Grade: all

#4745. Lying: What Kind of Lies Do People Believe?

Social Studies, level: all
Posted 12/26/2013 by Ben (Ben).
NYC Pub School, New York, NY, USA
Materials Required: None
Activity Time: One class
Concepts Taught: Lying, honesty, trust, bullying, friends

Each student will tell another about himself. The student he/she is debriefing will make a 10 question true-or-false quiz about that student.

1. Tell them to break into pairs.
2. Fred will tell Barney some things about himself and his life, then Barney will do the same with Fred.
3. Fred and Barney will make 10 question multiple choice tests about each other.
4. Each student in the class will give his quiz to the rest of the students.

Goal:
Which of the facts did the kids believe? Did they believe "Fred wants to be a ballet dancer?" What about "Barney can play the violin?" Why did they (or did they not) believe it? This game can be a great way to learn about how your students think.

I did this with my students, but the questions about me (the teacher) were the most enlightening:

1. Mr. Ben used to play pro basketball: they all said FALSE.
2. Mr. Ben was a pilot in the Navy before he became a teacher: most of them said TRUE.
3. Mr. Ben did jail time: They all said FALSE, they knew I couldn't teach if I'd been to jail.
4. Mr. Ben was married to a well-known pop singer, but they divorced before she got famous: A lot of them said TRUE!
5. Mr. Ben likes mountain biking, motorcross and other extreme sports: They all said TRUE.

What I learned was this; the students, all black/hispanic, associate white people with certain things. They'll assume all white people play golf and tennis, listen to country music or heavy metal, and surf.