Plans for Phase 2
Ideas from phase 1 that would be continued in phase 2
Before I could start phase 2, I had to evaluate my phase 1 to see what was working and what was not working. Reflecting on my phase 1 implementation and my phase 1 findings, I realized that my students were responding well to the instruction approaches I used to reinforce the I-Message and practice the I-Messages like the puppet shows with puppets that got into conflict, the read alouds with conflicts in them, and the class meetings. Students were very engaged during these lessons and actively participating. Students were participating by recognizing that the conflicts presented to them could be solved using an I-Message and articulating an appropriate I-Message for the puppet or character to use to solve their problem. They were also using I-Messages appropriately to solve problems with friends during the class meetings. I also began to see my students apply what they had learned during these lessons to solve their own conflicts they encountered with friends. Each day, I saw students recognizing conflicts of their own could be solved with I-Messages and solving these conflicts with I-Messages. As a result, I decided that for phase 2, I was going to keep using the puppet shows, read alouds, and class meeting lessons as a way to reinforce concepts I wanted to teach the students.
New Ideas for phase 2
Towards the end of my phase 1, many students felt accused and unliked by their peers. During the class meetings in the last week of phase 1, several students presented I-Messages to friends to solve a conflict and their friends did not respond well. Several friends responded by saying "No I didn't do that" or "Stop blaming me for things". Instead of settling the conflict, these I-Messages were leading to further conflicts amongst the students. For these situations, I had to intervene and settle these students disputes for them. I could see that students who were receiving the I-Messages did not feel good about themselves afterwards and felt accused. It was bringing the mood of the class down, tearing apart the class community, and giving the I-Message a negative association. I decided that something needed to be done to change this in phase 2. Since the I-Message I taught my students focuses on pointing out a negative deed a person has done to another person, I decided I needed to teach my students a way to point out positive deeds friends had done for them. I felt this might change my students attitudes towards each other. It would make them feel like their friends appreciated them for nice things they did instead of feeling like their friends just criticized them for things they did wrong. In order to do this, I decided I would teach my students another kind of I-Message, an I-Message for appreciation which would follow the structure, "I feel ______ when you _________. Thank you." The first blank would be filled with the feeling the person feels when their friend does a nice deed for them and the second blank would be filled with the nice deed their friend did for them.
Although I decided I wanted to introduce an I-Message for appreciation and focus on appreciation to bring my class together again in phase 2, I did not want to drop my focus on independent problem solving especially since my students were still not consistently problem solving independently. Several students were still reporting their problems to me before going to solve it on their own with an I-Message. For phase 2 I wanted to reemphasize doing I-Messages before telling the teacher about the problem. Therefore, my main focuses for phase 2 would be appreciating others and problem solving independently. As the focus has evolved, my research questions have evolved too. I will continue to focus on my initial action research question but I will now also be considering the question: "How will learning to appreciate positive contributions from others impact conflict resolution and classroom community?".
Assessment Methods for phase 2
Now that my ideas were in place for phase 2, I had to think of a way to measure my students progress with the concepts I was going to teach them. I felt I could continue to use my observational guide. However, this time, I would note when and how students were seen appreciating friends in addition to solving problems. I also felt that I still wanted to conference with my students and fill out student self reports because it gave me valuable feedback in phase 1. However since the student self report I created for phase 1 only provided me information on conflicts students experienced and how they solved them, I would have to modify the student self report to also reflect my students ability to appreciate friends. Therefore, I came up with a new student self report for phase 2. This student self report can be found below.
Before I could start phase 2, I had to evaluate my phase 1 to see what was working and what was not working. Reflecting on my phase 1 implementation and my phase 1 findings, I realized that my students were responding well to the instruction approaches I used to reinforce the I-Message and practice the I-Messages like the puppet shows with puppets that got into conflict, the read alouds with conflicts in them, and the class meetings. Students were very engaged during these lessons and actively participating. Students were participating by recognizing that the conflicts presented to them could be solved using an I-Message and articulating an appropriate I-Message for the puppet or character to use to solve their problem. They were also using I-Messages appropriately to solve problems with friends during the class meetings. I also began to see my students apply what they had learned during these lessons to solve their own conflicts they encountered with friends. Each day, I saw students recognizing conflicts of their own could be solved with I-Messages and solving these conflicts with I-Messages. As a result, I decided that for phase 2, I was going to keep using the puppet shows, read alouds, and class meeting lessons as a way to reinforce concepts I wanted to teach the students.
New Ideas for phase 2
Towards the end of my phase 1, many students felt accused and unliked by their peers. During the class meetings in the last week of phase 1, several students presented I-Messages to friends to solve a conflict and their friends did not respond well. Several friends responded by saying "No I didn't do that" or "Stop blaming me for things". Instead of settling the conflict, these I-Messages were leading to further conflicts amongst the students. For these situations, I had to intervene and settle these students disputes for them. I could see that students who were receiving the I-Messages did not feel good about themselves afterwards and felt accused. It was bringing the mood of the class down, tearing apart the class community, and giving the I-Message a negative association. I decided that something needed to be done to change this in phase 2. Since the I-Message I taught my students focuses on pointing out a negative deed a person has done to another person, I decided I needed to teach my students a way to point out positive deeds friends had done for them. I felt this might change my students attitudes towards each other. It would make them feel like their friends appreciated them for nice things they did instead of feeling like their friends just criticized them for things they did wrong. In order to do this, I decided I would teach my students another kind of I-Message, an I-Message for appreciation which would follow the structure, "I feel ______ when you _________. Thank you." The first blank would be filled with the feeling the person feels when their friend does a nice deed for them and the second blank would be filled with the nice deed their friend did for them.
Although I decided I wanted to introduce an I-Message for appreciation and focus on appreciation to bring my class together again in phase 2, I did not want to drop my focus on independent problem solving especially since my students were still not consistently problem solving independently. Several students were still reporting their problems to me before going to solve it on their own with an I-Message. For phase 2 I wanted to reemphasize doing I-Messages before telling the teacher about the problem. Therefore, my main focuses for phase 2 would be appreciating others and problem solving independently. As the focus has evolved, my research questions have evolved too. I will continue to focus on my initial action research question but I will now also be considering the question: "How will learning to appreciate positive contributions from others impact conflict resolution and classroom community?".
Assessment Methods for phase 2
Now that my ideas were in place for phase 2, I had to think of a way to measure my students progress with the concepts I was going to teach them. I felt I could continue to use my observational guide. However, this time, I would note when and how students were seen appreciating friends in addition to solving problems. I also felt that I still wanted to conference with my students and fill out student self reports because it gave me valuable feedback in phase 1. However since the student self report I created for phase 1 only provided me information on conflicts students experienced and how they solved them, I would have to modify the student self report to also reflect my students ability to appreciate friends. Therefore, I came up with a new student self report for phase 2. This student self report can be found below.
With these goals in mind, I set off to begin Phase 2.