A good way to communicate with an angry student is to employ an effective customer service technique: actively listen, and allow them to vent without interruption. When the student sighs, i.e. demonstrates that he/she cannot think of anything else to say, and is ending the tirade, then empathize with the student by saying something like, "If that happened to me, I would feel the same way! Let's see if we can come to a solution." This will let the student know that you are willing to help, rather than to engage in conflict. This should help the student be more apt to listen and collaborate on fixing the problem, with the help of the instuctor.
