Title: Effects of Gossip

Grade Level: 6

This sixth-grade lesson is geared toward gossip but is designed to teach students to recognize and
empathize with others' thoughts, feelings, and perspectives in various situations. Students will
reflect and draw upon their experience on the dispensing end of gossip and their experience on
the receiving end of gossip to recognize and ultimately understand how gossip can provoke
particular feelings. Along with encouraging students to develop and practice vital life and social
skills, this lesson will lay the foundation for students to grow into positive, responsible, and self-
aware adults.

Learning Objectives
 Students will recognize that how gossip can affect their relationships as well as the well-
being and feelings of others.
 Students will relate and reflect on the outcomes of the glitter activity to the concepts
covered during the lesson.
 Students will respond to open-ended questions integrated throughout the lesson that
enable students to build knowledge through exploration, reflection, and higher-order
thinking.
 Students will determine if the given scenario demonstrates gossip.

Materials and Preparation

 Glitter for the engaging activity
 Pear Deck presentation
 Chromebooks
 Large board to display the presentation
 Bag of candy (optional)
 Pencil
 Handout for individual assessment

Attachments
Digit Timer
Google Slides Presentation
Handout for Individual Assessment

Introduction (20 minutes)

For the initial activity, students will be split into two groups and directed to stand in a
circle with the members of their group. Prior to providing students with the directions of the
activity, spark students' interest by asking if their group wants the chance to win however much
money I currently have in my wallet. After students have the chance to get excited about the
activity, they will then be provided with a set of verbal directions and rules that coincide with the
ones displayed on the board.
Teacher Talk:
 "So today, I have brought in glitter that I will be putting in one person's hand from each
group. In order for your group to win, you have to pass the glitter from one person to the
next, around the circle, until the glitter reaches the last person in your group. Once the
glitter has reached the last person in your group, that person will have to put the glitter
back into the container it came in. Each group has five minutes to do this, but the group
that finishes first wins."
*PAUSE*
 "Just like every other competition, this competition has rules. The first rule is, there
cannot be any glitter on the floor or desks. Rule number two, there cannot be any glitter
on anyone's clothes. And finally, for the third rule, there cannot be any glitter left on
anyone's hands. Does everyone understand the rules and directions of the competition?"
*After clarifying any remaining confusion, display and start the digital timer for five minutes*
Once the timer goes off, no group should have been able to complete this activity. When
both groups realize there was no winner, reveal that you did not have any money in your wallet
but brought in candy that they could have after the lesson. Give students two minutes to clean up
any remaining glitter on the floor or their hands before instructing them to return to their seats.

Explicit Instruction/Teacher Modeling (20 minutes)

 Have students return back to their seats and take out their Chromebooks. Prompt students
to join the interactive presentation that was created using Pear Deck.
 The first slide of the presentation will display the statement “Glitter and gossip are
similar.” Students will then engage in a guided, whole group discussion that reveals the
similarities between glitter and gossip. The similarities that will be discussed on slides
four through eleven are as follows…
o Glitter is sticky: Glitter sticks to you and is hard to entirely get rid of even when
you really want it gone.
 How is gossip sticky?: When you gossip, you are putting
information/rumors out into the world that cannot be taken back. The
information you share with people will stick around, even when you don’t
want it to.
o Glitter is messy: Glitter is hard to keep under control. Just when you think you
cleaned it all up, you will find it later in places you never expected.
 How is gossip messy?: When others are gossiping about you, it is hard to
find out exactly what was being said, who it was being said to, and if it is
still being spread.
o Glitter is annoying: Glitter travels to places you don’t want it to and draws
people’s attention.
 How is gossip annoying?: Whether the information being gossiped about
is true or just a rumor, it can really affect the person it is about. It can give
them a reputation they do not deserve or want and causes people to look at
them differently.
o Glitter is deceiving: Glitter misleads people by being shiny and pretty. Although
glitter looks really fun to play with and use, you wind up with a mess that winds
up being annoying.
 How is gossip deceiving?: Although gossip may seem interesting and
exciting to listen to or share, it can really affect someone else’s feelings
and well-being.
 Students will then respond to an anonymous poll on slide 12 that corresponds with the
question “Have you ever talked about someone behind their back?” I will then reveal the
 poll’s results to the class and facilitate a whole group discussion on the feelings they
experience when gossiping about others.
 After the group discussion, students will anonymously reply to the questions on slides 13
and 14 by typing and submitting their responses using their Chromebooks. After each
slide, I will read some of the students’ responses out loud and respond accordingly.
 For the hypothetical question displayed on slide 15, I will prompt students to discuss their
responses with the person next to them before giving them the opportunity to share their
responses with the whole class.
 Using their Chromebooks, students will type and submit their responses to the question
displayed on slide 16 anonymously. I will read some of their responses aloud to the class
before moving on.
 For slides 17 and 18, students will learn a strategy to help prevent themselves from
gossiping about others. By utilizing the acronym displayed on slide 18, students will be
able to analyze future situations and determine how their words may affect others before
saying them.

Formative Assessment Procedures

By reviewing the anonymous responses throughout the presentation, I will monitor and assess
my students' progress toward the lesson objective. If there are less than four responses that do not
demonstrate an accurate hypothesis of their own or others' feelings, I will move on. If there are
five or more responses that do not demonstrate an accurate hypothesis of their own or others'
feelings, I will implement another mini-lesson to practice and assess them again.

Independent Work/Assessment (5 minutes)

Students will be presented with a scenario on slide 19. After reading the scenario aloud to the
class, I will then pass out a worksheet I created using Canva that students will write down their
responses. Students will determine and write down whether or not they think the situation
displayed on the board is considered gossip and justify their answer.
Grouping Structure
 For the engaging activity, students will be placed into small groups.
  Students will engage in whole group discussions throughout the Pear Deck presentation;
however, they will be required to respond individually when prompted.
 Students will work independently to complete the independent assessment worksheet at
the end of the lesson.

Extending Activity
Students will be encouraged to share at least one thing they learned regarding gossip with
another person, not in our class. By sharing what they learned with someone else, students
reinforce their understanding and extend their learning by applying what they learned to a
conversation outside of class.

Standards
NYS Next Generation Standard(s):
Goal 2: Use social awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive
relationships.
2A.3a. Hypothesize others’ feelings and perspectives in a variety of situations and explain the
reasons for one’s conjecture.
2A.3b. Analyze how one’s behavior may affect others.