FREE PRACTICE Role Play Method: T writes the following template on the board: Title: Place: _ Time: _ Characters: Situation: Scenes: i) ii) iii) T asks each group or pair to produce three different, distinct scenes connected with a given topic T encourages them to think of the role play as three parts of a whole, with a through-line and a logical progression through the scenes, e.g • • • Scene 1: Setting up the situation Scene 2: Action Scene 3: Result To make the task more challenging, everybody could agree that all role plays have to include particular things, for example: a) b) c) d) e) f) a person’s name a place name an object (e.g an aubergine or a giraffe’s toothbrush) a certain phrase a prop a costume and so on SS work in pairs or small groups and devise their role play T gives an appropriate amount of time, e.g 1015 minutes, then monitors, checks, and corrects Group feedback: each team performs their work for the rest of the group T notes grammar, usage, and pronunciation errors in a notebook T could encourage the groups who are watching to listen carefully and make notes about errors To encourage peer assessment, the ‘audience’ could make their voice heard too, perhaps by giving marks out of ten for each role play based on: • • • • language accuracy effort imagination best costumes, use of props, lighting, sound, etc Or they could give thumbs up (1 or 2) or thumbs down (1 or 2) You Are The Course Book – Lesson Plans 84 T leads group feedback session, outlining errors on the board and eliciting corrections and improvements Tips: • SS will get a lot of satisfaction from thinking up and developing their own creative work, rather than reading a dialogue aloud from a book, because the level of involvement and use of skills involved in the former far outweigh simply reading somebody else’s ideas aloud • T could encourage SS to be as creative as possible, developing the plot and characters, and working on making the dialogue individualised to the characters SS could develop longer pieces, and use props, costumes, lighting, and staging, as part of a project that involves dedicated time in several consecutive lessons • SS could use the mood cards on p.128 and/or the character cards on p.129 to add variety to their characters The ‘audience’ could be invited to guess which character had a particular mood or character; or a role play could be performed several times, but each time the characters have different moods or characters • SS could use the functions cards (from p.130) to give particular tasks to their characters Again, the ‘audience’ could be invited to guess the functions, or match functions to characters • SS could give faces to their characters by using the picture cards (from p.132) or finding pictures in a newspaper/magazine/catalogue, etc • SS could write up their role play or dialogue as a script or short story (or comic book, etc.!) for homework You Are The Course Book – Lesson Plans 85