Interpersonal Relationships

Strategies to enhance students’

• Self-esteem
• Collaboration
• Socialization
 “Discovering the others”
Goals: discover and respect the others, in order to build a friendship
Materials: a list of words with the qualities a friend should have
Methodology: Groups of 4 ( 10 min) / debate (30 min)
Procedure:
1. Students work in groups of 4 and think about the characteristics a good friend
should have
2. Each group share its list of words/qualities and the teacher writes them down on
the board
3. The teacher then share his/her list of words and the groups compare the
findings
4. Students write the best ideas, beginning a sentence by:
A friend is …
someone …
the person who …
 “MY FRIEND JOANA”
Goals: Discover someone’s value
Materials: A text called my friend “Joana” / cards with 4 different colours/ number
cards at random (from 1 to 5) / blackboard
Methodology: solve a dilemma

Procedure:
1. Students choose a card and make groups according to the colour they’ve
chosen
2. The teacher reads the text ( it can be written by the teacher- the text must talk
about an unpleasant, boring girl. She’s always alone… but she’s the best in class
and all the classmates need her before the tests. One day , in a group work, Rita
finds out that after all, Joana is a nice girl).

The question is: Rita’s birthday is arriving, she wants to invite Joana, but she fears
her friends’ reaction…
3. After reading the text the teacher writes down the following questions:

* Do you think Rita did the right thing inviting Joana? Why?
* If you were Joana, would you like to be invited?
* What do you think about the behaviour of Rita’s friends?
* What should Rita and her friends do?

4. After 20 min discussion in group (the colour group) students now form new
groups (this time they organize themselves according to the number their card has
on it)

5. Students share points of view and discuss ideas about the answers given in the
1st group

1
3
2 1
 “KNOWING THE CLASS”

Goals : knowing the classmates

Materials : pieces of paper
Methodology : Pair/ individual work

Procedure:

1. Each student presents the class his/her partner

2. Then, each student writes some information about him/herself ( appearance,
hobbies, interests…) and delivers the piece of paper to the teacher
3. The teacher then reads all the papers and the students have to guess who
she/he’s talking about
 “TELL ME ABOUT YOUR
CLASSMATE’S QUALITIES”
Goals : promote students’ self - esteem / Improve relationships

Materials : cards / cardboard

Methodology : individual /class work

Procedure:

1. Each student writes down 3 qualities she/he finds in her/his classmate

2. Then students create a kind of “table” where they write the qualities each
student in class has.
3. The teacher displays the table on the wall

Students Qualities
António Helpful, nice and hardworking

Bárbara Quiet, kind and understanding

 “ THE BOX OF FEARS “
Goal: develop interpersonal relationships

Materials : cards / Box

id …
Methodology: individual work/ class group ’I m afra
d …
a i …
afr f raid
a
Procedure: I’m I’m
1. in a card each student must complete the sentence :
In this class I’m afraid of … Or In this class I fear …

2. Then students put the card inside the box and sit on the floor, forming a circle

3. At a time each student takes a card from the box and reads the sentence aloud

4. The teacher writes the most significant “fears” on the board

5. The students and the teacher discuss the opinions and try to find solutions for
the problems
 COLLABORATION
Goal: teach students how to collaborate with C
each other to obtain a common objective
B
Materials : 2 sets of cards with the alphabet
(each letter in a card) C A
A
B
Methodology: team work

Procedure:

1.Two teams of students / each team gets a set of cards ( there must be more
cards than students in the team. Each student can get 2 or more cards)

2.The teacher will have 2 lists of words. One list with easier words to spell (5
points) and one list with harder words to spell (10 points).

3.The teacher says a word and the students that have the letter needed to spell the
word must come together in front of the teacher
4.If a student has 2 letters needed for a certain word , he/she must deliver
one of them to another member of the team

5.The first team to “assemble” / spell correctly the word will get the points

6.The teams that gets more points wins

7.By the end students must reach the conclusion that COLLABORATION
was the key for success!
 “THE STATUE”
Goal: encourage collaborative work

Materials : books / CD player

Methodology: class work (15 min) / dialogue (20 min)

Procedure:

1.Students walk around the class listening to music with a book on their heads!!
If the books fell of their heads they become a statue and can’t move. Only a
colleague can make them walk again. The classmate must take his/her
friend’s book, put it on his/her head again , but he /she must be careful… his/
her own book can’t “fall”, otherwise he will become a statue too.
2. By the end of the 15 minutes the teacher will ask some questions:

• Who helped his/her classmates?

• Who was “rescued” by someone?
• Who needed help and no one helped him/her?
• Did anyone refuse help, fearing to become a statue?

3. In group they talk about cooperation and its advantages