Speaking Activities for the Classroom - NoblePath

Detective
This is a game where you put three people at the front of the room, who all
claim to have had the same unusual experience. Like a girl who once went into the
men’s restroom by mistake and felt quite embarrassed. Only one of them has had the
true experience and the other two are imposters. The true girl must report the
truth. The other two must make up their answers based on their imaginations.
This means they are lying. Your job is to question the girls, as though you were
detectives, to find out which two are lying and which one is the true person.
Every class member asks one question, which all three girls must answer as
though they had actually had the experience themselves and could tell the
actual details the way they had experienced them. Detectives should be able to
ask clever enough questions to catch the two imposters, because they should be
able to hear when suspects don’t know what to say because they were not
actually at the scene to remember and report on what really happened.
Some questions might be as follow :
Did you forget to look at the sign before you went through the door?
Where did it happen? What time was it?
Were you alone or was someone with you?
Did someone dare you to go into the men’s room?
Are you often a forgetful person?
Did you feel frightened? What was your first reaction?
What did you see after you entered the door?
Were there any men in there?
What were they doing?
What did they do when they saw you?
At the end of the questioning, the class must vote on who the real person is.
After the voting, the class leader says,
“Will the real person now step-forward.”
Often it is not the one you expect because the others are such good actors.
What are some other experiences that some of you have had that might make
good topics for this game? Falling off an express passenger boat into the canal would be
an unusual experience. What different sort of experience have you had that would
help to make a good subject for this quiz game? Have you ever had your gold
chain stolen at the bus stop by a thief who then jumped on the back of a motorcycle and raced
away?
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