Detectives and Informants

Here's a communicative lesson plan which Gianfranco Conti shared with me recently. It's a listening/speaking/writing information gap task called Detectives and Informants. It could work from about Y9 up, depending on the class. This is how it works.

Write five short paragraphs, each of which provides some (but not all) information about someone. When combined the five paragraphs describe that person. Include personal information, likes and dislikes, pastimes, favourite school subjects, family and friends. Hand out a copy of each paragraph to five students (‘informants’) in the class. To the remaining students (‘detectives’) hand out the same set of questions to ask, e.g. What is her name? Does she have brothers and sisters? What are her favourite hobbies? What’s her favourite subject? Make sure the questions correspond to the information contained in the five paragraphs.

Explain that detectives have to find all the information they can about the subject and that they can ask the five informants. The detectives should keep a careful note of the answers. You could supply a grid for this purpose.

Having placed the five informants strategically around the room, allow the remainder to move around, asking them questions. Groups are bound to form around each informant. This is fine, as long as everyone is listening. Students take notes, preferably in L2. Make sure the detectives aren't just copying from the informants' written texts!

Finally, elicit information from the detectives, writing up language on the board which students can copy. This can be the basis of a written composition.