Social Skills to Manage Gossip
By Andrea Morris, MEd
Gossip and rumors are a natural part of living in a social society. Students will more than likely be exposed to gossip and rumors as they navigate school, regardless of their age or grade level. Sometimes rumors can be harmless, but other times, gossip can be mean and hurtful to others.
Helping your students understand gossip and know how to manage it can help them to better navigate their school days. Talk through how rumors can get started and spread and how that can lead to inaccurate information being shared.
Consider demonstrating this by engaging your students in a game of ‘telephone’. This game typically ends up with the original message being modified beyond recognition by the time it’s over, much like rumors can do!
Talking through the ramifications that can result from rumors being spread can help your students relate to it on a more personal level. Ask them to consider how they would feel if something untrue about them was spread throughout the school.
Here are 4 ways your students can manage gossip:
Break the rumor chain. Make the gossip stop with you by not passing it on or talking about it with anyone else.
Don’t listen to gossip. If someone is trying to share with you something untrue or improper, you can tell them you are not interested in hearing it and change the subject.
Be a peacemaker. If your peers are speaking badly about someone else, speak up and ask how they would feel if the roles were reversed, and mean things were being shared about them.
Remember: private is private! You wouldn’t want your private information being shared with others so give your peers that same respect and keep what you hear to yourself.
In our social skills lesson module, you can access a PowerPoint presentation as well as activities, homework assignments, and notes to teach your students the social skills to manage gossip!
Andrea Morris, M.Ed., is an experienced special educator and works as an Educational Consultant at the Watson Institute, sharing her expertise with educators and school administrators to help them support students of all abilities. She can be reached at Andream@thewatsoninstitute.org.