Oral Language Teaching Strategy:
Role-Play: Explore Other People’s Viewpoints Use role-playing to stimulate social language development and problem solving.
Time: one 30-minute lesson or two 15-minute lessons
Materials: Comic Strip Card #34
Grouping: whole class or small group
Assessment:
Kindergarten Oral Language Assessment Scale
FOCUSING ON THE PICTURE
[Analyzing/inferring]- Show the students the comic strip and have them share what they think is happening in each of the frames.
- Invite students to share their ideas about the comic strip with a partner.
- Provide time for partner discussion and then invite a few partners to share their thinking with the group.
- Offer the following prompts to stimulate discussion:
What ideas did you and your partner share while you were talking? Who is ready to share their ideas with the rest of the class?
Who is the girl in the picture?- Where does this story take place?
- What do you think is happening? Why do you think that? We don’t know exactly what is happening. It’s okay to suggest different things that make sense and fit the pictures.
GOING DEEPER
[Inferring/evaluating]- Discuss the features of a comic strip with students, for example, how a comic strip is divided into frames and how each frame shows a portion of the whole story. Show students how to read the strip in the correct order so each frame is ‘read’ in the proper sequence. Discuss that some comics have words or speech bubbles in them and some don’t.
- Offer prompts to help students focus on the emotions and interactions portrayed:
- How do you think the girl feels in the first frame of the comic strip?
- How do the girl’s emotions change in the last frame of the comic strip?
- What season do you think this story takes place in? What makes you think that?
- What do you think the birds thought when they found the hat? What made you think that?
- Do you think that this comic strip is funny or sad? What makes you think that way?
How did the girl’s hat get into the tree? What clues in the picture tell you that?
- Have students brainstorm what they will need in order to role-play this comic strip.
- Invite students to role-play the comic strip as themselves or by using puppets while you tell the story. As you are telling the story, be sure to include sequential and time-related words. A possible script could be:
One day Joey was out walking in the field when a big gust of wind blew her hat off her head. She raced after her hat as it went up into the sky. The wind blew her hat up into a tree. It landed between two very big branches. Joey was very upset because it was her favourite hat and she wasn’t sure how she was going to get it down from the tree. Just then a pair of birds landed in the tree and looked at the hat. Then the birds used her hat to make a nest. The birds were very happy to have such a fine nest. A few weeks later, when Joey came back to check on her hat and the birds, she was very happy to see that there were three new baby birds in her hat. The baby birds were enjoying a good meal from their parents.
- Ask students to share how they felt when they acted out the story.
You may conclude the lesson at this point and do the second part on the next day, or you may decide to continue and do Connecting and Predicting as part of the first lesson.
CONNECTING
Teaching Tip: If you decide to do Connecting and Predicting on the second day, begin your lesson by reviewing the comic strip with students.
[Making connections]- Ask students if they know any stories or situations that might be similar to this comic strip.
- Ask students to connect their personal experiences with the emotions and interactions in the comic strip by asking:
- Have you ever lost something? How did that make you feel?
- Have you ever been outside when it’s really windy? What did it feel like?
- What are some good and bad things about the wind?
The wind helps to cool me off on hot days. On cold winter days, the wind makes me feel cold. What do you like about the wind? What do you dislike?
PREDICTING
[Predicting]- Ask students to think about each frame of the comic strip and what the characters might say in them.
- Invite students to role play each frame but this time have them say what they think the various characters might say including the wind, the birds, and the hat.
Wind: I see a little girl’s hat and I want it.
Girl: I won’t let you get my hat!
Wind: I’m the wind and I can blow your hat away!
LESSON EXTENSIONS
- Divide a piece of chart paper into three columns labelled ‘where,’ ‘what,’ and ‘how.’ Brainstorm with students about wind. Record their ideas in words and pictures on a separate piece of paper. Cut out the ideas and place them in the appropriate column on the chart:
- different places that the wind might blow things, e.g., roof, bushes
-
We’ve selected the following ideas: ‘tree,’ ‘kite,’ and ‘between.’ What story can we act out using these words? I know, we can pretend that I’m outside flying my kite when the wind steals it and blows it between two trees.
different items that the wind might steal from them, e.g., mittens, kite, - different ways the wind might blow their things, e.g., over, under, between.
Then place the ideas from the chart into a bag and have students pull
out ideas and role-play the different scenarios.
- Use the card as the basis for a shared writing story. Together, write a story to explain what happens in the comic. As you write the story, select students to share the pen with you. Have students who are not sharing the pen spell the words out loud or trace the words or initial letters on the floor.
FOLLOW-UP IN CENTRES
- Post the ‘where,’ ‘what,’ and ‘how’ chart in the drama centre so students can role-play the various scenarios with puppets.
- Supply the art centre with pieces of paper divided into four frames for students to create their own comic strips. Have students explain their comic strips to you or other students.
