Intro to Conflict: Perspective

Rationale: I want to drive home the point that any given conflict has multiple point of view and
perspectives. In order to have an opinion on a conflict, one must understand the different
perspectives. I want my students to go into this unit on conflict knowing that it is ok to question
the reliability of narrators, and being aware of the multiple perspectives present in a text.
Plan: 1 of 12
Objectives
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.1.A
Introduce claim(s), acknowledge alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and
evidence logically.
1a.Students will be able to differentiate between multiple versions of a story.
2a.Students will be able to identify opposing characters in a conflict.
Materials:
White board
White board markers
Cardboard boxes
25 copies of exit ticket
Time: 50 minutes
Procedure:
-Written on the board when students enter: In your journal, write down what you know about
point of view or perspective. This should take you about 5 minutes.
-When class officially starts put countdown on the board starting at 5 minutes so they know how
much time is left for writing.
-Ask students to put journals away.
-Ask for 2 volunteers to step outside the room for a few minutes until I tell them they can come
back in. Direct those students to simply sit outside the door and talk or read.
-Once students are out of the room, begin walking around the room gathering cardboard boxes,
and miscellaneous, non-breakable items. Build a small tower with the items. All the while, talk
to students about good things that happened to them recently. After about 3-5 minutes of this
knock the tower over!
-Tell students not to talk, get out a piece of paper, and write down everything that just happened.
Allow 5 minutes for them to write.
-While students are writing allow the 2 volunteers to come back into the room and sit down.

-Ask several students to read aloud what they just wrote so that the students who were not in the
room will know what happened. (10 minutes) Ask 2 volunteers to write down what happened
based on what they hear from other students.
Discussion: (20 minutes)
-Ask students: Did everyone say the same thing about what happened?
-Were there any differences between the stories? Different details, different opinions, etc.
-Explain to students that everything you ever read is written from the perspective of one person. Were that story told by someone else, even someone else who witnessed the exact same things,
the story would be different.
ex. How might Harry Potter be a different story if Snape had been the narrator?
ex. How might the Hunger Games have been different if Katniss mother had told it?
Exit ticket/ Assessment: (10 minutes)
-Have students write down their own example of a story that could be different from another
perspective and guess how it might be different. Turn in on the way out to check for learning.
Participation grade.
Name:
Write down one example of a story that might be different if it were told from another
characters point of view. How do you think the story would be different?

Defining Conflict
Rationale: If the theme of my unit is conflict then it is important that my students understand
what conflict is. There are multiple definitions of the word, and students should know how to
properly use it
Plan: 2 of 12

Common Core State Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4.C
Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses),
both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise
meaning or its part of speech.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4.D
Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the
inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.6
Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or
narrators in a text.
Goals:
2b. Students will be able to define conflict in their own words.
2c. Students will be able to differentiate between different types of conflicts.
1b. Students will be able to identify multiple perspectives in a given conflict.
Materials:
Whiteboard
Whiteboard markers
Time: 50 minutes
Procedure:
-Written on board when students enter the room: In your journal, write about a time you had a
fight or disagreement with someone else. What was the cause of the disagreement? Did anything
change because of it? How was it resolved? If it was not resolved, why not? Take about 5
minutes to do this.
-After 5 minutes, ask students to finish up their thoughts and bring their attention to the front.
-Explain that what they just wrote about what a conflict.
-Ask who knows what a conflict is?
-Have one students pass out the defining conflict handout
-Proceed to define conflict:
Conflict
-Noun: a serious disagreement or argument or argument, typically a protracted one.
-Synonyms: dispute, quarrel, squabble, disagreement.
Example: There is a conflict between the kids over who gets the last brownie.
-Verb: to be incompatible or at a variance; clash
-Synonyms:clash, be incompatible, vary, be at odds, differ, diverge, disagree
-Example: Your ideas about brownies conflict with mine.

-In literature, a conflict is a literary element that involves a struggle between two
opposing forces.
-Example: Harry Potter and Voldemort.
-Ask students if they understand on a scale from 1 to 5 (5 being they understand completely) by
showing their number on a raised hand. (10 minutes for definitions)
-Proceed to explain to students that in literature we read about to major kinds of conflicts:
External conflicts and internal conflicts.
-Define each type of conflict to the class: The following will be handed out during lecture
External Conflict: A conflict between a character and an outside force. This outside force
may be another character, society, an animal, an alien, a supernatural being, etc.
-Example: Joe and the alien both wanted the brownie, but only one of them could have it.
Internal Conflict: A mental or emotional conflict that occurs within one character.
-Example: Alice couldnt decide if she wanted one brownie, or two. She thought about it all
day.
-Ask students if they understand on a scale from 1 to 5 (5 being they understand completely) by
showing their number on a raised hand. (up to 5 minutes for definitions)
Activity:
-Students will play a game of charades only they can talk.
-Students will pull a scenario from a hat. After acting it out the class will guess if it was an
internal or external conflict. They will then guess the different perspectives that could be taken
on the conflict. (20 minutes)
Evaluation:
-Students will be evaluated based on the accuracy with which they analyze the conflicts. Class
Participation grade.
Wrapping up: (10 minutes)
-Ask students how to tell the difference between an internal and external conflict.
-Ask students how they were able to tell what the multiple perspectives were in the game.
-Pass out worksheets that students will be completing for homework.
-Explain the homework and ask if there are any questions

Homework:
Name________________________
Im thinking of a song!
Pick a song with an external conflict. Give the following information about your song. You
may use the given example as a guide. Make sure the song you choose is one you know
well.
Example:
Song: You Belong With Me
Artist: Taylor Swift
Conflict: Taylor is in love with a boy who is dating someone else. Taylor thinks that she is a
much better match for this boy than his girlfriend is. She doesnt think that his girlfriend is
good enough for him. Therefore, she believes that this boy belongs with her, instead of his
girlfriend.
How the artist (or individual in the song) responds to the conflict: Taylor mostly fantasizes
about the boy that she is in love with. She also talks about the ways that his girlfriend is not
good enough for him.
1 person (not the artist) involved in the conflict: The boys girlfriend.
Your turn:
Song:
Artist:
Conflict:

How the artist or individual in the song responds to the conflict:

1 other person (not the artist, or main individual in the song) involved in the conflict:

Point of View in External Conflicts

Rationale: It is important for students to understand that there are multiple points of view
present in any external conflict. It is also important to both identify the different perspectives and
analyze them. I want students to be able to look at a situation through the eyes of a character who
is not the narrator. Doing this will help them to determine how they actually feel about the
conflict. This lesson should help transition the students into determining the reliability of the
narrator.
Plan: 3 of 12
Common Core State Standards:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.6
Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or
narrators in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3.A
Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a
narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.6
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and link to and cite
sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others, including linking to and citing sources.
Goals:
8a. Students will be able to model an original piece of writing after a specific text.
9a. Students will be able to work collaboratively on a piece of writing.
2d. Students will be able to analyze a point of view different from that of the narrator.
Materials:
Whiteboard
Whiteboard Markers
Ipads from library
Time: 50 Minutes
Procedure:

-Written on the board when students walk in: Please get an Ipad from the cart. Look up the lyrics
to the song you wrote about for homework. Sit at your desk quietly excited. Soon you will know
what we are doing!
-After class has settled in explain the project for the day.
-In small groups students will rewrite the lyrics to ONE of their songs.
-They will rewrite it from the perspective of a different person involved in the external
conflict in that song.
-Be sure to include the NAME of their song and the ARTIST that the song is by at the top
of their page.
-They only have to turn in one copy of the song, but everyones name must be on it.
-At the bottom of the page, write if your group is willing to perform the song the
following day. No one will be forced to present their song.
-Everyone may choose their groups. 4 students to each group.
-Explain to students that they will have the remainder of class to do this.
-When there are 3 minutes left in class ask the students to turn in their songs.
-Turning in the songs will be their exit ticket.
-Teams that are willing to present will present their songs the following day.
Evaluation
-Tell students that these songs will be taken as a quiz grade.

Presentations/Unreliable Narrator
Rationale: The presentation portion of the class will give students a chance to practice their
presentation skills. The rest of the class will be spent talking about the concept of an unreliable
narrator. It is important for students to understand that the narrator of a story may not always be
unbiased or truthful. I eventually want them to extend this idea of the unreliable narrator outside
of literature.
Plan: 4 of 12
Common Core State Standards:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.7.6

Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal

English when indicated or appropriate. (See grade 7 Language standards 1 and 3
here for specific expectations.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.1

Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Goals:
4a. Students will be able to listen to their peers during presentations.
3a. Students will be able to question the reliability of a narrator in a conflict.
Materials:
Gullivers Travels
White board
White board markers
Projector
Time: 50 Minutes
Procedure:
-When students enter room the following will be on the board: If your group is performing a
song today, retrieve your copy of the lyrics from the front. You may practice quietly in a corner.
Everyone else, get our your journals! Spend about 5 minutes writing about how you know if you
can trust what someone is saying to you.
-Give students 1 minute warning to stop writing.
-Allow groups to take turns performing their songs from the previous day.
-Following the performances have a brief class discussion of the songs.
-Guiding questions for discussion:
-Did you know most of these songs with their original lyrics? How were the new
ones different?
-Did anyones opinion of the conflict change based on the new lyrics? Why?
-In writing your own new lyrics from a different perspective did your opinion
change in some way about the conflict?
-Did you sympathize or empathize with the opposing character more after
trying to look at the conflict from their point of view?
-Is it possible that the artist of the original song influenced you into taking their
side of the conflict before you thought about the other persons side? -How reliable do you think
that artist was in giving you information about the subject? Can you trust him/her?
-Direct students to continue thinking about this discussion.
-Allow them to sit somewhere that is comfortable whether it be in their seats or on the floor.
-Inform them that I will be reading an excerpt from Gullivers Travels section 4 to them and that
as I read they should write down answers to the following questions which will be projected on
the board.
-Does the narrator seem trustworthy? Why or why not?
-Does the narrator give any information that seems unrealistic or hard to believe? Give
examples.
-Does the narrator leave out any important information?

Wrapping up:
-With the last 5 minutes of class, ask students to finish answering the questions on their own
pieces of paper. Ask them to answer one final question at the bottom of their page Is it ok to
question the narrator when you are reading? Why or why not?
-Have students turn in their paper on the way out (formative assessment) and explain that they
will get their notes back tomorrow and we will discuss them.