Benefit of Role-Playing Activities

 Benefit of Role-Playing Activities

Examples of Activities

Role-play is when students pretend to be someone else to learn about real situations. In my class, I have utilized role-playing activities to teach about many topics: the Underground Railroad, Lincoln's assassination, capitalism and monopolies, immigration, escalation to WWI, trench warfare, Sacco & Vanzetti trial, stock market crash of 1929, key events in WWII, and the Red Scare. There are two main ways to incorporate role-playing to the classroom:

• Simulations: According to UNSW Sydney (2023), simulations are when students are put into a "world" created by the teacher to represent a real-world scenario. One classic example that I use in my class is the Red Scare simulation. Students are assigned to a role (either communist or non-communist). The goal is for students to put all of the communists in jail and make alliances with people who are not communists. They get a few minutes to talk to their peers and try to figure out who is a communist and who is not. At the end of the round, they have to select a student (or many students) who they believe are communist. If a student is deemed a communist based on a majority vote, they go to "jail" for the rest of the game. At the end of the game, the students put in jail are revealed as being innocent or guilty. The point of this activity is to have students experience the suspicion and wild accusations that were common during the Red Scare.
• 
  
• Acting: Another role-play activity that can be used in class is acting out historical events or people. When students are learning about Ancient Rome, they can dress up in "togas", and act as if they are Roman leaders. Students can also act as historical figures and present a speech or participate in a debate as their assigned or chosen person. In my classroom, I had some students earn extra credit by acting out Lincoln's assassination, showing how John Wilkes Booth was able to commit the crime, escape, and then get captured.

Benefits of Role-Play

Increased Engagement: By having students actively participating in these role-play activities, they engage with the material on a deeper level and are able to think more critically about the event or topic (Walters et al., 2017). I have seen first-hand how much fun students have when they are given a role to play and how they are able to recall the lesson and main ideas behind the game much easier than if they were just reading and writing about it.

Encourages Collaboration: These role-playing games often get students to interact with their peers, even the ones that they would not typically interact with. Not only does this build relationships among the students, but it also allows them to build collaboration and teamwork skills that are critical to academic success (Lee, 2025). Students need to communicate effectively, think critically, and problem-solve with their peers in order to successfully complete the role-playing activities.

References

Lee, E. (2025). 15 Engaging Role Play Examples for Students. Meredith Plays. https://www.meredithplays.com/engaging-role-play-examples-for-students/

UNSW Sydney. (2023). Simulations. UNSW Sydney. https://www.teaching.unsw.edu.au/simulations 

Walters, B., Potetz, J., & Fedesco, H. N. (2017). Simulations in the classroom: An innovative active learning experience. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 13(12), 609-615.