Last week we
talked about the firemen as one of the people who help us and we had lots of
fun activities that we integrated with that theme. I introduced the theme with
a story about the fire engine and we went through some books about firemen that
we discussed the pictures together. During the activity time we did fire truck and
it was group work in outdoor area. To make the lesson more meaningful we went
to the fire station in the next day and the students enjoyed it and I noticed
that in the next day when they talked about it during the 1st whole.
They were enthusiastic while they negotiated about what they saw and did in the
tour. Because of that, I decided to make something new and take risk to do a
small role-play with the students even if it is their first time.
To start the
role play I discussed with the students about what they did in the fire station
and what they saw. Then I asked the students to close their eyes and imagine
that there is a fire on a house. After that I let the students to lead the role
play and what I did was I helped them by asking some questions to move on. We
had fun together and they liked the role-play. We sang together and we did some
actions at the end of the role-play. The students were totally engaged to the
drama however there were few students distracted with the things around them in
the class and what I did was I involved them by asking them to be in role of
something.
Next
time I will integrate my lesson again with a small drama if it is suitable with
the theme because I found lots of students that were silence in the lesson they
participated in the role-play. They were also asking to repeat the role play in
the next day and we did it again in front of the HOF which she like it either.
I have a local magazine which has some pictures of children from Al Zayedia visiting the firestation. - I'll try to remember to bring it for you. I think the role play was engaging for the children, too. I think that it was a good decision to for you too lead it, too. I suggest you use this system for a short while, but try to encourage the children to then do some role play in pairs or small groups, so you can observe and assess them too.
ReplyDeletegreat job, I was afraid to use role play but after reading you experience I think I will try and use such activities. It is easy to let student led the role play because you can’t imagine how many wonderful ideas they have. I also liked how you managed the students how get distracted by giving them a specific job to do.
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