Definition
A role is enacted by multiple children as a scene is played out to explore different emotions or mindsets.
Purpose
- To practice collaborative creation – ‘including’ rather than ‘blocking’ one another’s ideas
- To practise generating ideas for story creation
- To explore a character’s back story which could lead to the way the character acts in the present
- To empathise with the character
- To prepare for writing a character’s response to a dilemma
Example
If a character demonstrates different traits or possible decisions this is a good strategy to employ. For example, exploring the behaviour of the character of April in The Last Bear by Hannah Gold. Eleven-year-old April moves to a remote Arctic island with her scientist father and she meets a lonely, wounded polar bear who has been stranded on the island. There are many points where April needs to make a decision. The first is when she sees the polar bear after searching for him for some time. One child could play April’s desire to go up to the polar bear as an intrigued explorer, the second child could play April’s grief for her Mum who could communicate with animals, a third child could play the part of April who is responsible and very loyal to her father, a fourth child could be April’s fear. The scene could play out with each child voicing their feelings and thoughts as April slowly makes her way towards the bear, retreating and advancing as the differing thoughts are shared.
