Role Play and Simulation

Post #4 - In what ways do you already use role-play and simulation in your classroom for
purposes of learning?

This month mentees and I will  assume the roles of an administrator and new teacher to prepare for their first Teacher Performance Appraisal observation and conferences.  We'll also role play parent teacher conferences, phone calls, and any other teacher to adult, teacher to student, professional interaction that they would like to practice.   We role play at other times in the year and have created fishbowl role plays to model professional discussions in our LINKS class, the year long teacher induction course in our district. 

In our Teaching and Learning Professional Development team, we often assume roles to practice cognitive coaching, mentoring conversations, Problem Solving Protocols, etc.   The ability to take on a role frees us to think about the process and detach some of ourselves to make taking risks fun and safe.

Most of my direct teaching  is in partnership with teacher colleagues and involves explicit instruction, explorations, meta cognitive think aloud, modeling and then guided practice with colleagues' students around professional development topics in literacy.    Right now providing professional development on one on one reading assessment QRI-4, DRIA2, CORE, mentoring new teachers and RtI protocols.  Usually we don’t role-play because we jump right in with students that the teachers know.   On occasion if a teacher is hesitant, I'll ask if a role play where I’ll pretend I am a student and the teachers assess me role-playing that they are my reading teachers would be helpful.   It’s not high tech but it works for some teachers as a way to scaffold their own learning.

The hole in all of the role plays with adults is the lack of meaningful interdependence.

Perhaps in their Moodle post (secondary teachers) or blog post (elementary teachers) instead of reporting, they could role play and write the response from the perspective of:

    * the student.  It might help the reflection process to not only describe what they observed but to speculate or interview the student on what they learned to get accurate feedback or
    * the student's parent with a letter of reflection on what their child gained academically, socially and emotionally during the school year.

Another idea is that instead of a Power Point explaining what they observed as new teachers implementing new strategies and frameworks,  they take on the roles of different students and staff in their class and write a school newspaper, explaining their teaching and why their class is a respected in the school community. 

If all the new teachers in the new teacher class took on a role when they wrote to each other, it might engage them more quickly as a community that learns together while apart.

I'm not sure and need to ponder this more.  The ideas in Jenkins are stretching me to think more expansively.   Ideas anyone?

PS Role Play 'ruled' my classroom when I was an early educator both in preschool and grade 1.  Children naturally gravitate to roles to try on how they feel before they make them their own and to provide a cloak of safety and courage as they learn new ideas.

Some interesting LINKS as potential for our class role play.

Achieving Learning Outcomes Through Online Role-Play Simulation which is sponsored by AACE  EdITLib the Educaitona dn Informaton Techology Digitla Library 

AACE The Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education

The ONLINE ROLE_PLAY SIMULATION PLATFORM
Motivating Learning Experiences that Deliver Real Change 






This role play, Needle Stick is an active problem solving senerio involving the issues of a needle exchange program for drug users within close proximity to a school.