Lesson details
- Objective: Students identify pressure tactics and rehearse exit lines that preserve both the refusal and the friendship where possible.
- Time: 25 minutes
- Grade band: 6–8
- CASEL competency: Responsible decision-making
Materials
- Pressure-tactic cards: the countdown ("everyone's doing it"), the dare, the mock ("you scared?"), the freeze-out threat
- Scenario strips (realistic, legal-stakes level: copying homework, excluding someone, breaking a rule)
Steps
- Name the tactics first — pressure is easier to resist once it has a label. Match the tactic cards to short examples.
- Teach the three exit lines: the plain no ("No — I'm good"), the redirect ("Nah — let's do X instead"), and the exit with the door open ("Not my thing. See you after").
- Pairs rehearse: one applies a tactic from a card, the other practices an exit line. Swap. Volume and eye contact count.
- Discuss the hard truth: some pressure costs the friendship to resist — and a friendship priced at doing what you know is wrong was already discounted.
- Close: everyone writes one private exit line in their own voice — the rehearsed line is the one that shows up under pressure.
Debrief questions
- Which tactic works best on you? (Knowing it is half the defense.)
- What makes the redirect easier than the plain no?
Variations
- Keep scenarios at everyday stakes; for high-stakes topics (substances, safety) follow your school's health curriculum and its protocols.
- For grade 8, add the flip side: notice when you are the one applying pressure — the tactics list reads both ways.
What mastery looks like
- Names the pressure tactic in a novel scenario
- Delivers an exit line with steady tone and eye contact in rehearsal
- Writes a personal exit line and identifies a real situation where it applies
What tends to go wrong
Rehearsal is the entire mechanism — knowledge does not resist pressure, rehearsed lines do. Keep scenarios at classroom-realistic stakes and let students write their own final lines; borrowed words fail under real pressure.