Liar Liar Pants on Fire!

A group of 4^th grade girls have been working on comprehension skills for both fiction and non-fiction texts.  We started doing some class building to learn more about each other.  We played two truths and a lie.  Students wrote two things that were true about themselves and one lie.  We had to figure out which one was the lie.  The girls enjoy this because they know lying is wrong, but doing this they are given permission to lie to each other.  Next, we read a short chapter book titled The Good Lie.  In the story, the girl tells some lies such as, letting her sister know that her haircut is good even though she looks like a porcupine or telling her Mom that her pants don’t look too tight.  We then discussed what lie might be acceptable.  The next day, we reviewed the story by playing two truths and a lie again.  Using this strategy all of the girls could really recall the important details of the story.  This strategy is more effective then just asking them what the story was about.  It involves students in the learning process to increase their comprehension.  So, teaching students to lie had a positive result!