Kseniya Vaynshtok Hayatsuki JHS Special Needs (also Games; Grammar and Review)
Two Truths and a Lie
Target Audience: JHS Special Needs class
Objective: I used this lesson during my second class with the students, following my self-introduction lesson. It was a great way to get to know the students, and to practice simple target sentences. I used “I am ~.”“I have ~.”“I like ~.”and “I have been to ~.” This fun and easy game is popular among the students and even gets the quietest special needs student to actively participate.This lesson works best with small classes of up to 10 students, and uses both listening and speaking skills.
Materials: You don’t need anything but a chalkboard and chalk for this lesson.
Procedure:
5 minutesWarm up the class with the usual greetings, and then give a brief introduction on ice breakers.
10 minutesIntroduce and explain the ice breaker: Two Truths and a Lie. The purpose of this game is to give 3 sentences (2 true sentences and 1 lie) and to fool your classmates into choosing the wrong lie. Once you’ve explained the directions and demonstrated the game with your JTE, give the students time to create their own sentences (this varies depending on the level of your students). During this time, write their names on the board to tally the amount of classmates they fool. Also write the sentences they can use:
For example:“I am ~.”“I have ~.”“I like ~.”“I have been to ~.
30 minutesFor the rest of the class period, play the game. If you have the time or a small number of students, play multiple rounds. To give you a general idea, I had 4 students and was able to play 2 rounds (the JTE and I participated as well) in one class period.
After each student tells their sentences, write them on the board. Then repeat them all afterward out loud and have the students raise their hands when they think the sentence is the lie. Keep a tally next to the sentences to see how many people chose that sentence. Once you find out which sentence was the real lie, count up how many students were fooled and record the number under that student’s name. The goal is to fool as many people as possible into choosing the wrong sentence as the lie, and the student with the most fooled wins!
Example: A student says,“I have been to Shizuoka;”“I have been to Hiroshima;”and “I have been to Nara.” Which one is the lie? One student chose Shizuoka, three students chose Hiroshima, and one student chose Nara. Shizuoka was the lie so a total of four students were fooled. That student gets four points.
Additional Information: This lesson is very flexible and can be adjusted for smaller or larger class sizes, as well as time allotments. It can take up an entire class period, or only half a period following another short lesson.