Role play areas are a kind of microcosm of classroom drama. In these areas children need to know who they are, where they are and need to experience and respond to problems. As they do so, they will adopt different roles and voice alternative points of view, expanding their imaginative understanding of different settings and making inter-textual links.
Student teachers will have observed children at play in role play areas and will benefit from working together to plan and shape the effective use of such spaces for imaginative play. The extended role play activity suggested here focuses on generating ideas for a variety of role play areas and then working to categorise and develop these.
Student teachers can also plan to create such areas around the key drama elements of people, place and predicament. They could create detailed plans of at least two areas, differentiated for Foundation, Key Stage 1 or 2 and even briefly improvise them in order to experience their potential for spontaneous role play and the influence of the teacher in role (TIR).
Role play areas are a kind of microcosm of classroom drama. In these areas children need to know who they are, where they are and need to experience and respond to problems. As they do so, they will adopt different roles and voice alternative points of view, expanding their imaginative understanding of different settings and making inter-textual links.
