Role on the Wall

Drama Strategies

Role on the wall is a collaborative activity for developing thoughts and ideas about a character.

In Role on the Wall, the outline of a body is drawn on a large sheet of paper, which is stuck onto the wall. This can be as simple as a drawing of a gingerbread man (download template below), or the teacher can carefully draw around one of the participants lying on a roll of paper. Alternatively you can project an image onto the paper and draw around the silhouette.

Words or phrases describing the character are then written directly onto the drawing or stuck on with sticky notes. This drama technique can be carried out as a group activity or by individuals writing about their own character. You can include known facts such as physical appearance, age, gender, location and occupation, as well as subjective ideas such as likes/dislikes, friends/enemies, opinions, motivations, secrets and dreams.

  • You can vary the approach, for example known facts can be written around the silhouette, and thoughts and feelings inside
  • Key lines spoken by the character can be added
  • The class can return to add more ideas, thoughts and feelings as they discover more about the character over time
  • Sticky notes can be moved around and grouped thematically
  • Role on the wall can be used as a way to develop ideas for improvisation or rehearsal
  • The approach can be used for historical people or for creating fictional characters
  • The strategy works well in combination with other approaches such as hot-seating

DOWNLOAD Gingerbread Man Template to use for your own Role on the Wall activities.

Inspiring Drama Teacher Online Course

Drama uses the greatest resource that teachers have available to them – children’s imagination. Creative play is a natural part of children’s lives before they start school, helping them to make sense of their place in the world. Such creativity can be harnessed through drama to enable active and interactive learning experiences throughout the primary years and across the curriculum.

CLICK TO READ 5 WAYS to try out drama in your lessons across the curriculum, to inspire and motivate your students.

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