Values Auction

Students receive a fictional budget and bid in an auction for items representing values or life goals — the competition for limited money forces genuine prioritisation and argument.

Procedure

1. Prepare a list of 10–15 items representing values or life goals (e.g. "a happy marriage," "fame," "a job you love," "financial security," "adventure," "good health," "a close family"). Assign each a suggested starting price.
2. Each student or pair receives the same fictional budget (e.g. $1,000).
3. Before the auction, students decide privately how much they are willing to spend on each item. Groups discuss and agree on priorities.
4. Run the auction: teacher or a student auctioneer offers each item; groups bid; highest bid wins. Track spending on the board.
5. Debrief: which items sold for the most? Which groups were left with unspent money? What would students change if they could bid again?

Tips

• The financial constraint is the engine of the activity: students cannot buy everything, so they must argue, compromise, and commit. This produces more genuine discussion than open opinion-sharing with no stakes.
• The debrief is as important as the auction itself — it is where most extended language production happens, as students explain and justify their decisions.
• Works well as a bridge to IELTS Task 2 essay topics on values, success, and happiness: the auction surfaces authentic opinions students can then write about.
• Adapt the item list to context: younger learners might bid on "school subjects they'd never have to study again"; exam students on "skills they wish they had."
• Rooted in the humanistic ELT tradition (Rinvolucri) and values clarification pedagogy (Simon et al. 1972), both of which argue that personal investment drives language production.