Alexander D. Sullivan School (P.S. #30)
Grades PreK-5 • Jersey City, New Jersey
Lunch Club
United behind a common goal, students at Alexander D. Sullivan School learn and implement new ways to resolve disagreements and conflicts. Students who have had difficulties with their peers meet in small groups for biweekly Lunch Club meetings. During these sessions, students work together on an art project that is later displayed in the school. The art project becomes a means for practicing conflict resolution and collaboration. Students begin by drawing up a group plan that will incorporate components of each student's vision into the final product. While students are working on the project, staff members mediate any differences in opinion that arise. Since negative behaviors- bullying, fighting, bickering-are not employed to solve disputes in the Lunch Club setting, students begin to change their behavior and learn to compromise. Throughout the entire process, pictures are posted in the hallways for staff and other students to see. Afterwards, the students eagerly show off their work, wanting to talk about their roles in the project. It is not uncommon to hear a student speak about the disagreements that arose as they worked and the solutions they arrived at (for example,
"Dashawn wanted the eyes to be round, and I didn't, but it was OK; we made them round").
CONTACT
Adeline Burke-Rufino
Principal
(201) 915-6530
arufino@jcboe.org
www.jcboe.org/ps30
Grades PreK-5 • Jersey City, New Jersey
Lunch Club
United behind a common goal, students at Alexander D. Sullivan School learn and implement new ways to resolve disagreements and conflicts. Students who have had difficulties with their peers meet in small groups for biweekly Lunch Club meetings. During these sessions, students work together on an art project that is later displayed in the school. The art project becomes a means for practicing conflict resolution and collaboration. Students begin by drawing up a group plan that will incorporate components of each student's vision into the final product. While students are working on the project, staff members mediate any differences in opinion that arise. Since negative behaviors- bullying, fighting, bickering-are not employed to solve disputes in the Lunch Club setting, students begin to change their behavior and learn to compromise. Throughout the entire process, pictures are posted in the hallways for staff and other students to see. Afterwards, the students eagerly show off their work, wanting to talk about their roles in the project. It is not uncommon to hear a student speak about the disagreements that arose as they worked and the solutions they arrived at (for example,
"Dashawn wanted the eyes to be round, and I didn't, but it was OK; we made them round").
CONTACT
Adeline Burke-Rufino
Principal
(201) 915-6530
arufino@jcboe.org
www.jcboe.org/ps30