True or False?

 True or False?

Similarly to Random Card, this game requires very little set-up: the teacher simply stands at the front of the classroom with the wad of flashcards in their hands. To play True or False? however, the students need to be at a stage when they are more familiar with the flashcard vocabulary. This is because sometimes the teacher is lying.

Before the game starts the teacher draws a line down the centre of the whiteboard. On the left side they write true and on the right side they write false. (Alternatively you could write yes/no or put a tick and a cross.)

                                Whiteboard

    

    

True

False

An imaginary line is now drawn along the centre of the classroom in alignment with that from the whiteboard. Next the students are directed to stand up and gather together along this imaginary line (alternatively a real line can be drawn or two bowling pins or cones set up as markers).

The teacher holds up a flashcard and says what it is. If the teacher is lying then the students must jump to the false side of the classroom. If the teacher is telling the truth then the students must jump to the true side. The last student to jump to the correct side is out and must return to their chair.

Let us say for example that we are reviewing FCs for colours:

The teacher holds up a [red] FC and shouts, [“Red!”]. The students must jump to the true side of the classroom (the last one to do so is out). The teacher holds up a [blue] FC and shouts, [“Purple!”]. The students must jump to the false side of the classroom (the last one to do so is out). And so the game continues until only one student is left. This student is the winner and is awarded points for their team.

One problem with this method of rewarding the correct students is that the weaker students are often out first. This can be overcome if necessary by having it so that the first student to jump to the correct side is allowed to sit down first. Alternatively you could try giving the students two lives each so that they are not called out too quickly.

Another option, or rather, another version of this game, is to say true and false sentences (rather than holding up flashcards). For example, “Today is Friday,” “Tomorrow is Thursday,” “Yesterday was Tuesday.”

In fact the game of True or False? is not only limited to saying things that are true and false. There are many different combinations that you can use:

For example:

True	False
Eat	Drink
Allowed to	Not allowed to
European country	Asian country
Verb	Noun
Correct sentence	Incorrect sentence
Present simple	Past simple
For	Since
American English	British English

True or False? can also be developed into a miming activity to teach prepositions, with the left side of the classroom representing on your left, the right side representing on your right, i.e., when the teacher says, “On your left!” the students jump to the left side. When the teacher says, “On your right!” the students jump to the right side. When the teacher says, “Opposite!” the students find another classmate to stand opposite. When the teacher says, “Next to!” the students find a classmate to stand next to, etc.

On a final point it is worth mentioning that some teachers prefer to play this game whereby one wall of the classroom is the true wall and the other wall is the false one. Here students race to touch the correct wall, with the last student reaching that wall being called out.