During the fall of 2019, the chaotic American political landscape was charged with scandal, debate, and accusations. As a result, students would often bring local and national politics into the authors' high school English language arts (ELA) classes. Instead of ignoring the students' heated debates in the classroom, the authors decided to embrace…

This article explores the power and potential of a role-play collaborative argument project centered on a literary work that has been banned or challenged in schools. In the project, students read a banned or challenged novel as they prepared to play the role of a community stakeholder (parent, teacher, librarian, minister, etc.) at a simulated…

This article discusses how students use online role-play to collaborate and change real school policy. Playing different characters in an online role-play, students explore controversial aspects of Internet filtering and adopt a plan to change their school's policy. Through engaging in collaborative argumentation during their role-play, students…

As teachers, the time they get to talk with peers, their friends, is an important time because there is never enough of it. Why not allow students the opportunity to chat with friends--the same courtesy the author appreciated in meetings with peers? Through talk, students can improve their conversational skills, which in turn would help their…

High school teachers Simao J. A. Drew and Brenda G. Bosnic help familiarize students with gender role analysis and feminist theory. Students examine classic literature and contemporary texts, considering characters' historical, literary, and social contexts while expanding their understanding of how patterns of identity and gender norms exist and…

Describes how the author role-played a character from "To Kill a Mockingbird" to stimulate classroom discussion of the novel. (MM)

Describes a class activity in which a student portrays the main character of a book and is interviewed, press conference style, by the class. Argues that responses to literature can be more fun with this unusual approach. (RS)

Describes how English teachers can utilize the concepts and techniques of "interpreters theatre," or theater of the mind, to help students become more engaged in literary texts. Explains basic procedures of this technique and gives sample scripts from actual classroom usage. (HB)

Suggests that using personas helps students to engage as active learners in their study of William Shakespeare. Describes how students can assume an invisible metaphoric mask in their writing about a play. Argues that the persona approach aids students in recognizing Shakespeare's relevance for their lives. (HB)

Three new approaches--one from theater, one from humanistic psychology, and one from the art world--promise different ways of handling English teaching. (Author)

Describes a complex role play used in a high school English class in which students take on roles from a simulated society with three distinct ethnic groups with differing interests and demands. Describes how students learn the hard truths of group dynamics in this extended role-play, discussion, and negotiation. (SR)

Includes approaches to pantomime, improvisation, expanding a character, role playing, reader's theater, live stage, and script writing. (DD)

Describes how role-playing is used to get high school students involved in the critical reading of novels like Thomas Hardy's "The Return of the Native." (RL)