Skill: Disagreeing Appropriately

Lesson Plans for Elementary & Secondary Students

Elementary Students

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Disagreeing Appropriately

Skill to Teach

“Disagreeing Appropriately;” This lesson is designed so students can form an opinion on academic content and practice the social skill of “Disagreeing Appropriately” to calmly and respectfully state their opinion (either agreement or disagreement).

Age Elementary; There are sample questions for grades K-2 and grades 3-5. Note: The sample questions might not all apply to your specific grade level. Feel free to adapt them into unit-specific, academic-related questions that students can either agree or disagree with.

Objective Students will read content-specific questions and formulate an opinion. Students will use the skill of “Disagreeing Appropriately” to discuss their opinions with a partner.

Materials Needed

Skills poster or skill steps written on board for “Disagreeing Appropriately.” Content related questions

Planned Teaching

Ask students for examples of times they’ve disagreed with someone. Ask how it went.

(Try to elicit examples of what makes disagreeing appropriately go well and what might

make disagreeing appropriately go poorly.)

Remind students of the steps of the skill “Disagreeing Appropriately” and refer to your

wall poster or write them on the board:

1. Look at the person.

2. Use a pleasant voice.

3. Tell why you feel differently.

4. Give a reason.

5. Listen to the other person.

Tell students that when they disagree by using a pleasant voice and don’t say that the

other person is wrong, people are more likely to listen to what they have to say.

Practice

Tell students that they have been learning about __ (any academic topic, unit, or

story). Today they will work in pairs and take turns reading questions and answering

first. They will each form an opinion and take turns on who answers first. The second

person either agrees and says why or uses the skill of “Disagreeing Appropriately” and

disagrees. The other person listens quietly and calmly. Then they move to the next

question.

Demonstrate by having a student role-play with you. Have the student answer

questions and you disagree appropriately (to ensure a differing opinion and a right-way

example).

Assessment Informally assess students’ participation in the discussion. Debrief as a whole class and get examples of opinions and how disagreeing appropriately went.

Option Students can create the sentence strips on a given topic by using “I” statements. For example, “I think it would have been great to live with the Potawatomie tribe.” Once you review and distribute them, students would read the statement and say whether they agree or disagree and why.

© 2015, Father Flanagan’s Boys Home

Topics to Agree/Disagree for Early Elementary

1. Do you and your family like to play board games? 2. What special do you like best? 3. Would you like to visit _________________________________? 4. I would like to be a ____________________ when I grow up because… 5. I like to play the sport ______________________. 6. I would like to live in the (city / country / suburbs). 7. I would like to live near (the mountains / the beach / a lake / in the prairie). 8. My favorite subject is (math / reading / writing / social studies / science). 9. ____________________ is my favorite holiday. 10. _____________________ is my favorite food.

Topics to Agree/Disagree for Upper Elementary 1. I would love to visit this country: _______________. 2. Would you like to have lived when the Native American tribe, the ________________, lived. 3. _________________ is my favorite ecosystem. 4. My family and I recycle regularly. 5. I would like to learn about the state ______________. 6. Do you think it is good that our country has religious freedom? 7. Do you think it is fair that there were indentured servants? 8. Should the colonists have participated in the “Boston Tea Party”? 9. Would you want to be the president of the United States? 10. Would you have wanted to travel on the Oregon Trail?

Secondary Students

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Teaching Social Skills, Creating Successful Students

Disagreeing Appropriately

Academic Context

Teach students the skill of “Disagreeing Appropriately” by researching a particular person. Please adapt this lesson plan to fit content-specific needs. Examples of appropriate subject choices:

• Historical figures

• Literary Character

• Author

• Scientist

• Mathematician

Objective • Students will explain why this person or character needed to disagree,

evaluate whether or not s/he did so appropriately, and determine how this

may have contributed to his/her success.

• Students will synthesize and evaluate their understanding of an important

person by creating their own product. Possible choices include:

o Oral Report

o Short Play or Skit

o PowerPoint Presentation

o Online Poster (use Glogster or a similar free, online program)

• Students will apply and demonstrate their use of 21st century skills such as

presenting in front of groups, using technology, and writing.

• Students will present their project.

Life Skill • Ask students for examples of when they disagreed with someone. How did

they do it? What went wrong? What went right?

•

• Introduce the steps of “Disagreeing Appropriately” and refer to your wall

poster or write them on the board:

1. Look at the person

2. Use a pleasant voice

3. Tell why you feel differently

4. Give a reason.

5. Listen to the other person.

• Ask them why we might need to know how to disagree appropriately.

Show the short video about having a conversation: http://bit.do/Disagree

© 2014, Father Flanagan’s Boys Home www.boystowntraining.org

Academic Content

• Tell students that they will learn about a person (in history, a scientist, a

literary character or author, or mathematician, etc.) and create a product

that will show how and why that person might have had to disagree. Then

they will evaluate how using this skill helped the person to be more

successful.

• At this point, insert your academic content. For example, read/watch a

short video/discuss a person or character that you are studying. Brainstorm

situations when that person might have used the skill of “Disagreeing

Appropriately”.

• Have students work in pairs or groups of three. They are to create a

product and plan their presentation. They are to choose a situation in

which the person might have had to use the skill of “Disagreeing

Appropriately,” demonstrate how that person used/ would have used the

skill, explain why s/he had to disagree, and evaluate how using the skill of

“Disagreeing Appropriate” attributed to the person’s success or would have

changed the outcome.

Assignment Product choices: • Write and present an oral report

• Write and present a short play

• Create a PowerPoint presentation

• Create an online poster using Glogster (or a similar free, online program).

Assessment • 100 point project. Rubric is attached.

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