Two Truths and a Lie: A Fun End-of-the-School-Year Activity Students Love
By the final weeks of school, students are thinking about summer, not content.
End of the year energy calls for activities that are quick, engaging, and interactive.
One of my favorites (and students ask for this one too!) is Two Truths and a Lie, classroom-style.
It's a simple priming for learning activity that requires zero to little prep, and gets students thinking, discussing, and debating within seconds.
How It Works
Present three statements related to your lesson—two truths and one lie.
Students identify the lie and discuss their resoning with a partner or group.
Then, reveal the answer and discuss any misconceptions.
Why It Works
Curiosity Grabs Attention
Students naturally want to know if they're right, so the mystery creates perfect conditions for engagement.
Retrieval Strengthens Learning
To find the lie, students must pull information from memory and active recall strengthens learning more than passive review.
Misconceptions Become Visible
Incorrect reasoning surfaces quickly, giving you an opportunity to address misunderstandings before they become long-term misconceptions.
Discussion Deepens Understanding
Students compare ideas, defend their answers, and challenge each other's thinking. In this way, the conversation is more valuable than the answer itself.
Classroom Examples
Science
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun.
Venus is hotter than Mercury.
Venus has two moons.
Math
Probabilities can never be greater than 1.
A probability of 0 means an event is impossible.
A probability of 2 means an event is very likely.
ELA
Strong arguments use evidence.
Emotional appeals can influence readers.
Opinions alone are always strong evidence.
Social Studies
Rivers often influence settlement patterns.
Mountains can create barriers to movement.
Latitude determines a country's government type.
End-of-School-Year Pro Tips
Use common misconceptions for the lie
Let students debate before revealing the answer
Turn it into a team competition
Have students create their own rounds (own truths and lie)
Use it as a bell ringer, review activity, or discussion starter
Bottom Line
When summer is winning versus school at the end of the school year, students don't need more worksheets or packets.
They need activities that spark curiosity, encourage discussion, and get them actively involved.
Two Truths and a Lie does exactly that.
It's fast.
It’s fun.
It keeps students thinking right up until summer break.
Can you tell which of the three is a lie (but only a little one)?
I guess occasionally lying leads to learning that works.
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BOOKS & TOOLS
Flashcards are okay but there's a better way. The Memory (or Mind) Palace Method is a powerful learning and memorization technique that when mastered allows a student to remember 10, 20, or even 30 vocabulary words or concepts (definitions included) with ease.
And, they actually remember what they learned using memory palaces! This series of lessons (which can be used as classroom handouts) walks students through creating their first memory palace, filling it with information they need to learn, and using it to train their memories. It also contains short readings, a video lesson, memory palace examples, and practice drills.
Fair Use
Feel free to use with your students. Please do not share it with other parties or use for profit. All rights by crushschool.com.
Equity-Promoting Classroom Poster. What does EQUITY in the classroom look like?
Everyone has a different start and finish line
Quality is more important that quantity
Understanding that diversity makes us stronger
Inclusion despite beliefs, appearances, and circumstances
Thoughtfulness lowers barriers and reduces biases
Yesterday's mistakes are today's learning agenda
You can teach your students about equity and make it a daily classroom practice using this inspirational poster, which also includes images that accompany the equity description. You can discuss each letter characteristic with your students as a way of introducing your inclusive classroom and display it prominently as a reminder that diversity makes the classroom community stronger.
In this classroom Mistakes are Expected, Respected, Inspected, Corrected!
Learned helplessness is a result of years of conditioning that mistakes are bad for learning. Nothing is further from the truth - some of the most powerful life lessons come from making mistakes, reflecting on them, and growing as a result.
This is a PNG Poster you can print and display in your classroom to encourage a culture of risk-taking and learning from mistakes.
In this 3- to 4-day lesson, designed for a high school Earth and Space Science classroom, student groups are assigned and investigate 4 leading solutions to the climate change crisis our planet is experiencing. Then, they are called upon to debate against each other to try to convince others that their solution is the most viable and provide counterarguments against other solutions. It’s an intellectual thunderdome in which students are encouraged to use science to attacks each others points of view on climate change but not character.
Why and how does this learning strategy work?
Rote memorization out; seeking answers and deeper learning in.
The debate-style approach to learning is engaging and motivating for learners, because they are challenged to use real evidence and their wits to outmaneuver their opposition.
Not only do they act as investigators, developing communication, collaboration, and argumentation skills but they learn about viable solutions to the climate change conundrum we all find ourselves in. They learn Earth and Space Science content while investigating and debating solutions to a real-world phenomenon, which is what the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for.
Student Learning and Performance Objectives:
Research multiple, complex climate change solutions to discover that the world is more complicated than a single TikTok trend.
Articulate scientific arguments with actual evidence.
Listen to opposing viewpoints, to hone "social awareness" skills.
Realize that climate change solutions are multi-faceted, messy, and require more than just good vibes.
Describe and support with, not mere belief but actual evidence, the leading climate solutions proposed by, not the coven of online witches but the scientific community.
What's included:
24 slides that introduce, explain, and guide the teacher and students
Detailed teacher notes on prep, main lesson, and follow up activities
General Lesson flow for teacher to follow to make it all seamless
A short and funny “hook” to increase student buy in
Detailed student directions
A list (research starter pack) of links to legit, scientific websites for students to use.
Group roles (team jobs) with descriptions of what each entails.
4 climate change solutions to assign to 4 different student groups
Student Learning and Performance Objectives
Detailed Grading Rubric to guide students and make assessment easy
Debate Day introduction and format description
Follow up discussion questions (reflection and debrief)
Save planning time with this Atmosphere Unit, 5-day Honors Earth and Space Science Project in which students research, design, create, and present a 7-day weather forecast for a specific city in the US or abroad.
Student Performance and Learning Objectives:
Explain how weather data is collected and interpreted.
Explain how weather patterns may be affected by geography (mountains, plains, valleys etc.).
Explain the atmospheric conditions (pressure, moisture etc.) necessary for different weather (sunny, windy, rainy etc.).
What's included:
16 slides (Google Slides link for easy use and editing to fit your purposes)
Learning Objectives
Group Roles / Jobs (up to 5 with detailed description of jobs)
Detailed Project Directions / Requirements
Materials/Web Resources List
Link to a "Wheel of Names" containing city names - students spin and receive their assigned city.
Link to a grading rubric for student and teacher use (printable doc).
The project follows the guidelines set by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Questions?
Email me at oskar@crushschool.com. I’m happy to answer your questions.
Fair Use
Feel free to share and use this resource with your students.
Please do not share it with other parties or use for profit. All rights by crushschool.com.
Retrieval Practice, Spaced Practice, and Mixed Practice (Interleaving).
Studying Hard is not the same as Studying Smart. This High Quality printable, digital (PNG) poster is a constant classroom reminder of best practices for teachers and learning the smart way for students.
