The Failies — an awards ceremony for the worst thing that happened to you
Students do not get a prompt here. They write their own disaster. Each one types their name, picks one of ten categories — Kitchen Nightmare, Romance Fail, Tech Trouble, DIY Disaster, Fashion Faux Pas — writes the story of something that actually went wrong, and passes the device on without showing anyone. Then the teacher opens the ceremony, reads each story aloud while the class guesses whose it is, and hands out ten awards: Most Expensive Mistake, I Wanted to Die, Hold My Beer, Safety Third, Best Plot Twist.
The name stays hidden, and that is what makes them write
Anonymity until the reveal changes what students are willing to put on the screen. A story told directly to the class is filtered for reputation; a story that will be read out by the teacher with the author unknown is not. The guessing game then gives the class a reason to listen closely to a text that is not theirs — they are looking for clues about who it belongs to, which is a far stronger listening task than "listen to your classmate".
Failure is easier to narrate than success
Ask a student to describe something that went well and you get three modest sentences. Ask about the day they burned the rice at their own dinner party and you get detail, sequence, timing and a punchline. Disasters have structure built in: everything was fine, then one thing went wrong, then it got worse, then somehow it ended. That is a narrative arc, and it pulls past simple, past continuous and past perfect out of a learner who cannot produce them on demand in an exercise.
The writing stage is a rehearsal, not a test
Because the story is typed before it is read, every student gets to plan — which is precisely the support weaker speakers need and rarely get in a speaking activity. Give eight to ten minutes and do not correct during the writing. If you want to work on accuracy, do it after the ceremony: pick three sentences from three different stories, put them on the board anonymously, and fix them together. Correcting during the writing turns confession into homework.
Awards are the second speaking task, for free
The ten award categories look like a joke and function as a debate. Deciding who deserves Most Expensive Mistake requires comparing two stories, which means comparatives, superlatives and justification. Let the class argue about it rather than assigning the awards yourself — that argument is the most spontaneous language of the whole lesson. Then ask each winner for a ten-second acceptance speech, which adds a second genre and reliably produces the biggest laugh of the session.
Read the room before you run it
A story about failing is only funny when the author feels safe. In a group that has just formed, or one where a few students dominate, run it with invented stories first — announce that at least one entry must be fictional and the class has to spot it. That version keeps every mechanic and removes the exposure. Move to true stories once the group knows each other, and always allow a student to skip the reveal of their own name.
Level and shape
A2 upward for the writing, B1 and above for the ceremony to really work. Budget a full lesson: ten minutes to write, twenty to read and guess, ten for awards. It needs one device passed around rather than one per student, which makes it useful in exactly the classroom where technology is scarce.
Goes well with
Further reading
Overcoming Speaking Anxiety — why mingles unlock quiet learners
Gamification in Language Learning — why scoring changes behaviour