Speaking Activities › Sell It!
Persuasive speaking — sell something completely useless
A single odd sock, slightly damp. Sell it. A pupil gets a genuinely useless object and has to persuade the class to want it — and the one rule is that they may never admit it is useless. It is persuasive language with all the difficulty left in, and the class votes with their thumbs at the end.
What is the persuasive speaking activity?
It is a speaking activity in which a child is given a deliberately worthless object and has to sell it convincingly in a short, timed pitch. Because the object has no real merits, every persuasive technique has to be manufactured — which makes the techniques visible in a way that selling something genuinely good never does.
How do you run it, step by step?
Show the object on the board and give the speaker a few seconds to think. Start the timer. They pitch it to the class as if it were the finest thing ever made. At the end, thumbs up or down — would you buy it? Then ask the useful question: what nearly persuaded you?
What makes a pitch actually work?
Finding the one situation where the object would genuinely be brilliant. A shoelace with no shoe is useless until you need to tie a gate shut. Children who invent that situation win; children who list features lose. That move — changing the context so the flaw becomes a feature — is the most transferable thing in the activity.
From the classroom
The rule that makes this work is never admit it is useless, and it needs enforcing from the first turn, because the instinct of a nervous child is to get the laugh by agreeing with the audience. The moment they say it is rubbish really, the activity is over and they have protected themselves from it. Say the rule, then model thirty seconds yourself with something genuinely awful off your desk — a dried-up whiteboard pen is ideal — and commit to it completely. Your willingness to be daft sets the ceiling for the whole lesson. The best thing you can do afterwards is not ask who won, but ask who nearly bought it and why. That is where the persuasive techniques get named by the children rather than by you, and a child saying she made me think about when I would need it is a better lesson on audience than any success criteria list.
Which year groups is it for?
It works from Year 2 to Year 9 (US grades 2–8). Younger children love the silliness and need only fifteen or twenty seconds. Older children can be given the harder objects and pushed towards real persuasive devices — the rhetorical question, the rule of three, the direct address to the audience.
How does it help with persuasive writing?
It front-loads the hard part. Most persuasive writing in primary fails because the child has no argument, only a topic; here they are forced to invent the argument out loud first, with an audience reacting in real time. Writing the pitch up afterwards is much easier when they already know which bits landed.
Can I print it?
Yes — two sheets. The object cards are numbered cut-outs so groups can pitch at tables. The pitch planner asks the question that makes the difference — what is it secretly perfect for? — plus space for an opening line and persuasive phrases to borrow.
| Use it for | How | How long |
|---|---|---|
| A persuasion starter | Four pitches, class votes with thumbs | 10 minutes |
| Before persuasive writing | Pitch it out loud, then write the advert | 40 minutes |
| Teaching persuasive devices | Print the planner, name the techniques afterwards | 30 minutes |
| Group work at tables | Print the cards, fours, one pitch each | 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 Devil's Advocate for arguing a case you do not believe, Rebuttal Pong for a structured debate, or Point, Evidence, Explain for writing persuasively. 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.