Julian Caesars Blanco | Why you should use role-playing in the classroom ?

Julian Caesar Blanco is from California, United States. Julian Caesar is so passionate about past history. Julian had done so many plays that were based on historical movement.

Memorable classroom experiences are valuable for several reasons. If something from your school days sticks with you for years to come, it’s likely reflective of an engaging, unique learning experience. As teachers, we want students to not only gain the knowledge they need but also to have fun and be comfortable in the process.

Speaking from personal experience, I was not a fan of presentations as a student. Presentations equaled unnerving anticipation, sweaty palms, shaky hands, and a red face. At one point, I went so far as to willingly take a lower grade in a class rather than do the required presentation. We don’t want this happening with students, and I carried those memories with me into my own teaching. I did not want any of my awesome students feeling absolute terror at the prospect of a presentation.

3 things role-playing activities can do for your classroom

1. Develop new skills and concepts

Beyond actual speaking skills, role-playing can develop conflict resolution skills, heighten reading comprehension, and strengthen communication abilities. Role-playing also works in science and math as well, so don’t feel limited to only using it in English language arts.

For example, in science, students may role-play to demonstrate a scientific process, such as macromolecules in the food digestion cycle, an environmental process such as the steps in a weather event, the life-cycle of a plant or animal, or electrons in an electric circuit.

2. Appeal to different learning styles and incorporate active learning

Role-playing taps into various learning styles, such as auditory, linguistic, and kinesthetic. It also allows students to demonstrate their knowledge in a way that’s different from what they’re used to, such as a test or even a typical presentation.

Role-playing is also an active learning activity, which makes it a great tool for reinforcing key learning skills that will work for a range of learners in your class. Active learning is naturally going to be engaging for most students, so that’s a clear added benefit.

3. Inject fun and creativity

Creativity and role-playing go hand in hand. Not only are students actively engaged during role-play activities — and learning skills beyond the subject matter explored during the activity — but they are also likely to have a great time and put their creative talents to good use.

Role-playing provides more room for interpretation. Whether it’s choosing a particular way to act out a character’s role or acting out exactly how an electron would “behave” in their minds, students get to flex their creativity and out-of-the-box thinking by putting an individual flair on what they’re doing.

As students become increasingly comfortable with the process, their own unique takes on subjects, concepts, and literature will develop even more elaborately.