help with peer pressure in the classroom

Come on, everyone’s doing it.

It’s no big deal, just tell me what was on the test—it’s not like we’re cheating or anything.

Peer pressure is everywhere. To say it’s avoidable is hardly accurate. However, it is possible to arm students with self-knowledge and put a few coping strategies in their pockets for the next time they feel peer pressure staring them down. Here are three lessons to help your students see beyond “tattle-taling” (which they never want to do) as the only answer.


1. staring contest
Introduce the idea of peer pressure. Ask the students what that pressure looks like, how it sounds, and most importantly how it feels. After the discussion, ask for a few volunteers to sit in a prominent place in the room. Have the class act out some of the descriptions of what peer pressure looks/sounds like (from discussion above). The audience members may start at their seat and then, at your invitation, move closer in proximity to the volunteer in the “hot seat.” After a few minutes of this pressure, have all the students return to their seats and ask for them to describe their experience:

If you were in the hot seat, was it hard to sit still while people were staring at you?

If you were in the crowd, did you feel you had to act like someone else?

2. advice jar
Adults offer advice all day long. Sometimes kids like to hear what other kids have to say about getting out of sticky situations. Send a jar around the room. On a slip of paper you provide, ask students to write a question about a tough peer pressure situation. Be sure to remind the students “no name, no blame” to avoid talking about specific people, and keep the questions anonymous. After everyone has placed their questions into the jar, begin to draw out slips and read them (you read the slips for any last minute editing to avoid discussing a person rather than simply an event). Ask for advice from the class as to how they might handle the peer pressure.

3. secret signal
For the student who is reluctant to ask for adult help for fear of offending a peer, have a private conversation about the peer pressure. Develop a secret signal the student can do to alert you to the uncomfortable situation. Rather than having to leave his/her social group to get you, this signal will bring you to the group. If you hear the peer pressure happening, step in and have a mini-lesson on the spot about how to get along without pressuring one another out of comfort zones.