What Do You Say When…? | Behrman House Publishing

A group of your friends in class starts talking about a new student, Yonah. Since Yonah happens to be your next-door neighbor, they start pumping you for information. You *

Tell your friends only nice things about Yonah.

Try very hard to change the subject. When this doesn’t work, you say, “I don’t want to tell you anything since Yonah might not want you to know.”

Tell your friends not to be so sneaky and so nosy. If they want to get to know the new student, they should speak directly to Yonah.

In class, the teacher asks all the students to write an essay about something they did that they’re proud of. You choose to write about when you helped stop other students from teasing a classmate. You *

Tell about how you were able to convince some of the students that teasing was wrong.

Describe how you helped change the students’ attitude toward their classmate.

Write about how you refused to join the teasers and how other people followed your example.

Your parents come home and notice the kitchen is a mess. Your younger sibling, Ariel, says you made the mess. You weren’t even in the kitchen. How do you respond when your parents believe Ariel? *

Say that Ariel may not have realized that you weren’t even in the kitchen at the time.

Tell your parents you were not in the kitchen, but don’t say anything about what Ariel did or did not do.

Talk to Ariel privately and try to convince Ariel to tell your parents the truth.

You told a friend a secret and that friend revealed your secret to several classmates. You *

Excuse your friend by telling yourself that your friend was really trying to help you.

Know not to reveal secrets to this friend again.

Phone to let your friend know you feel betrayed and that keeping secrets is an important part of friendship.

Your brother is on a basketball team. The team just lost a game. Your sister makes a joke about your brother’s team. He gets insulted and makes a remark about her basketball shot. What do you do? *

Suggest that they take time out to think about what they said.

Leave the room before they try to get you into their argument.

Tell your brother that your sister was just trying to make him laugh.

In your class, there is a student named Alex who seems to know the answer to every question. You notice students are calling Alex “Know It All.” When you hear them call Alex by this nickname, you say *

“It is hurtful to call Alex by this name. You wouldn’t like it if you were Alex.”

“I think Alex prefers to be called just plain ‘Alex.’”

“Alex happens to have a great memory. Alex can help us study for tests.”

Your friend Max is running for class president. One of Max’s campaign posters hints at faults of JR, the other candidate. What do you say to Max? *

“Why not just write about your strengths? That’s what voters really need to know about you.”

“You really shouldn’t try to look better by putting someone else down.”

“JR is actually working very hard and is pretty sincere. Even if you win, JR may be able to help get things done.”