Speaking Activities › Conscience Alley
Conscience Alley — a drama technique for exploring a decision
Two lines facing each other, and one person walking slowly between them. One side gives reasons to do it, the other reasons not to, one voice at a time as the walker passes. At the end they come out and say what they decided, and why. It is the best five minutes of drama teaching in primary, and it needs nothing but a bit of floor.
What is Conscience Alley?
Conscience Alley — sometimes called a decision alley or thought tunnel — is a drama technique in which a group forms two lines and voices the two sides of a character's dilemma as that character walks between them. It externalises a decision, so a class can hear an internal argument out loud.
How do you run it, step by step?
Show the dilemma and split the class into two lines facing each other, about a metre apart. One side is FOR, one is AGAINST. Give everyone thirty seconds to think of one reason. The walker moves slowly down the middle; as they pass each pair, those two speak — quietly, once each. At the end the walker decides out loud.
Why does it have to be quiet?
Because the walker is the only person whose experience matters, and thirty shouted reasons are just noise. Said quietly, close, one at a time, it feels like thinking — which is the whole effect the technique is after. If the volume creeps up, stop and restart; it is worth the thirty seconds.
From the classroom
It falls apart in two ways, and both are about the room. If the lines are too far apart the walker hears a wall of noise; a metre, close enough to speak at a normal indoor volume, is right. And if you let the walker stroll, it is over in eight seconds and half the class never speaks — so tell them to walk as though they are actually thinking about it, which usually means slower than feels natural. Give the thinking time before anyone lines up, too; a class that lines up first will spend the whole thirty seconds negotiating who stands where. The version that has stayed with children longest in my experience is running it twice with the same walker, lines swapped, so they hear their own side argued back at them. And do choose the walker carefully — it should be someone who will genuinely commit to the decision at the end, because a shrug at the finish deflates the whole thing.
Which year groups is it for?
It works from Year 2 to Year 9 (US grades 2–8). Younger children do best with a story character facing a clear choice — Jack and the beans is the classic for a reason. Older children can take a genuine moral dilemma, and the debrief afterwards is where the real work happens.
What do you do afterwards?
Ask the walker which reason nearly changed their mind. That single question is the whole point of the technique: it makes the class attend to what was persuasive rather than what was loud, and it usually surfaces a reason nobody expected. Then swap the walker and run it again with the lines reversed.
Can I print it?
Yes — two sheets. The dilemma cards are numbered cut-outs so groups can run their own alleys. The two sides sheet gives the class somewhere to plan their one reason before they line up, and space for what the walker decided and which reason changed it.
| Use it for | How | How long |
|---|---|---|
| A drama starter | One dilemma, one walker, both lines | 10 minutes |
| Exploring a class novel | Use a decision the character actually faces | 30 minutes |
| Before persuasive writing | Alley first, then write the argument that won | 40 minutes |
| PSHE or discussion | A real dilemma, then a proper debrief | 25 minutes |
Do I need an account?
No. The setup screen and the worked example are both open, so you can see exactly what you would be running, and model it to a class, before anyone asks you for anything. Starting the activity uses a free trial token, and a Sage Pro subscription lifts the limit.
Free to try, and no sign-up to look around.
More speaking activities
Try Hot Seat for questioning a character in role, Rebuttal Pong for a paired debate, or Devil's Advocate for arguing a case you do not hold. All seventeen are in Speaking Activities.
Written by a practising primary school teacher, who built Sage Teachers to use in their own classroom. Every activity here is free to try with no sign-up.