Role-play in the Classroom

I love doing role-play with my students, and they seem to really enjoy it too. When we play role-play games with a text, it gives them the chance to experience something in the text, usually something there is no way they could actually experience in life. I have found that those role-play activities help my shy students come a little further out of their shells, my confused students clear up their thoughts about the text, and my leaders step up and take charge. It is really a rewarding experience for all.


One of my very favorite role-play activities happened in my classroom last year. My students and I were reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and I had just begun to experiment with using drama pedagogy for an entire text instead of just in bits and spurts. When my students came into class that day, they were each handed a character from the novel and then segregated accordingly. I informed them that we were going to have a town meeting and had to decide on several things, but we had to decide on them together. I also informed them that since we were role-playing and they were all characters from the text, they had to be segregated and also had to think carefully about how that character might actually respond in a town hall meeting at the time.


One class period got into the role-play deeply. There were lewd comments from the Ewell father, the reverend attempted to stand up for the Black community in the town, and the teacher who had just moved to town was not trusted and ended up losing wages. What my students discovered during the role-play, especially my students who had struggled with the text, was that the town would never really be able to make a decision together. The student playing the reverend who had simply tried to stand up for his community ended up being taken to jail for his own safety from Mr. Ewell. In that one class period, my students began to understand the world of the novel much more realistically and deeply than if they had just read the book. For many in that class, it was eye opening to see what the community of Maycomb was actually like.


Role-play does not have to be something that you have planned out weeks or months in advance, it can be something as simply as our town hall meeting; however, you do have to be prepared for whatever the students might say in role. My student playing Bob Ewell knew that the character was a drunk and rude man, and I fully expected the student to play the part appropriately to the character; he didn't disappoint.


When planning a role-play for your students, always start with a goal. If you don't know what you hope to get out of the activity, it will quickly deteriorate from a learning experience to students getting off track and into their own conversations. You also need to tell the students you are going to do a role-play and lay out the rules and expectations of it clearly. If you are engaging in a role-play that may make students uncomfortable, have a specific phrase you will say if things get out of hand. I am a fan of telling them that "stop" or "freeze" are my words. If students hear me say the word, they must immediately respond. Since I explain that the word is meant to keep the role-play focused and people from being uncomfortable or concerned for themselves, the students have always understood and complied.


I encourage you to see what type of role-play you can add into your next novel study. I promise it will help the classroom discussion of the text be much more interesting and engaging.


For more ideas or for a drama pedagogy unit, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Channeling-Ms-Frizzle