gunmajet.net

Time Length:
15 min + depending

Lesson Point:
May I & Could You

The Plan:
This is a lesson on asking for things politely. The time needed for the lesson depends on how long you give the kids for each section. You will need 15 minutes at the bare minimum, but I recommend 20 minutes or more. If you allow the students to continue their games until the end, this worksheet, including explanations, can take an entire 50 min class period.
Give each of the kids the attached handout. Break the students into pairs. Explain to them that for Round 1 they need a pen, but they are not allowed to use their own pen. If they want to write something, they must borrow their partner's pen. Demonstrate with your teaching partner. Play rock-paper-scissors. The winner then must ask to use the looser's pen using the polite dialogue in the handout. The winner then writes one character of the phrase 'I am the winner.' on their sheet and returns the borrowed pen. Play again and again until someone has 'I am the winner.' written on their sheet. That person is the winner.
This process will take a long time. There are 13 characters (including the period) in 'I am the winner.' At minimum, the students will have to play janken and do the dialogue 13 times to have a winner. If they are taking too long, cut them off after a determined number of minutes of play and tell them the person with the most characters written down is the winner for Round 1.
Next explain the rules for Round 2. Round 2 is just a little different from Round 1. The students must now use their own pen, but they are not allowed to write on their own paper. So, instead of asking to use the pen, this time they ask their partner to write on their sheet for them. The person who gets 'I am the winner.' written on their sheet first wins.
At the end there are some translating questions for the students to work through.