There are many ways that you could handle this. Depending on the age group of students. I would teach about how gossiping can lead to other things, such as bullying. It is good for students to see how one idea can get turned around into something completely different than the idea was intended. For example, have the students sit in a circle and play the telephone game. This will allow students to see how " I like football" can get turned into "she hates football".

I can rearrange the class so that students that are gossiping are seated away from one another. If this is a class wide problem I will take time out of the day to go back over the class rules and procedures.

Building a classroom community that teaches students to always respect their peers may help with this problem. Showing a clip or reading a book on how gossiping hurts others can also be presented to make students think of the effects of gossiping from a different perspective. .

If gossiping is a major problem in my classroom, I would hold a class meeting with my students. I would start the meeting off with a game of telephone. After the saying has been sent around the room and the last person says what the final saying is, the students can compare to what the original message was. I would tell the students that this game of telephone is like gossiping and can be hurtful and harmful for fellow classmates. I would also tell the students that gossiping is considered bullying and that we have zero tolerance for bullying.

I would remind students that gossiping is a form of bullying and the consequences that the school ahs adopted for bullying will apply to all gossiping.

If it is about other students in the school or classroom, then I would tell the class that there is a zero tolerance policy of gossiping and have consequence handy for the "just in case".

The classroom is a safe place. Every student that walks into the classroom deserves to feel comfortable and safe. Explain to the students in the beginning of the year the policy you want to enforce. For gossiping, I would explain the difference between honesty and dishonesty. At the school I am interning at, they had a lesson on Honesty and each child was given a badge that had their name on it. I made a sign that said "We Are Honest" and hung the students badges under it with a magnet. If the student is not honest, and gossiping is considered dishonesty, I would take their name down. At the end of the week, the students still on the board get a prize.

The students who seem to be doing most of the gossiping should be separated in the classroom. Have a little classroom meeting to let everyone know that gossiping is a form of bullying. The game telephone is a great way to demonstrate how misconstrued information can become when it is spread from person to person.

I was placed in a fifth-grade class where gossiping happened every day whether it is true or not. What we did was apply a positive box in the back of the room and anytime the students had a positive statement about someone they would write it down and put it in the box. At the end of the day or week we would pass out the nice positive comments that other students thought of them. This simply got rid of our gossiping and turned it into a light for kindness in our classroom. The students loved receiving and giving nice comments to their classmates.

I think you could rearrange the seating chart so that the students that often gossip are not siting near each other. If you mix up the seating it could also have a positive impact on some of the quite students that may be more shy. You could partner the two different types of students together.

If this were a problem in my classroom I would first talk to the students individual about why gossiping is bad, I would them see if it continued. If it continued I would move the students that are gossiping away from each other hoping that this would solve the problem. If this does not solve he problem then I would assign a detention or seek an administrators help.