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// week 02 · day 02 · tuesday · the tool we use all year

The Work It Out tool.

Every disagreement in this studio gets navigated the same five ways, starting today. D2 learns the tool cold - not because anyone is in trouble, but because next week they'll be the ones sitting beside a Spark learner who needs it.

Work It Out Fishbowl demo Spark prep Poster goes up permanently ↓ Jump to Quest
01

The day's purpose

By 3:15 today, every learner can name the five steps without looking at the poster - and has run all five out loud with a partner at least twice.

// success criteria · 01

Five steps, from memory

Spot-check three learners at pickup with the poster covered. If they can't, tomorrow's launch opens with a two-minute recap.

// success criteria · 02

Everybody said it out loud

Reading the steps is not learning them. Every learner ran the tool verbally, not just watched.

// success criteria · 03

It reads as a tool, not a punishment

If a learner asks "am I in trouble?" at any point today, the framing slipped. Correct the framing immediately.

02

Supplies & setup

Posted / prepared before arrival

  • The Work It Out poster - large, permanent, and hung where it can be pointed at from anywhere in the room. This one doesn't come down in June.
  • Two chairs set up at the front for the fishbowl
  • Daily Thinking Puzzle up by the cubbies

Physical materials & people

  • Scenario cards printed and cut - eight easy-mode, four hard-mode, in a bowl
  • One returner briefed in advance to run the fishbowl with you. Ask them at arrival, not in front of the group.
  • A real, small, unflattering conflict story of your own, ready to tell in thirty seconds
  • Spark's actual Work It Out poster or wording, checked against yours - see the guide note in the launch
03

Minute by minute

8:00 – 8:25 · 25 minarrival

Arrival & Free Time

Standard rhythm. Greet every learner by name. The Daily Thinking Puzzle is up by the cubbies.

8:25 – 8:30 · 5 mintransition

Settle

Bell, tidy, walk to the launch space. By Week 2 this should need no narration - if it does, narrate it once more.

8:30 – 8:50 · 20 minnon-negotiable launch

Morning Launch - The Work It Out tool

Talking points, not a script. Hit these in your own words - the studio can tell the difference, and the ones that land are the ones you actually mean.

The opener (3 min):

"Hands up if you've ever had an argument that went badly." Put your own hand up first, and keep it up.

Then tell a real one. Small, true, recent, and unflattering to you - a disagreement with a friend or family member that you handled badly. Thirty seconds, no moral at the end. The studio needs to see that the tool is for everyone in the room, including the adult.

The core - the five steps (9 min):

Put the poster up. It stays on that wall all year. Walk the steps once, plainly:

  1. Stop. Both people stop and breathe. Nobody talks yet.
  2. Say it. "I felt ___ when ___." Your side only. No "you always."
  3. Listen back. The other person says back what they heard before they get their turn. "So you felt ___ when ___. Did I get that right?"
  4. Swap. Now the other person does step 2, and you do step 3.
  5. Fix it. What do we do now? Say it out loud so you both agree. If you can't get there in two tries, ask a guide to facilitate - that's not failing, that's using the system.

The fishbowl (5 min):

Two chairs at the front. You and a returner you briefed this morning act out the same small conflict twice.

  • Take one - without the tool. Thirty seconds. Make it messy, interrupt each other, escalate. Let it be a bit funny. The studio will laugh; that's fine, it means they recognize it.
  • Take two - the exact same conflict, with the tool. Slow, a little awkward, and it works.

Don't narrate the difference. The contrast does the teaching by itself.

The close (3 min):

"This is not a punishment. Nobody is in trouble when we use this - it's a tool, like a wrench. And here's the part I want you to sit with: next week, some of you are going to be helping Spark learners use it. You cannot help somebody use a tool you don't know yourself. That's what today is for."

// confirm before you teach it

These five steps are written to match the Spark studio's version, but check them against Spark's actual poster before Tuesday and adjust the wording to match exactly. If D2 learns a slightly different version, they'll "correct" Sparks next week using the wrong words, and that undermines the whole cross-studio piece. Same tool, same language, same order.

And find out who already knows it. Some learners in the room have used this tool before - from D1, or from last year - possibly more recently than the returners who last used it in May. Ask at arrival.

Then use them: ask one of them to run the fishbowl with you rather than the returner you'd have picked by default. "You already know this - help me teach it" is a much better first day than being taught something you know.

8:50 – 9:00 · 10 mindaily rhythm

Habit & Character Goals

Standard rhythm. Optional prompt for anyone stuck: "a character trait that would have helped me in an argument I've had."

9:00 – 9:40 · 40 minmath time

Math Time

Standard rhythm. PWG open before IXL opens.

9:40 – 9:50 · 10 minexit ticket

Rocket Math

Standard rhythm.

9:50 – 10:20 · 30 minsnack

Snack

Standard rhythm. Listen for the tool showing up unprompted in a real snack-table disagreement. If it does, say nothing in the moment - save it for Character Callouts.

10:20 – 11:20 · 60 minela block

ELA Block - NoRedInk + read-along

  • 10:20–10:50: ELA software block. Learners on their assigned tool.
  • 10:50–11:20: Read-Along. Same text, read together.
Adjust tool assignments once the final ELA stack is locked. Default: NoRedInk for grammar, Night Zookeeper for generative writing, Nessy for learners with reading support needs.
11:20 – 12:00 · 40 mintuesday variable

Extended ELA + Typing Club

  • 11:20–11:50: writing block.
  • 11:50–12:00: Typing Club, hard cutoff at 12:00.
12:00 – 1:00 · 60 minlunch

Lunch

Standard rhythm.

1:00 – 1:50 · 50 mincivilization

Civilization

Confirm Civ curriculum direction.
1:50 – 2:40 · 50 minquest · btt

Quest - Work It Out rehearsal

// purpose

Nobody learns a conflict tool during a conflict. We rehearse it while the stakes are zero so the muscle exists when the stakes aren't. Every learner runs all five steps out loud at least twice today - reading the poster is not the same as saying the words.

Round 1 - easy mode (16 min):

  1. Pairs. Each pair draws a scenario card from the bowl.
  2. Decide who's who, then run all five steps out loud. Poster stays visible - using it isn't cheating.
  3. Swap cards with another pair and run it again.
  4. Guide circulates listening for one thing: step 3. Listening back is the step everyone skips. When you hear a pair skip it, don't correct - just ask, "what did they say?" and watch them realize they don't know.

Easy-mode scenario cards (print, cut, bowl):

  • Someone took the chair you'd been sitting in all week.
  • Your partner did the whole project and didn't let you help.
  • Somebody made a joke about your drawing and everyone laughed.
  • You were saving a spot at lunch and someone sat in it.
  • A friend repeated something you told them privately.
  • Someone keeps humming during D.E.A.R. time.
  • Your team picked a game and nobody asked what you wanted to play.
  • Someone borrowed your marker and gave it back dried out.

Round 2 - hard mode (14 min):

  1. New pairs. New cards - these are the ones where both people are partly right.
  2. Read one aloud to the whole studio first and ask: "Who's wrong here?" Let them argue for a moment. Then: "Right. Nobody's all the way wrong. Those are the hard ones, and they're most of them."

Hard-mode scenario cards:

  • You borrowed a marker without asking - and they yelled at you about it in front of everyone.
  • You were excited and interrupted - and they told you to shut up.
  • You didn't invite them to join your group because last time they didn't do any work.
  • They told a guide you broke a rule. You did break the rule.

The close (10 min):

  • Whole studio: "Which step was hardest?" It will be step 3. Every time.
  • "Why is listening back the hard one?"
  • Land it: "Because listening back means you have to actually understand the other person before you get your turn. That's the whole tool. Everything else is packaging."

Carry forward: The poster stays up permanently. From today onward, when a real conflict happens, the guide has exactly one line: "Do you two want to Work It Out, or do you want me to facilitate?say this exactly" Resist adding anything to it for the rest of the year.

2:40 – 3:00 · 20 min20 min during btt

Studio Maintenance

Standard rhythm, 20 minutes.

3:00 – 3:10 · 10 mindaily ritual

Character Callouts

Prime the pump if needed: has anyone seen someone use the tool for real today? Callouts for the pairs who took hard mode seriously instead of joking through it.

3:10 – 3:15 · 5 minclosing

Reflection

One question: "Which step do you think you'll be worst at?" Honest answers only. Guide answers first.

3:15 – 3:30 · 15 minpickup

Pickup

Send-off at the door, by name, with eye contact. Every learner, every day.

04

Go deeper · stretch · empower

For learners ready to lead

  • The fishbowl partner role is the stretch here. Brief them at arrival and let them help design the "bad" version - making it funny is a real skill.
  • During hard mode, ask a confident pair to run their scenario in front of the studio. Performing the awkward version publicly takes nerve.
  • Plant the Week 3 seed quietly: "You're going to be good at sitting with a Spark kid on this. Start thinking about it." Don't promise a slot yet.

For learners who need more scaffolding

  • Give sentence stems on a card, not just on the poster: "I felt ___ when you ___." / "So you felt ___. Did I get that right?" Some learners need the words in their hand.
  • Pair a hesitant learner with a patient returner, not with their closest friend - friends joke through it.
  • Let them do easy mode twice instead of moving to hard mode. Two clean reps beats four sloppy ones.

For specific learner needs

  • A learner who has real conflict history in the studio may find role-play uncomfortably close to home. Let them pick their card rather than draw it.
  • Offer a written option: run the five steps on paper with a partner instead of out loud. Make that option available to everyone from the start so it isn't visibly an accommodation - which is exactly what yesterday was about.
  • Any learner who gets genuinely activated during a role-play gets to step out with no discussion. Debrief later, privately, briefly.

For the guide

  • Your opener story has to be real. Learners can tell instantly, and a fake one costs you the whole launch.
  • The temptation this afternoon is to correct pairs who are doing it slightly wrong. Mostly don't. Circulate, listen, and only intervene on step 3.
  • Note which pairs took hard mode seriously. Those are your Week 3 Spark role-model candidates.
  • Tonight: check your five steps against Spark's wording if you haven't. This is the one prep item that can't slip.
05

Parent communication today

Talking points for this week's email. Drop these into an AI assistant along with two or three live notes from your actual week - a name, a moment, something that surprised you - and it'll give you a draft in your own voice. The specifics are what make it land; the structure below is just the scaffolding.

The draft underneath is an example of the shape and the tone, not a template to send as-is. A parent who gets the same email as every other parent can tell.

// example draft · a shape, not a template

Subject: The tool we'll use all year

Hi families,

Today the studio learned Work It Out - the five-step process we'll use for every disagreement this year. Stop and breathe. Say your side. Say back what you heard before you get your turn. Swap. Agree on a fix.

We practiced it this afternoon on invented scenarios rather than real ones, on purpose - nobody learns a tool like this in the middle of an actual argument. The step everyone finds hardest is the third one, saying back what you heard. That's true of adults too.

If it's useful at home: the language is "I felt ___ when ___," and the rule is that the other person has to repeat it back before they get to make their case. Your learner can walk you through it.

Part of why we're learning this now is that in a couple of weeks, D2 learners will be helping our youngest studio use the same tool.

- [your name]

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