Follow me on twitter @RobbioDobbio
Just a quick note…
Before you use these materials… We’ve created a new podcast aimed at B2+ level English students and teachers alike. You can listen for free at our SoundCloud page below. You can download teacher’s notes to accompany them from our Facebook page or from this blog. All comments and feedback welcome! Give us a like and a share 😉
https://www.facebook.com/2tspodcast/
Role-play and Discussion Class
This is a fun conversation class for teens or adults.
Here are the handouts:
Role cards and situations:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!261&authkey=!ALtvuUfRiWhHcbQ
Discussion questions handout:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!215&authkey=!AM0F1hFf5Tlvv3o
Sometimes some students have have trouble or feel embarrassed expressing their own opinions in class. Role-plays are an excellent solution to this situation. They can also be used to introduce different issues or topics.
I stole the role-play scenarios from another site (thank you, sorry) but I added another element; between the different role-plays there are some simple discussion questions based on the situation explored in the role-play. You can either have the students do the role-plays and then discuss the issues that come up or vice versa.
Instructions:
First ensure that the students understand what a role-play is.
These role-plays all work best in pairs. However, if you have some 3’s extra characters can be added.
Put the students in pairs and distribute the roles for the first scenario; one person is the daughter the other is the mother.
Explain that they are going to play out the situations on the cards but that at some point (after 2-3 mins) you are going to shout “swap”. They will then have to change roles, mother becomes daughter and vice versa, BUT they do not start the scenario again, they must continue from the same place. This makes it more fun and forces the students to think on their feet.
Have the students do the same role-play simultaneously. This leads to interesting discussion in the feedback session after the role-plays.
Give the students as long as they need to try and reach a resolution to the problem, swapping the roles as many times as you like.
Once they have finished have a feedback session:
What happened here?
What was the resolution?
What do you think will happen?
Then ask the students to draw comparisons between what happened and the differences between the characters that were created in each role-play.
Then give out the discussion question sheet handout. Students then discuss the questions related to the roleplay in small groups.
There are 3 different role-plays, each with it’s own discussion questions so you could split them up and do them as an end of class treat over several classes or have one long marathon drama class!
Discussion questions:
Moving out / moving in together
When did you move out of your parent’s house?
Why did you move out of your parent’s house?
What problems did you encounter immediately after moving out?
Did you get homesick?
What advantages did you discover when you moved out?
What do you think is the average age at which people move out of their parent’s house?
How long do you think a couple should be together before they move in together?
How does a relationship change after you move in together? How does it change for the better? How does it change for the worse?
If you live with your partner how long have you lived together?
What problems did you encounter when you first moved in together? How did you solve these problems? What compromises did you have to make?
Partying husband role-play
What would you do in this situation?
If you have a partner (husband /wife) do you have very different hobbies and interests to them?
How important is it to have similar interests in a relationship?
How important is it to have different hobbies or activities in a relationship?
Have you ever tried to persuade a partner to take up one of your hobbies? What happened?
Has a partner ever tried to persuade you to take up one of their hobbies? What happened?
Hospital role-play
What would you do in this situation?
Have you ever had to give a very important speech / presentation?
Who did you have to give it to? What was it about? How did it go? How did you feel before and after?
Have you ever had to work when you were very ill? What happened?
How many sick days do you take in the average year?