[JenKO]

Hi Everyone-
I'm really enjoying this website, there are so many useful resources! While I was teaching recently I decided to play a game with my students called two truths and a lie, and the students were laughing it up. Here's how to play: 1) Ask each student to think of two truths and a lie and not to share it with their classmates, Ex.... I have four dogs, I spent four days on a snowmachine traversing the Arctic Circle, I was born in Western Europe, (allow the students to be as creative, simplistic, or complex as they want when thinking about these three things) insist that one of the three items has to be a lie. 2) Teacher verbalizes example he/she has made up to the students and the students have to guess which one is a lie.
3) When ready, the teacher chooses a student and they tell class their two truths and a lie( without revealing which are the truths and which is the lie)and the rest of the students have to guess which one is the lie, when they've each had a guess, the teacher reveals which one is the lie. Then repeat with each student until evryone has had a turn, guesses from their classmates, and lastly the correct answer disclosed by the teacher.
You may want to keep in mind that this can be time consuming but it really is a lot of fun.
Enjoy!! Keep on teaching!! - Jenna

[Eric]

Yeah, I've played this and it's a lot of fun! I do have a spin on the game.

Everything is the same as you said except I have the listeners place "bets" on their answers. For example, when the time comes and the listeners have to say if it's true or a lie, then they have to put their "money" where their mouth is and bet whatever you are playing with (ie. scraps of paper, fake money, pennies, cookies, etc...). That motivates them to listen very carefully to the student saying their lie/truth.

You can also take it one step further and allow the listeners to ask Yes or No questions about the statement, but that would be for a fairly high level class.

Thanks JenKO

[susan53]

I use a version of this as a reading/writing activity. Choose a famous person - for my "serious" adults I use Condoleeza Rice, but if you're teaching teenagers you could choose a pop star or actor. Using biographic material that's easily available on the net, I write out about ten sentences describing that person's life - from where/when they were born till current. But I add in two completely untrue facts. The students read the text and decide which sentences they think are false. It works best if there is something unexpected about the person which is true - Rice, for instance, is an accomplished concert pianist and has performed in public with Yo Yo Ma. Students often choose this as one of the untrue statements (The actual untrue statements which I add are When she was a child she wanted to be a ballet dancer and At the age of 23 she applied to NASA to train as an astronaut but was rejected.)
Then, for homework, they have to find biographical info on another famous person, and write ten sentences about them. They send it to me by E-mail for correction and then bring the corrected version to class the following week. The sets of sentences are circulated, and in groups the students read them and decide which they think are the untrue statements.

PS. I've now published a full description of the activity and the Rice text (which you can copy for classroom use) on my site. See the Oct 17 entry or click on Teaching Reading

[Valll9]

Good idea of a game JenKO!!!
... but do you think it would work with grades 5 and 6 students, who are only in their seconde or third year of ESL? I will have my first class with them on monday.. !! Thanks!