Let students enact a short 2 minute role play about a particular concept. Can the other students guess what concept has been performed on screen?
This teaching activity is a contribution from Radhika Mittal, lecturer at ESHCC.
- Activity goal
- Exchange knowledge | Practice skills
- When
- In class
- Where
- Hybrid | Offline | Online
- Duration
- < 30 minutes
- Group size
- Small
- Materials
Zoom
Step-by-stepStep 1Start by discussing the topics or concepts of the lecture. Step 2Then divide the students into small groups (3-4 students) and give each group their own topic or concept. The groups do not know what topic the other groups have been given. Step 3Explain the assignment: Ask each group to enact a situation that shows their assigned topic or concept. Tell the students to use their creativity; they can use props, change their screen name or make signs to help set the context of the scene. Step 4Let the students prepare for 15 minutes in their own online breakout room (or in class). Step 5Each group will now present their own TV drama/situation for the rest of the students in the main session. Step 6After the performance of each group, ask the students to discuss what topic they think is presented, and allow room for discussion. |
Example
This teaching activity has been added to teachEUR by Radhika Mittal of ESHCC. She used this way of working to indicate the concepts of the use of syncrhonous and a-synchronous use of media in the courtroom. Students played a role-play from 1 to 2 minutes to explain these concepts. They came up with the idea to change their names showed in the screen to judge, lawyer, crime scene, etc. Students were very active and involved in class when this approach was used.
Tip 1
If you have a large group of students, turn it into a small contest of 2 rounds!
- In the first round, divide the students into 'topic groups'. For example: if you have 3 topics, divide the larger group into 3 topicgroups.
- Every topic group is then divided in smaller groups of 3 or 4 students.
- Each smaller group has its own breakoutroom and prepares a mini tv drama about the topic at hand.
- Back in the topic group, the small groups play their mini tv drama.
- After all small groups presented their play, the topic group chooses the small group that had the best representation of the topic. You might consider asking them to write a motivation for their choice.
- The winners of each 'topic group' are then asked to perform their situation again for the whole class (second round).
Tip 2
This activity can be done offline in class, but it looses some of its TV charm without the screens and props.
Zoom is preferable over Teams when working with more than 9 students, since Teams will not show more then 9 students on screen at the same time.
Consider the tools and materials mentioned here as suggestions. In many cases it’s possible to use alternative tools. Please turn to the Learning & Innovation team of your faculty first to see which online and offline tools are available and how to apply them.
