Managing differing opinions is a complicated but necessary skill in our current world. Our middle and high school students are faced with in-person and online dilemmas where disagreement, hatred and grievance overruns reason. How do we manage differing opinions while still remaining friends, or at least cordial acquaintances?
You might find this piece on what middle school and high school common core state standards are involved in identifying credible sources, disinformation and managing differing opinions, helpful. Managing differing opinions involves mutliple social communication skills, including perspective taking, identification of thoughts and feelings and conflict resolution abilities. In my opinion, our students also need two hefty skills to be able to manage differing opinions effectively. First up is the ability to differentiate fact from opinion. Second, is identifying credible sources and disinformation. Ugh, I know. It’s alot! Currently, it’s up to educators and parents to teach children these necessary skills in the United States.
Casual Opinions
My method for teaching students to manage differing opinions is to teach the difference between casual opinions and informed opinions. Why? To me, casual opinions are not worth the argument in most instances. A casual opinion is simply someone’s preference…for colors, foods, clothing. There is no right or wrong with a casual opinion as it is not based on proof or facts. I teach my students to accept differences in casual opinions for this reason.
The image below is an example of one way I teach accepting differences in casual opinions.
Informed Opinions
Informed opinions are another ball of wax. Informed opinions ARE based on proof and (reliable) facts. Managing differences in informed opinions has a foundation in understanding credible facts. See the conundrum? This is a social skill that isn’t just grounded in social communication! A priority lesson for our older students is to learn to that it’s their goal to focus on the content of the argument, not the person. Attack the content, don’t attack the person! This involves remaining calm, being honest about what information isn’t understood and careful consideration of another person’s ideas.
Managing Differing Opinions: Digital and Print Products
Linked below are two products, ready to go, for teaching middle school and high school students how to manage differing opinions. Both are complete lessons, actually multiple lessons, including teaching materials and scaffolded learning activities.
Differentiating Fact from Opinion Products
If you have middle school or high school students who struggle with sorting facts from opinions, you could consider one of the following digital (BOOM™ Cards) or printable products.
Managing differing opinions will be a challenging skill if the differences between facts and opinions are not understood.
Identifying Credible Sources and Disinformation
Differences in informed opinions often stem from one party forming an opinion based upon an unreliable source. In these situations, the disagreement can be solved by gathering information from an expert reliable source. I have two products for teaching students how to identify credible sources, a printable version and a set of digital BOOM™ cards. If you have students that have an understanding of credible sources but are unable to identify false information (formerly known as fake news) the product below, right might help. Misinformation (false information spread by accident) and disinformation (false information spread purposefully with the intent to cause harm) are difficult to identify because they often contain some element of truth, leading the student to believe that it is entirely accurate.
Further Reading
If you are interested in learning more about the science behind disinformation, I can recommend the book, “False,” (amazon referral link) by Joe Pierre MD, an academic psychiatrist. He sheds light on why people believe lies, misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Thanks for reading!
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