Unit 7, Lesson 7.3. Print pages 1 to 3 on card stock and cut into 24 cards. One deck serves a whole class and it is reused every section and every year. Print page 4, the self-score sheet, one per student.

Each card has the scenario on the front side and, under it, a picture description and sentence starters for a student who needs them. Cards 1 to 12 are the concrete ones; use these for grade 6. Cards 13 to 18 are the everyday-work ones. Cards 19 to 24 are the hard ones with a conflict inside them; use these for the grade 8 stretch and for the interruption round.

The rules, read aloud before the first card: stand up. Ten seconds of silence to think. Thirty seconds to answer. The timer ends it, even mid-word. No do-overs. The class claps for everyone the same.

Cards 1 to 12: concrete

Card 1

You have to sell a bicycle to a fish. Go.
Picture: a bicycle leaning against a fish tank.
Starters: "I would ___ first, because ___." / "That would not work, so instead I would ___."

Card 2

You are in charge of the school cafeteria for one day. Everybody has to be fed and you have $100. What is your first decision?
Picture: an empty lunch tray on a long table.
Starters: "My first decision is ___, because ___."

Card 3

Your team's hot dish for 30 people is not going to be ready on time. You have four minutes left. What do you do?
Picture: a pot on a stove and a clock reading four minutes.
Starters: "First I would ___. Then I would ___."

Card 4

A customer says your product is too expensive. You cannot lower the price. What do you say?
Picture: a price tag with a hand pointing at it.
Starters: "I understand. The reason the price is ___ is ___."

Card 5

You have to teach a five-year-old how to tie a shoe using only words. Start talking.
Picture: a small shoe with the laces untied.
Starters: "First, take ___. Now ___."

Card 6

Convince me that cereal is a dinner food.
Picture: a cereal bowl on a dinner plate with a fork next to it.
Starters: "Cereal is a dinner food because ___."

Card 7

You are the manager. Two workers are arguing about who has to clean the sink. Fix it in thirty seconds.
Picture: two people facing each other next to a sink.
Starters: "Here is what we are going to do. ___ will ___, and ___ will ___."

Card 8

You dropped a whole tray of food in front of everybody. What is the next thing you do?
Picture: a tray upside down on a floor.
Starters: "The next thing I do is ___, because ___."

Card 9

Invent a new use for a single sock and tell me who would buy it.
Picture: one striped sock on a plain table.
Starters: "A sock could be used as ___. The person who would buy it is ___."

Card 10

You are late to your first day of work. What do you say when you walk in?
Picture: a clock and a doorway.
Starters: "I am sorry, I am late. ___. Here is what I will do so it does not happen again: ___."

Card 11

The oven broke and your team was baking. You have a microwave and a hot plate. What is the plan?
Picture: an oven with an X over it, a microwave, and a hot plate.
Starters: "We can still ___ by using ___."

Card 12

Sell me a glass of water. I am not thirsty.
Picture: a glass of water on a counter.
Starters: "Even if you are not thirsty, ___."

Cards 13 to 18: everyday work

Card 13

A customer asks you a question about the product and you do not know the answer. What do you say?
Picture: two people at a counter.
Starters: "I do not know that yet, but ___."

Card 14

Your phone is in your pocket and it keeps buzzing. You are at work. What do you do and why?
Picture: a phone face down on a counter.
Starters: "I would ___, because at work ___."

Card 15

Your boss gives you a job you have never done before and then walks away. What are your first three moves?
Picture: a checklist with nothing checked off.
Starters: "First I would ___. Second ___. Third ___."

Card 16

Somebody at work is doing something unsafe. They are older than you. What do you do?
Picture: a wet floor with no sign on it.
Starters: "I would ___, because ___."

Card 17

You finish your work twenty minutes early. Nobody has told you what to do next. What do you do?
Picture: a clean, empty counter.
Starters: "I would ___ instead of ___."

Card 18

You made a mistake that cost the business money and nobody has noticed yet. What do you do?
Picture: a receipt with a circled number.
Starters: "I would ___, because ___."

Cards 19 to 24: the hard ones

Card 19

Your teammate did not do their part and the work is due in ten minutes. You are both going to be judged on it. What do you do in the next ten minutes, and what do you do tomorrow?
Picture: two chairs, one empty.
Starters: "In the next ten minutes I would ___. Tomorrow I would ___."

Card 20

A customer is being rude to you in front of other customers. You cannot walk away. What do you say?
Picture: a counter with three people waiting behind one person.
Starters: "I hear you. ___."

Card 21

You have two jobs to do and only enough time for one. Both people who asked you think theirs is the important one. Decide, out loud, with a reason.
Picture: two sticky notes side by side.
Starters: "I would do ___ first, because ___. I would tell the other person ___."

Card 22

You want a raise. You have worked there four months. Ask me for it, right now.
Picture: an office doorway.
Starters: "I would like to talk about my pay. In the last four months I ___."

Card 23

Your business made $200 this month and it cost you $215 to run. Somebody asks you how it is going. Answer honestly.
Picture: two numbers on a page, one larger than the other.
Starters: "Honestly, ___. What I am going to change is ___."

Card 24

Somebody says your idea will never work. They might be right. Respond.
Picture: one person talking and one person listening.
Starters: "You might be right about ___. Here is what I know: ___."

Page 4: Self-score sheet

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________ Period: ______

What I was actually watching

Nobody got the answer right, because there was no right answer. Here is what was being watched. Write one thing somebody could see or hear for each one.

Second sign for each one, from the class:

Composure: ____________________________________________

Communication: ________________________________________

Problem solving: _______________________________________

Adaptability: __________________________________________

The word bank (four languages)

[check with a native speaker]

My score, after Round 3

Score yourself 1 to 4. 1 = not yet. 2 = starting. 3 = I did this. 4 = I did this well. Then write one sentence of evidence for each. Evidence has to be something somebody could have seen or heard, not a feeling. "I was nervous" is a feeling. "My voice shook for the first five seconds and then it stopped" is evidence.

Circle the one trait you are going to work on first:

Composure / Communication / Problem solving / Adaptability

Because: ______________________________________________________

Grade 8 line (optional for everyone): If the same card came at you in a real interview next week, what would you say differently?

Teacher key

There are no right answers on any card. That is the design and it is the thing to say out loud in the reveal. A card is answered successfully if the student stands, starts inside the ten seconds, stays on the question, and stops when the timer goes.

What to write on your private tally during Rounds 1 and 2 (one row per student, a check under any trait that showed):

Never show this tally to students and never turn it into a score. Its only use is to let you name traits out loud in the reveal without naming a student: "somebody paused for four seconds and then started clean; that was composure."

The reveal, in order (this is the 12-minute block and it is the lesson):

1. "None of you got it right, because there is no right answer to 'sell a bicycle to a fish.' Here is what I was writing down."
2. Uncover the four headings one at a time. Give the observable sign for each, then take a second one from the class and write it.
3. Name the difference between making a decision and narrating confusion. That is the single most useful distinction in the lesson and most students have never heard it named.
4. Say what the interruption was testing: adaptability, not memory.
5. Name the transfer out loud: an interview, a first day, a customer complaint, a principal in the doorway, a judge's question on pitch day.

The self-score check: read for an observable detail in the evidence column. A "got it" evidence sentence names something that could be seen or heard. A "needs more" sentence names a feeling. Push once, with one question: "What could I have seen or heard?"

Grade 6 use: cards 1 to 12 only. Default thinking time 15 seconds. No interruption round. Score two traits, composure and communication, not four.

Grade 8 use: cards 19 to 24 in Round 2, one deliberate interruption each, and the fifth line on the self-score sheet.

Cards to pull before class: read the deck and set aside any card that would land badly in your room this year. Card 19 (the teammate who did not do their part) can be pointed at a real student by accident if there has been a recent group conflict; card 23 (the business losing money) can sting a student whose family business is struggling; card 10 (late to work) can land on a student with attendance problems. Pull two or three, not ten. [Sal: your own version used slightly absurd scenarios on purpose, and the absurd ones are the ones that make it safe to be wrong. Swap in the ones your students laughed at.]

Timing, from Sal's own reflection on this drill: keep the scenario rounds tight, six minutes each, and give the reveal real time. If you are behind at minute 12, cut Round 2 to four speakers rather than shorten the reveal.

Scoring: the self-score sheet is scored complete, partial, or missing for daily work. It is not a grade on the four traits. The same four traits are scored by a peer in Lesson 7.5 and by an adult judge in Lesson 7.11, and students keep this sheet in the FACS folder so they can compare all three.