Student Contributor: K. Larson
When students have a minor disagreement on the playground or in class, instead of getting the teacher involved they are able to play rock-paper-scissors to solve the dilemma. This is good for things like who gets the ball in tetherball, who gets the spot in line, and minor disagreements they might come upon
This tool could be used in classes of all ages with small problems that are caused due to young age and not having the know-how to solve simple problems. Rock-Paper-Scissors is a really simple, non-influenced method to solve some issues that may happen around school such as who gets the spot in line, who got tagged and has to freeze, who gets the swing first and many other small problems that students may feel the need to involve the teacher in, but it isn’t really necessary. This is a good way to start getting students thinking of problem solving even at a young age. In my experience, once this tool is implemented students automatically apply it to situations and are often not upset with the outcome where if the teacher would have made the decision, they may have been upset.
I placed this tool in the corrective phase because sometimes it is used once there is already a problem and it becomes the solution. This fits best with the corrective phase because if it solves a problem, it is correcting a behavior. It also could fit in the supportive phase though because it keeps students from having undesired behaviors in some cases and can prevent problems from happening aka supporting the desired behaviors. I believe this best fits with the student-directed and collaborative theories of influence because it empowers students to do things on their own and gives them a tool to solve problems themselves. But, it could fit with other theories of influence as well.
More Information –
Tool Source: P.E. teacher at placement school (CH)
I am currently in PE at an urban elementary school so I see students from Kindergarten through 5th grade. Class sizes are usually around 24 students. This tool is very easy to prepare as there is no actual set up. To implement this tool it simply took explaining to the students that if there is a disagreement when playing a game they should use rock-paper-scissors to resolve the problem. I found that it was helpful to remind students of this before starting an activity or game where I foresaw some arguments might take place. This tool was helpful in getting students to resolve their conflict quickly, allowing them to get back to the game. What I noticed a lot was that students would start to argue and then one of them would hold up their hands for rock-paper-scissors, they would do it, and then the argument would be over. Once in a while I would have to walk by and remind students that they should do rock-paper-scissors instead of arguing. At that time they would do it right away and go back to playing. Overall, this tool worked really well for a PE setting.
1st grade, 17 students, rural, corrective
This tool needs no preparation as it only involves the students to play rock, paper, scissors with their hands. It was also fairly easy to teach the students as they all knew how to play rock paper scissors, so it was more describing when and how to use it than actually how to play. Did go over how to play as a refresher but most students were confident in it. Students have a hard time transitioning from the playground to the classroom because of bringing in their disagreements and problems in. So was encouraging to see a few students did play rock paper scissors especially if they were still out at the playground because then they got back to playing quicker after resolving their problem. Students knew their role was to try and resolve the problem through this game before coming to the teacher. Yet still many students come to the teacher has that is their normal way. What could help to adjust is to give students reminders of this tool before and/or after recesses to encourage more students to try it before coming to the teacher.
I used this tool in my 1st grade P.E. class at an urban school with a class size of 21. This tool was easy to prepare for, and there was not any prep work required. I didn’t have to teach it to this class because they already knew how to play. It was very simple to use because the students were already familiar with it. I had a student come up to me and they described a conflict they were having with another student, so I walked over and talked to both of them. I asked them to play rock-paper-scissors to resolve the conflict and there were no problems after that. This tool was very successful because it provided a resolution to the problem in under a minute and both students respected the outcome, and everything was okay. Students were able to understand their role with the tool. They understood that whoever won the rock-paper-scissors was considered correct in that situation and the conflict was eliminated. There aren’t any improvements you could make to this tool better because it is self-explanatory. One thing you may have to do depending on the grade is inform the students which object beats which.
I am placed in a third grade class at a suburban school. We have 20 students in my class and arguments are a regular occurrence. This is something we have been trying to resolve for quite some time and we’ve been trying to teach them problem solving skills. So when I came across this tool I knew I had to try it. This tool was very easy to implement, we went over it in our class meeting and then when I saw students arguing I would remind them “rock paper scissors”. They would do rock paper scissors and then the problem would be solved. I think this tool worked because rather than a teacher telling them what to do it was a game and made it a little bit fun, we did have some sore losers in the beginning but after talking about it more that hasn’t happened quite as much. While this tool doesn’t work for everything it certainly is something that we’ll be adding into our teaching of problem solving.
Rock-Paper-Scissors:
Gade level- 1st grade
Number of students- 21 Students
Urban, suburban, or rural- Suburban/rural
The rock-paper-scissors management tool was simple to implement because all my students were familiar with this game. I told the entire class that we would try and work through our problems on our own before going to the teachers, I gave them an example of an issue that would be a great time to play this, which seemed to help them understand when to use this. Some students had a dispute when we were doing a shared reading group about who would pick the first story. I simply reminded the students to use this tool and the students agreed. After they played this the students simply went back to work and the issue was resolved. I feel this tool is beneficial especially with 1st graders because they are learning to resolve their issues with each other with a fun game. One adjustment I would make is making sure students are doing the action at the same time. For example, saying “rock, paper, scissors, shoot” before they do their actions because some students were doing it early or late caused more disruption.
My placement class is a 4th-grade class, there are 23 students and they are currently in a suburban school. This tool was easy to prepare for and use because I wanted to use this to help my students solve small disagreements amongst themselves. At first, I just sprung the tool out on a couple of my students who were having a disagreement about who was supposed to be in a certain place in line. I told my students to do rock paper scissors and whoever won the round, would get the spot that they both wanted. When one of them won the round, the other one got a little upset but understood that they lost so they seemed to just move on quickly. Then, I told the entire class that I would like them to use this strategy to solve any small disagreements that they might have with their peers throughout the day and I used the previous situation as an example of what to do with this tool so that it will de-escalate any arguments. I explained that one of the students was a good sport and accepted that the other person would get what they wanted with grace because they won the round of rock paper scissors. I also explained that it was fine if they lost because, in the next disagreement that they might have, they can use rock paper scissors and potentially win. As I kept coming into my placement, I would remind students to use rock paper scissors and every time it seemed to work well at de-escalating situations.
I have a combined classroom of 11 students which is made up of 3 second graders, 3 third graders, and 5 fourth graders. I am placed in an extremely rural town, if you would call it that, an hour away from EWU. The area is more of a large neighborhood, and the nearby town itself where mostly everyone lives and works is just 10 minutes away. I decided to try this strategy because at the moment there’s some tension between a couple of my students. These 2 students share a mutual friend but don’t get along between themselves, unless it’s to mess around and be off task, or during most recess activities. Lately they’ve started to bicker in class over the minorest thing so I decided to try this strategy to see if a quick game can quelsh the situation at hand and so far it’s worked because of the fact that they do get along sometimes. I feel like if they didn’t get along at all then it would be a different story. But as of now, the games end in laughs and sometimes in rematches and tie breakers.
Grade Level: 1st
Number of students: 19 students
School: suburban/rural
This was a great corrective tool to use in my placement’s first grade class. I really like how it takes little to no preparation, as most students already know how to play rock-paper-scissors and there aren’t any additional materials needed. The previous week before testing this tool, the guidance counselor made a trip to our room to teach a lesson about the difference between big problems and little problems. In that lesson the students were shown strategies on how to solve their own little problems, so this was a perfect strategy to add to that pre-learned list. After reviewing with the students how when we have little problems, we should try and solve them ourselves, I introduced them to the rock-paper-scissors strategy. One example of when I saw the strategy used was when two students were arguing about who got to be first in line to draw letters. They did not remember the strategy immediately because it was just shown to them. But after I reminded them of it, it was used, and the problem was solved! The only improvement I can think of is specific to my classroom, in that I think we should make a poster to remind students of the strategies to use to solve their own little problems.