This lesson is meant to be used to assess the level of your students at the beginning of the school year and to find out their interests, what they consider their strengths and weaknesses, and what they want to learn in the course.  You'll come away from the class with written surveys and you'll hear the students speak a good bit.

Ice Breaker: Lie detector- Ask each student to write down (at random) 2 things that are true about him or her and 1 that is false. Then have the students read their list while the others listen and decide which one they think is a lie. Cycle through all the students.  The teacher should participate, too.

Warmer- Teacher introduces herself showing pictures of her family/where she's from/etc.  Students ask whatever they want to know about the teacher.   

Introductions- Students interview each other in pairs using a pre-set questionaire to find out why they are studying English, how long they have been studying English, what they want to improve on, and their interests.  Each student has to introduce their partner to the class, giving their name and 3 things they learned about their partner.  Students can ask follow up questions.  (This is Jane.  She went skydiving this summer.  Her favorite book is Twilight.  She has a dog named Charlie.)  Students turn in the surveys to the teacher. 


Musical Chairs- The whole class sits in a circle. If the class size is too big, then you can make two circles.
There is one student standing in the middle of the circle who doesn't sit on a chair. That student says one sentence related to his/her life, family or hobbies. E.g., I have two brothers / I like chocolate a lot / I have a boyfriend.
All the students in a circle who have two brothers have to exchange chairs with other students.  The ones who have two brothers stand up and find another empty chair to sit on. The one who is not able to find a chair to sit on stays in the middle of the circle. This new person in the middle has to find a sentence related to him/her.