Speaking Activities › Phone Call
One side of a phone call — an inference activity
You can only hear one half. A pupil acts out one side of a phone call, and the class works out who is on the other end and what has gone wrong — from the pauses, the tone and what the caller does not say. It is inference, done out loud, and it is far more fun than a comprehension sheet.
What is the one-sided phone call activity?
It is a speaking and listening activity in which one child performs only their half of a telephone conversation. The class has to reconstruct the missing half from the evidence — who the caller is talking to, what has happened, and how the other person is reacting. Everything the class knows, they have inferred.
How do you run it, step by step?
Show the caller their card. Give them a few seconds, then start the timer. They act out their side, leaving real pauses where the other person would be speaking. When it ends, take guesses — but ask for the evidence with the guess. Then reveal the card and see how close they were.
Why are the pauses so important?
Because that is where the other half of the conversation lives. A child who talks continuously has given the class nothing to work with; a child who stops, listens to nobody, and then says right, but you said Tuesday has just told the class an enormous amount. Modelling one pause is usually enough for the whole class to get it.
From the classroom
The whole activity turns on the pauses, so model one before anyone else goes. Pick up an imaginary phone, say hello?, and then just stand there for three full seconds looking increasingly unimpressed. The class will laugh, and then every single one of them will do it. Without that they talk continuously and the game has no gaps for the class to fill. The other thing worth protecting is the guessing. It is very tempting to accept the first correct answer and move on, but the interesting part is the child who was wrong for a good reason — I thought it was a teacher because they kept apologising — and naming that as a strong inference, even though the answer was wrong, teaches the class more than the right answer does. With a nervous performer, let them do it sitting down and facing away from the room; it is much easier to be someone else when nobody can see your face.
Which year groups is it for?
It works from Year 2 to Year 9 (US grades 2–8). Younger children need a very familiar situation — ringing home, ringing a friend — and are happy with twenty seconds. Older children can take a call where the caller is being evasive, which is a much harder inference and a much better discussion afterwards.
What usually goes wrong?
The caller explains everything in the first sentence, and there is nothing left to work out. Say the rule before you start: you may never state who you are talking to. The other failure is a class that guesses without evidence, which you fix by refusing bare guesses — ask which words made them think that, every time.
Can I print it?
Yes — two sheets. The call cards are numbered cut-outs so pairs can run it at tables. The working it out sheet gives the class two columns — who is on the other end, and the words that gave it away — which is what turns a guess into an inference.
| Use it for | How | How long |
|---|---|---|
| An inference starter | Three callers, class guesses with evidence | 10 minutes |
| Teaching inference | Print the working-it-out sheet, evidence for every guess | 30 minutes |
| Drama or role play | Generate calls on the topic you are teaching | 20 minutes |
| Group work at tables | Print the cards, fours, one caller at a time | 20 minutes |
Do I need an account?
No. The setup screen and the worked example are both open, so you can see exactly what you would be running, and model it to a class, before anyone asks you for anything. Starting the activity uses a free trial token, and a Sage Pro subscription lifts the limit.
Free to try, and no sign-up to look around.
More speaking activities
Try Speak Like… for speaking fully in character, Emotion Acting for inference from a face, or the inference activity in Reading for reading between the lines of a text. All seventeen are in Speaking Activities.
Written by a practising primary school teacher, who built Sage Teachers to use in their own classroom. Every activity here is free to try with no sign-up.