Sentences in a Hat
speakingaccuracyfluencypracticesmall-grouplow prep15-20 min
Each student writes 2–3 sentences, unusual claims, or questions on slips of paper. All slips go into a hat. Students take turns drawing a slip and must respond to it aloud for 30–60 seconds. Instant pool of conversational starters produced by the class itself.
Procedure
- Give each student 2–3 blank slips of paper. Prompt varies by lesson focus:
- Write one strange fact about yourself.
- Write a controversial opinion.
- Write an open-ended question.
- Write a prediction about the next 10 years.
- Write a past-simple sentence with a lie in it.
- Fold slips and put them all in a hat/bowl.
- Students take turns drawing a slip. They read it and respond:
- For a fact: react to it, ask a follow-up, or relate it to themselves.
- For an opinion: agree, disagree, or nuance.
- For a question: answer it.
- Each response is ~60 seconds. Class listens; one follow-up question allowed from anyone.
- Continue until every slip has been drawn.
Why It Works
- Student-generated prompts: students are more engaged with content their peers produced than with coursebook questions.
- Unpredictable: the hat is random, which keeps attention.
- Diagnostic: what students wrote reveals their interests and their language; what they respond with reveals their speaking range.
- Equal opportunity: everyone contributes prompts; everyone draws.
Prompt Variations
| Prompt | Language practice |
|---|---|
| Write a lie about yourself + two truths | Two Truths and a Lie variant — speakers bluff |
| Write a "Have you ever...?" question | Present perfect |
| Write a question starting with "If you could..." | Conditional |
| Write a belief you hold strongly | Modal language, opinion |
| Write a prediction for 2035 | Future forms, hedging |
| Write a sentence with a phrasal verb from this week | Vocabulary practice |
Variations
- Two-draw: each student draws 2 slips and must use both in a single 2-minute response.
- Slip trade: students can reject a slip once, drawing again — creates mild bargaining.
- Silent-write, loud-debate: after drawing, students write 30 seconds, then debate the claim with a partner.
- Hat of questions only: all slips are questions. Any drawn question starts a 2-minute conversation.
Tips
- Collect the prompts the first few times and weed out anything inappropriate before shuffling.
- Explicitly reward interesting responses, not just grammatically correct ones.
- Works from A2 upward — scale prompts to level.
- Great filler when a lesson ends with 10 unexpected minutes.
Source
Widely used in ESL; documented in teach-this.com and TEFL resource collections.