message. I also role played Michelle telling me about how she solved her problem and then praising the way she solved it. Below are some of these moments captured.
I wanted to reinforce the Appreciation I-Message too so I role played the puppet, Jack offering to play with the puppet Michelle when nobody else want to play with her then I had the students give me an Appreciation Message Michelle could say to Jack. One of my student suggested Michelle say, "I feel happy when you play with me. Thank you". Michelle then said this to Jack and afterwards reported it to me. Later that day, I saw one of my students do a Problem Solving I-Message on her own to solve a conflict she was having with a friend at lunch recess. Afterwards, this student came and told me how she solved her problem. On Wednesday, I saw another student immediately do a Problem Solving I-Message when a student threw his backpack on the floor.
On Thursday I presented my culminating action research lesson. To culminate my action research project, I wanted to assess my students understanding of the Problem Solving I-Message (aka yellow I-message) and Appreciation I-Message (aka blue I-message) and their experience with the Problem Solving I-Message and the Appreciation I-Message so I created a Summative Assessment with a list of questions then gave it to my class on Thursday. I had my students treat the assessment like a test so students were not allowed to talk and had to put their privacy boards up. I did this so I could evaluate each students individual development with both I-Messages. I read the assessment orally to the students and told them to circle the best answer choice.
On Thursday I presented my culminating action research lesson. To culminate my action research project, I wanted to assess my students understanding of the Problem Solving I-Message (aka yellow I-message) and Appreciation I-Message (aka blue I-message) and their experience with the Problem Solving I-Message and the Appreciation I-Message so I created a Summative Assessment with a list of questions then gave it to my class on Thursday. I had my students treat the assessment like a test so students were not allowed to talk and had to put their privacy boards up. I did this so I could evaluate each students individual development with both I-Messages. I read the assessment orally to the students and told them to circle the best answer choice.
This summative assessment told me a lot about my students understanding and experience with the concepts I had been teaching them. All of the 7 students I was following circled the Problem Solving I-Message as the answer for question 1 and the Appreciation I-Message as the answer for question 2. This verified to me that my students knew the appropriate time to do a Problem Solving I-Message and the appropriate time to do an Appreciation I-Message. 6 out of 7 of the students answered that they feel happy after a friend tells them a yellow I-message (question 5). This led me to believe that my students attitudes about receiving a Problem Solving I-Message had changed.
On Friday I had my final conference with each student and filled out their Student Self Reports. Looking over the data from the week, I counted all the Appreciation I-Messages my students had done throughout the week and it came out to 10. I counted the amount of conflicts my students tried to resolve and there were 6. Of the 6 conflicts, 0 were solved with physical aggression, 2 were solved by telling the teacher then doing a Problem Solving I-message and 4 were solved immediately with a Problem Solving I-Message. This information brought me to many conclusions which I will report next in my findings.
On Friday I had my final conference with each student and filled out their Student Self Reports. Looking over the data from the week, I counted all the Appreciation I-Messages my students had done throughout the week and it came out to 10. I counted the amount of conflicts my students tried to resolve and there were 6. Of the 6 conflicts, 0 were solved with physical aggression, 2 were solved by telling the teacher then doing a Problem Solving I-message and 4 were solved immediately with a Problem Solving I-Message. This information brought me to many conclusions which I will report next in my findings.
Results of Phase 2
Below is a comparison of the conflict resolution strategies my student choose to use weekly through out phase 1.
Below is a comparison of the conflict resolution strategies my student choose to use weekly through out phase 1.
In total there were 22 conflicts that occurred in phase 2 with an average of 7 conflicts happening per week. Of the 22 conflicts that occurred in phase 1, 11 were solved with a Problem Solving I-Message, 8 were solved by tattling to a teacher, and 3 were solved with physical aggression. Again the Problem Solving I-Message was the strategy used the most often then followed closely by the strategy of reporting to the teacher. This information is represented below.