eslHQ - 'Speed Dating' - an activity to work on introductions/hobbies etc!

I've been asking for help a lot recently so thought I'd give something back in the form of an activity I did with a class of 4ème that worked very well.

It's called 'Speed Dating' and is basically exactly what it says on the tin. It lasted about 40 minutes with me, and that will depend on the size of your class, ability, etc.

Start off by making sure everyone knows what 'speed dating' means. You also might want to go through a short example before you begin (*explained later).

So this is how you do it...

1. There are 14 character cards (you will need to make more if you have a larger class); 7 girls and 7 guys. Shuffle them up and hand them out so each student has a card - male characters don't necessarily have to go to the boys, and vice versa!

The aim is for each person to find their 'perfect match'. So there are seven pairs of guys/girls who match up perfectly based on their interests. These are arranged obviously in the word document (Martin Shipley and Sarah Wright, David Crouch and Rosie Jacobs, etc.) Important note: if you have a group smaller than 14, make sure the cards you remove are matching pairs rather than just random characters. Also, if you have an uneven number of students, you can sit in to make it even.

2. Make sure everyone has understood everything that's written on their card. Then sit them down along a row of tables, with the 'guys' on one side and the 'girls' on the other. Give them each a 'Speed Dating Table' to fill out as they go.

3. Each pair should take about five minutes to find out about the person they're sat with (might want to go over things like 'hello, what's your name? how old are you? what are your hobbies?' etc beforehand). After the five minutes, they should write down the name of that person, 'yes' or 'no' based on whether or not they think it's a good match, and then give their reason (eg. No, because she smokes and doesn't do any sport, and I don't like unhealthy people.)

4. Then the 'girls' stay seated and the 'guys' move along to the next place.

5. Repeat until everyone has met everybody and hopefully found their perfect match!

It seems complicated written down like that, but it's very simple really. :) You might want to edit the cards based on the level of your class, or add more, etc. *I started off by doing a basic example on the board, drawing three sample character cards - eg. a 21-year-old guy, likes skiing and smokes, and two girls - one is 25, likes theatre, non-smoker, and the other one is 20, smokes and enjoys winter holidays. Very obvious, you just get the class to say which girl makes the best match for the guy.

Et voilà! Would make a good activity for a Valentines-themed lesson, or just for general fun!

~S