The Rizla Game (a prehistoric EFL activity)

Rizla/post-it Game

So-called because the original activities were supposedly the brainchild of a poverty-stricken-EFL teacher whose only resources were a pen and a packet of cigarette papers. The cigarette papers later being supplanted by post-its as economic conditions improved.

If you have a class who already know one another so well that normal getting-to-know you activities are worthless, but you are in a position where you want to revise associated grammar and vocabulary, you might try this-

You devise a list of the names of people so famous that you might reasonalbly expect everyone in the class to recognise them and know something about them. The only/biggest limitation here is bad taste. They can be dead or alive, real or fictional, and they don't have to be Anglocentric. It's normally a better/happier activity if the personalities you choose are uncontroversial characters the students are happy to associate themselves with. So be careful with the Hitlers, Stalins, Beckhams, Gibsons, Bizbals...etc, unless you have good reasons. On the other hand fictional villains, Darth Vader for example, sometimes go down well.

The biggest rule is that for the duration of the activity NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO MENTION ANY OF THE NAMES BEING USED!

The teacher writes one name very clearly on each Rizla/post-it. @@@@
Students form a line in front of the teacher, who places a post-it on each student's forehead so that no-one knows the name on their own forehead but can clearly see the other names. The obvious next step is that the students try to discover who they are, but you might want to avoid this because sometimes they just try to guess and the game never takes off. The best variation I know is that the students have to find out how much their colleagues know about their new identity. But information is only to be given in response to a direct question and they can only ask one question per student at a time, but if a particular student seems to know a lot about their new personality they can return to that student again and again, as long as they intersperse their questions with questions to at least one other student. i.e. they can't ask the same student consecutive questions. And the question “Who am I?” and any variations are not to be used.

A quick demonstration usually gets the idea across clearly – the Teacher puts a post-it on their own forehead then asks a series of questions. To an extent it doesn't matter if the questions are open or closed. The demonstration should be done at the @@@@ point above using models like:
Am I dead (or alive)?
Am/Was I European/African/ Asian...etc.?
Am/Was I a politician/actor/author...?

or

Where am/was I from?
What do/did I do?...

Duration of the activity is flexible. Students may or may not be allowed to write things down. Students are not allowed to guess their identity until they've gathered as much information as possible within the time limit and if you are using the activity for language purposes they should present the information first before making a guess.

-I was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1929.
-I moved to another country with my family in 1933.
-I lived for years in a very crowded house.
-I was very young when I died.
-I only became famous years after my death.
-I became famousfor a book I wrote.
-My name is...

Otherwise the teacher might wind up the activity just by finding out which personality was best/least known, how many questions did it take for each student to identify themselves, general feedback. For language purposes – Pre-Int to Upper -Int. Can be used with higher level classes just for fun.

VARIATION.
A common variation of this is used to practice/consolidate adverbs/adverbials of manner.
Students write a generic introductory piece. My name is .... I'm from ..... I'm a .... I'm .... years old. My hobbies are... I have a pet dog/cat/mouse/lion/donkey ... My favourite film is ...
The teacher puts post-it with adverb/adverbial of manner one each student's forehead, each different of course. There's a limited choice realistically, but a common list would include something like-

HAPPILY/SADLY/IN A HIGH VOICE/IN A DEEP VOICE/QUICKLY/SLOWLY/IN AN AMERICAN ACCENT/LIKE A FOOTBALL COMMENTATOR/LIKE AN ENGLISH TEACHER/RELUCTANTLY/AGGRESSIVELY/SHYLY/SLEEPILY/NERVOUSLY/HESITANTLY/LIKE A ROCK STAR/LIKE A POLICEMAN/LIKE A GANGSTER...

Students mingle – they must talk to every other student- and they deliver their introduction in the manner of the adverb(ial) they read on their fellow student's post-it. At the end of the activity Ss must guess what is written on their post-it/forehead.

Mostly a fun activity but though very simple and straightforward usually better with Upper-Int upwards. Apart from vocab it's good for reinforcing just what “manner” means, as opposed to other types of adverbial.