Slide outline for Lesson 3.6, two days. Slides 1 to 11 are Day 1. Slides 12 to 22 are Day 2. The scenarios use everyday pressure only; substances and sexual pressure are health class. No skit may target a real person.
Peer Influence, Pressure, and Refusal Skills
- Lesson 3.6, Day 1: Self-Concept, Peers, and Stress
- Unit 3: Growing Up, Getting Along
- Do now, no names: one time a friend talked someone into something good. One time a friend talked someone into something not good. A made-up person is fine
Teacher notes
Hands for "I could think of a good one." Usually fewer than half.
Not always the villain
- Sometimes peer pressure is the only reason someone tries out for the team
- Today: tell the two kinds apart
- Tomorrow: exactly what to say to the bad kind
Teacher notes
Image: two arrows from a group of figures to one figure, one arrow pointing up and one pointing down.
Peer, peer pressure
- Peer: someone about your age or in your position
- Peer pressure: when peers push you to do, say, or think something
- It works because belonging matters, and at this age it matters a lot (Lesson 3.3)
Teacher notes
Students copy onto Part 1.
Positive and negative
- Positive: pushes you toward something good for you (try out, study, apologize, show up)
- Negative: pushes you toward something harmful, unfair, or against what matters to you
- Same friend can do both on the same day
Teacher notes
One example of each on Part 1.
Direct and indirect
- Direct: someone says it. "Come on, just do it." "Everyone is going"
- Indirect: nobody says it. You see everyone doing it and feel it
- Indirect is quieter and often stronger
Teacher notes
Image: two panels: one figure speaking to another; a group all wearing the same thing while one figure looks down at their own shirt.
What giving in to the negative kind can cost
- Trouble at school or home
- A hurt friend or classmate
- Lost trust
- Something you cannot take back
- A dent in your self-concept (Lesson 3.5)
Teacher notes
Three consequences on Part 1.
Three pushes on one decision
- The decision: a group chat wants a student to share a photo of a classmate who did not want it shared. "Everyone has seen it anyway"
- Walk the five steps: name the choice, list options, weigh each against what matters, decide, look back
- At "weigh," three columns: what family would say, what peers are saying, what media (the feed, the trend) says
- Which push is loudest? Which one do you want to win?
Teacher notes
Image: the five-step decision model poster from Unit 0.
Part 2 grid. Land it: "what matters" is yours, not the group's.
The scenario cards
- Ten cards per team
- For each: positive or negative? Direct or indirect? Two possible outcomes
- Specific outcomes. "Bad things" is not an outcome
- Star your two hardest. 13 minutes
Teacher notes
Grade 6 and IEP/504: six cards. Circulate with the clipboard.
Share
- One team: your hardest card and two outcomes
- Room: what would you say?
- I write the answers on the board. Tomorrow they become four steps
Teacher notes
Take three lines. Leave them on the board overnight if you can.
Day 1 exit card
- 3 kinds of peer pressure with one example each
- 2 consequences of giving in to the negative kind
- 1 push (family, peers, media) that is loudest for most people your age, and why
Teacher notes
Two students read their "1."
Tomorrow
- Four refusal steps
- Your team plans and performs a 60 to 90 second skit
- Keep your starred cards
Teacher notes
Skit teams are the same teams. Say it now.
Day 2: What exactly do you say?
- Do now: finish this sentence three different ways: "No thanks, I ___"
- Then the four steps, a model, and your skit
Teacher notes
Three sentences. Some will be the whole skit.
The four refusal steps
- 1. Say no clearly (a hand up). Short. No apology
- 2. Give a reason (a speech bubble). Yours. Simple: "not my thing"
- 3. Offer an alternative (an arrow). "Let's go to the courts instead"
- 4. Walk away (a door). Leaving is a full sentence
- You do not need all four. They do not have to be in order. Two is often enough
Teacher notes
Students copy onto Part 4.
Why "no apology"
- "Sorry, sorry, I really wish I could, but..." invites a second push
- "No thanks" is complete
- A reason that starts an argument is not a reason. "I have a game tomorrow" is hard to argue with
Teacher notes
This is the most common skit mistake. Say it before the skits.
The model
- Card: [Sal: one of yesterday's hardest]
- Pusher script: "Come on. Everyone is doing it. Do not be boring."
- Refuser: step 1, then step 3, then step 4 if it continues
- Watch which step comes first
Teacher notes
A volunteer plays the pusher from the script. You refuse. Then ask: which step did I use first?
Skit planner
- One of your two starred cards
- Roles: pusher, refuser, a second friend (optional), narrator or director
- Which steps, in what order, one line each
- What the pusher does after
- 60 to 90 seconds. No real names. No real people. No substances. Nothing physical
- Get my initials before you perform. 10 minutes
Teacher notes
Initial every plan. Ten seconds per team.
Performances
- Two minutes per team, including reset
- Audience: feedback slip for each skit. Which steps did you see? Strongest line? One suggestion?
- No applause until the end. Then applause for everyone
Teacher notes
Keep the order moving. 14 minutes.
Feedback slip
- Steps I saw: said no clearly / gave a reason / offered an alternative / walked away
- Strongest line
- One suggestion
- Rating: worked / mostly worked / hard to tell. Because
Teacher notes
Three slips per student. Assign which skits each student rates so every team gets slips.
Debrief
- Which step showed up in the most skits?
- Which one was hardest to say out loud?
- The hardest one to say in a skit is the hardest one to say in the hallway. That is the one to practice
Teacher notes
Read one slip from another team aloud (the strongest line, not the suggestion).
Positive pressure
- The same steps work in reverse: you can be the friend who says "come try out with me"
- Grade 8 stretch: a one-page peer advice guide, "What to say when"
- Four steps, three of today's best lines, one line on being the friend who pushes up
Teacher notes
The best guides go on the wall.
Day 2 exit line
- "The refusal step I will practice this week is ___ because it was hardest to say"
- Not read aloud
Teacher notes
On the bottom of the planner.
Tomorrow
- Stress: what it is, and where yours lives
- A private map. Nobody reads it
Teacher notes
Collect the feedback slips by team before students leave.