My Partner's Biography

On one of the first days of class, have students interview each other in pairs and then write short one paragraph biographies of their partners. The teacher should start the lesson going over the end product: discussing with the students the kind of information that should be in a biography such as name, age, nationality, occupation, etc., and the questions that students should ask to get the information. The teacher might want to pass out her own biography as a sample and discuss culturally sensitive information (such as age) and if students want to include that information or not.

This is a valuable exercise in students getting to know each other while practicing speaking and writing skills.