I Need Some Help

Suggested Grades



Students will examine and practice effective communication and cooperation to participate in a dramatic situation where a student knows English and the other student doesn’t.


  • Pieces of paper with a different situation where someone would need help (eg: I left my book on the bus, My car ran out of gas, My child is sick and needs to get to a hospital, I’m hungry and need to find a grocery store or a restaurant, My house is on fire, etc.)


  • Place the written out situations in a hat, container, or bag.
  • Choose a student to come up to the front of the class and pick a situation out without looking. This student will be the one who can not speak English. Choose some way of communicating, by simply using the word “Blah”, gibberish language, or just acting.
  • Pick another student to come up and begin the activity. The student who cannot speak English has to communicate successfully to the other student what they need. As soon as they yell out the correct answer, they can stop. Move onto another pair, and another situation.
  • After, have a class discussion the ways that helped improve the chances of the English speaker to guess what the non-English speaker needed.
  • Variation: Time each situation, which pair succeeded the quickest, why were they successful?
  • Discuss how it felt to have people not understand what you were saying and not being able to understand what another person was saying? After this activity, what are some things that you need to remember when trying to help a non-English speaker or when visiting another country and needing help?…