Roleplay

The aim of this role-play scheme is to shape and develop a role from a basic starting point. Students are initially presented with just a single name (for example, Jane or John) and from this they are taken through a series of role-play activities and techniques which build up a background for the character. The two key areas are that of Jane or John’s school and home life. The use of either a girl or boy to develop a character means that students have a choice in the role and the scheme will have different outcomes with every new class. All that students know at the beginning of the scheme is that Jane and John are Year 8 students at a school not dissimilar to their own. This means students already have some basic knowledge on which to base their initial explorations. As lessons continue, the use of techniques such as role-on-the-wall, hot-seating and thought-tracking will be utilised to flesh out the background story. Each new lesson will generate more information about the students’ interpretation of the character, and their recording of it will not only help to keep track of what has been created, but will provide opportunities to develop new scenes and roles in line with what has gone before. The emphasis on different ways of compiling the information, for example writing-in-role and taking photographs, also link into English work and help to develop recording skills. Most of the storyline is generated by students through the structures in exercises. The scheme is a collaborative piece which allows every individual to have an input into the telling of Jane’s or John’s story. There is also flexibility within the scheme for teachers to add their own extension techniques, or lengthen elements of the extended role-play to incorporate a wider range of roles and scenarios.

Learning objectives:

• To use role cards as a means of preparing and developing a basic role
• To understand how to use language-of-the-role in that development
• To understand the terms teacher-in-role and pupil-in-role
• To contribute ideas to a drama improvisation while maintaining a set role 
• To understand the term reenactment and its use in drama 
• To devise and perform a piece of role-play reenactment
• To revise the use of still image in communicating dramatic ideas
• To understand the term role-on-the-wall and compile a group role example
• To extend personal skills in the negotiation, operation and development of TIR/PIR tasks 
• To use ideas generated through role-play to create new and relevant extension scenes
• To create a piece of drama from written stimulus 
• To understand the term writing-in-role and its use in drama work
• To understand and explore the technique of thought tunnel 
• To produce a group-negotiated thought tunnel presentation 
• To evaluate individual and group successes that have taken place in the unit

Number of lessons: 6