THEME: Relationships and Community Building
Lesson: Peer Pressure
Learning Outcomes
 Students will discuss the issues of identify and power.
 Students will understand that there are positive uses of power and influence.
Essential Questions
 What is peer pressure?
 How do you sort out the issues related to peer pressure with less risk rather than more, and by
noting that there are positive uses of power and influence?
Level
 Grade 11
Time
 4 x 15 minutes
Materials
 Write the Essential Questions on the board
 Handouts:
o My friends like/we like/I like
o Preferences and Pressure
o Pressure from One, pressure from All
Procedure
1. Read over the essential question:
o What is peer pressure?
o How do you sort out the issues related to peer pressure with less risk rather than
more, and by noting that there are positive uses of power and influence?
No matter what lessons we teach, peer pressure is not going to vanish. Adolescents of all ages are
sorting out issues of identity and power. They are negotiating when it’s Ok to be separate, how to
fit in, what their preferences are, how to make their own choices, and how to test their power to
influence. These are not easy tasks. We can help teenagers by steering them toward sorting out
these issues with less risk rather than more, and by noting that here are positive uses of power and
influence.
2. Use these questions as a beginning for a class dialogue:
o Do friends have to like all the same things?
o What happens when friends don’t like to do the same things?
o Think of some good things and some risky things that might happen?
3. Distribute Handout: My friends like/We like/I like. Have students fill in the chart recording
some of the ways they are similar to and different from their friends, or similar to and different from
“most kids”. Put students in groups of 4 or 5 and have them talk about the questions on the
bottom of the handout.
4. Peer pressure assumes that someone is feeling pressured and that someone is pressuring. Have
students spend 3 or 4 minutes jotting ideas on Handout: Preferences and Pressure. Move into their
small groups to share their thoughts.
5. Peer pressure has a different dynamic when it involves one friend versus a whole group, so help
student have strategies for both settings. Have students spend 3 or 4 minutes jotting ideas on
Handout: Pressure from One, Pressure from All. Move back into their small groups to share their
thoughts.
Evaluation
 Choose an appropriate Rubric from Assessment and Evaluation.
Used by Permission. Copyright ©2004 Educators for Social Responsibility, All Rights Reserved.
My friends like/ We like/ I like
Record some of the ways you are similar to and different from you friends, or similar to and
different from “most kids.”
My friends like and do
some things that I don’t
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
My friends and I like
___________________
___________________
___________________
___________________
___________________
___________________
What I like and do
that my friends don’t
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
Following the charting exercise discuss the following in small group:
What is good about having different preferences interests from your friends?
What is hard about having different preferences and interests from your friends?
How do you communicate that you don’t like to do some of the things your friends like to do?
How do you feel when a friend doesn’t want to do something with you? How do you react?
Preferences and Pressure
Peer pressure assumes that someone is feeling pressured, and that someone is doing the pressuring.
Ask students to reflect on being in both of those roles. Jot notes on the handout and then move
into your small group to discuss your ideas.
When have you felt pressured to do something that you didn’t want to do? What did you do? How
did the situation end up?
When does it help to have friends pressure you? When does it hurt?
When have you pressured a friend to do something that they didn’t want to do? Did it help or hurt
them? What happened to your friendship?
What is the difference between the times when peer pressure helps and when it hurts?
Pressure from One, Pressure from All
Peer pressure has a different dynamic when it involves one friend versus a whole group, so help
advisees have strategies for both settings.
What is “fitting in” all about?
Is it harder to go against a friend or a group? Why?
Why is it hard for a person to against a group? When is it important to go against a group? What
would help someone go against a group when they needed to?
Describe a time when you acted differently from the way you really wanted to either because you
wanted to fit in or because you were scared of not fitting in.