Transcript Role Playing & Simulations

Role Playing & Simulations
Why do these?
• Useful for examining issues that are abstract
– How supply and demand affect the market price of
goods in a capitalist economy
• Explore affective matters that entail beliefs,
attitudes, values, and moral choices
– Israel & Palestine
• Practice taking on a “role”
– Can be realistic or somewhat unrealistic
Why not do these?
• Additional use of instructional time
– In block scheduling, this is easily accommodated
• Ethical and moral limitations
– Can students really role play adult roles?
• Honest emotions may emerge when playing
– Multiple ways of knowing a subject
• Requires complex thinking “out of the box”
– Better than seatwork or worksheets?
Five stages of Role Playing
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Initiation and direction
Describing the scenario (historical/contemp)
Assigning roles (avoid typecasting)
Enactment (keep focused and in character)
Debriefing & Drawing Parallels (crucial part)
Simulations Guidelines
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Define the problem & situation
State the objectives clearly & narrowly
Specify the actors/parts/roles
Indicate rules/constraints/guidelines
Explain the decision-making mechanisms
Sketch it all out and try it out with someone
to eliminate “bugs/kinks”
Contours to Consider
• What is being “taught” and “performed”
• Implications of current role playing &
scenarios in video games
– Sims, Grand Theft Auto, Halo
• Kohlberg’s theory of moral development
– Seeking “higher moral ground”
• Simplification of variables & reality
The Civic Mirror project
• http://www.civicmirror.com/introvideo.php
REVOLUTIONARY WARS UNIT
GRADE 9 WORLD GEOGRAPHY & HISTORY
The United States became an independent nation
over 200 years ago. Since that time, revolutions
have led to new governments in many other
countries around the world. What causes a
revolution? Under what circumstances might a
violent rebellion against a government be
justified? Role-playing the Governor of Catalan,
the eastern province of Democ, students must
decide whether or not to support a revolutionary
movement among its citizens. Using information
you have taught your students about revolutions
around the world, students must decide how to
control the situation.