Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Peer Mediation
Life is filled with good things. Life is filled with problems, too. Every day people try to come up with ways to solve problems. Kids in school need to find ways, too. They are no exception.
For as long as there have been schools, there have been difficulties between children. This can include name-calling, the taking of someone else's property, or even pushing on the playground. Many times adults intervene - maybe a teacher, a parent, the principal, or a lunchroom monitor. This is important in the sense that most schools have zero tolerance for bullying, or one student harming another in any way - physically or verbally. However, a grown up stepping in sometimes only helps temporarily. That's where a program called peer mediation comes in.
Peer mediation sounds like a complicated term. However, it's not so complicated when it's broken down. A peer is someone your own age. A mediator is someone who helps fix conflicts.
What exactly does a peer mediator do? A peer mediator is usually chosen in a school situation because of the person's helpful nature. The peer mediator may be very academic or not, be very athletic or not, be very popular or not, etc. The peer mediator is trained by an adult in many schools through role playing. He or she learns about conflict resolution by thinking up different ways to solve problems. After training, the peer mediator uses his or her skills in real-life school situations.
The way the peer mediation program works may be slightly different in each school. In general, if a child is having a problem with another child, he or she may fill out a form requesting a time for someone to listen. This is CONFIDENTIAL, so the whole school does not find out about it.
