Fact and Fantasy

This recipe involves stories - truth and lie - and a bunch of candies. Each student gets x number of candies (5-10 is good). Teacher, too. The teacher models the exercise by telling two short stories about him/herself. One is a true story (Fact) and one is made-up (Fantasy). The students guess which is fact by showing a flashcard. The ones who guesses it right gains one candy from the story teller...and the ones that guess it wrong, lose one. Each student then gets a chance to tell their stories. At the end of the activity, the person who has the maximum candies is declared the "WINNER"

The students can of course savour the candies...

This way the students get a chance to talk freely and know more about each other. It can be used as a warmer, or at any time of the term.

I learned this exercise from one of the psychology seminars on lie detecting. I've used it in my ESL classes a million times and it's been successful a million times. Suniti