Peer Leadership with Integrity
Students learn to develop and sustain a peer leadership role over an extended period, advocate for a meaningful specific change at class or school level, mentor a younger or newer peer in a sustained way, reflect on leadership experiences to identify skills built and areas to develop, and describe what it means to lead with integrity when doing so is unpopular.
Lesson Overview
What students will be able to do after this lesson: Students will be able to develop and sustain a peer leadership role over time, make a specific reasoned case for change to the right audience, mentor a peer across multiple interactions with adaptation, reflect specifically on skills built and gaps remaining, and describe what leading with integrity means when doing so carries a real social cost.
Skill segments at a glance:
| Segment | Segment name | Primary standards |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leading by Doing | RS-ADV-5-1 · RS-ADV-5-2 |
| 2 | Leading Through Others and Looking Inward | RS-ADV-5-3 · RS-ADV-5-4 |
| 3 | Leading with Integrity | RS-ADV-5-5 |
Supporting standards reinforced:
| Code | Why it connects |
|---|---|
| SA-VAL-5-3 | Maintaining integrity under social pressure is the values foundation that makes Segment 3 possible — students who can identify their values can articulate why they held firm |
| SoA-INC-5-1 | Initiating and sustaining inclusion connects directly to the leadership roles students develop and hold in Segment 1 |
| RS-COM-5-1 | Effective communication is the delivery mechanism for the advocacy work in Segment 1 — making a case requires being heard |
Key Vocabulary
- Peer leadership — taking on a real, sustained role that helps your class or school, chosen and maintained by you, not just assigned by a teacher
- Advocacy — making a specific, reasoned case for a change you believe in, directed at the person or group who can actually act on it
- Mentoring — guiding someone else’s growth by sharing skills, checking in over time, and adapting your support as they develop
- Integrity — doing the right thing even when it is difficult, unpopular, or costs you something socially
Materials
- Whiteboard or chart paper and markers
- Before the week begins: Post your unit anchor chart and I Can Statement where students can see them — you’ll reference both throughout the week.
- Optional: index cards for students to draft advocacy cases during Segment 1 We Do
How this lesson is structured: Each skill segment below has an I Do (teacher models the skill with a realistic scenario) and a We Do (class practices together with your guidance). Independent practice — the You Do — lives in the practice resources that go alongside this lesson.
What Students Need Before This Lesson
- What’s inside
- What students should already be able to do
- Helpful to have in place
- 3 quick set-ups before the I DoSustained vs. one-time leadership · Advocacy vs. complaint · Mentoring vs. helping once
- Rescue planIf students are significantly behind
This section opens when Grade 5 launches.
Introducing the Skill
- What’s inside
- Opening hook
- What we’re learning
- Why it matters
- Core sentence frameThe frame students use all week
This section opens when Grade 5 launches.
Leading by Doing
- What’s inside
- I do: 4 teacher modelsTextbook example: what a sustained leadership role looks like over time · Wrong version → fix: one-time action vs. sustained role · Advocacy: making a specific, reasoned case to the right audience · Wrong version → fix: complaint vs. advocacy
- We do: 4 guided scenariosWith sentence frames, pacing notes and what to watch for
- Coaching in the momentWhat to say when students get stuck
This section opens when Grade 5 launches.
Leading Through Others and Looking Inward
- What’s inside
- I do: 4 teacher modelsTextbook example: what sustained mentoring looks like across multiple interactions · Wrong version → fix: one-time help vs. sustained mentoring · Leadership reflection: naming specific skills built and honest gap · Wrong version → fix: vague vs. specific reflection
- We do: 4 guided scenariosWith sentence frames, pacing notes and what to watch for
- Coaching in the momentWhat to say when students get stuck
This section opens when Grade 5 launches.
Leading with Integrity
- What’s inside
- I do: 3 teacher modelsTextbook example: leading with integrity when it’s unpopular · Wrong version → fix: easy honesty vs. integrity under social pressure · Integrity in ordinary leadership moments — not only in confrontations
- We do: 4 guided scenariosWith sentence frames, pacing notes and what to watch for
- Coaching in the momentWhat to say when students get stuck
This section opens when Grade 5 launches.
Closing the Week
- What’s inside
- 3 partner-share roundsOne for each segment, with the frame students say together
- Round 1 — Segment 1
- Round 2 — Segment 2
- Round 3 — Segment 3
This section opens when Grade 5 launches.
Practice for every skill segment
Each lesson comes with independent practice — the “you do” — for each of its 3 skill segments, in print and digital.
Printable practice
Ready-to-copy practice pages for each segment.
- View and print in your browser
- Answer keys for quick checking
Digital activities
Share one link — students open it on any device, and you see their answers.
- Works on Chromebooks, tablets and phones
- Students just type their name to start
While you wait: from the SEL Resource Library
Relationship Skills resources for Grade 5, ready to use today.
