Story Interrogation

The teacher gives only the opening line of a personal story. Groups send runners to ask questions and gather details, then reconstruct the full story — with one or two plausible lies added.

Procedure

1. Hook: Write the opening line of a memorable personal story on the board (e.g. All I wanted was a quiet lunch, but I ended up in a police station). Ask: will this be funny, scary, or embarrassing?
2. Assign roles: Groups of 3–4 designate a runner (asks questions), a secretary (notes answers), and question-planners.
3. Interrogation (5–8 min): Runners take turns approaching the teacher one at a time to ask a question. Teacher answers in 1–2 sentences, then the runner returns to report. Groups use each answer to formulate better follow-up questions.
4. Reconstruct: Groups write up the story using the opening line and the information gathered. They must also insert 1–2 plausible lies.
5. Present: A spokesperson from each group tells their version. Other groups listen and try to spot the lies.
6. Reveal: Teacher tells (or plays) the true version. Class compares: is the truth more or less interesting than their versions?

Variations

• Student stories: After the teacher-led round, students prepare their own opening lines and the class interrogates them.
• Written follow-up: Students write up a polished version of the story for homework, incorporating language from the feedback stage.
• Question focus: Collect incorrect questions asked during the interrogation for a remedial language focus afterwards.

Tips

• Low prep, high yield — the activity can fill an entire lesson from a single personal anecdote.
• Use a true personal story if possible — students are far more motivated when they know it really happened to the teacher.
• Model good vs bad questions at the start: What happened? (too vague) vs Where exactly were you when it started? (effective).
• Emergent language: question forms, narrative tenses, discourse markers (anyway, so, it turned out...).