Speaking Activities › Speak Like…
Speaking in role — a drama game for KS2
A character, a situation, and thirty seconds to be them. One child takes a card — a pirate who is terrified of water, a zookeeper who has just lost all the animals — and speaks as that person while the class scores how convincingly they stayed in role. It needs no space, no costumes and no rehearsal, which is why it works in a normal classroom on a normal Tuesday.
What is speaking in role?
Speaking in role means talking as a character rather than about one. The child uses that person's voice, opinions and vocabulary, and answers as they would answer. It is the spoken half of what children are asked to do constantly in writing — and doing it out loud first is what makes the writing sound like somebody rather than like a worksheet.
How do you run it, step by step?
Show the character and the situation on the board. Give the speaker ten seconds to think, then start the timer — thirty seconds is the default. They speak as that person until it stops. The class's job is to score out of ten for staying in role, so they are listening the whole time. Then ask the deciding question: what was the most in-character thing they said?
What makes a good character prompt?
A predicament, not a job title. "A chef" gives a child nothing to say; "a chef who has burned absolutely everything on the menu" hands them a problem, an attitude and a reason to be talking. Every prompt here has two halves for exactly that reason, and the generated ones are built the same way — the situation is what makes it playable.
Which year groups is it for?
It works from Year 2 to Year 9 (US grades 2–8). Younger children do best with a big, obvious character and a funny situation, and are happy to stay for ten or fifteen seconds. Older children can take a character with a real dilemma, and can be pushed to hold a viewpoint they disagree with — which is where this quietly turns into empathy work.
From the classroom
The tell is the word "would". A child who says "I would be really annoyed" has stepped outside the character to describe them from a safe distance; a child who says "I have had enough of this" is inside it. That single word is the most useful thing you can teach the class to listen for, and once they have it the scoring stops being a popularity contest. The other thing is where you stand: sit the speaker down and stand at the back, and they will speak to the room instead of performing at you. And do not start with your most confident child, however tempting — they will set a standard of comedy the quiet ones will not attempt, and you will lose half the class. Start with someone in the middle who will do it honestly, and the bar becomes "have a go" rather than "be funny".
What usually goes wrong?
Three things. Children describe the character instead of being them — fix it with the "would" rule above. They do a voice and nothing else, so it becomes an accent competition; ask for one opinion the character holds instead. And the class scores their friends generously, which you fix by asking for a reason with every score. A number on its own teaches nobody anything.
Can I choose the characters?
Three ways. Pick a ready-made set — jobs and work, fantasy and space, or sport and telly. Generate your own for whatever you are teaching, and this is where it earns its place: type the Victorians, the rainforest or your class novel and you get characters from inside that topic, each with a situation, pitched at your class's age. Or write your own as character — situation, one per line. You see and can edit the whole set before the class does.
Can I print it?
Yes — two sheets. The character cards are cut-outs, so groups can run it at tables with the cards face down. The score card is the class's job on paper: who they were, a mark out of ten, and a line for the best moment they heard.
| Use it for | How | How long |
|---|---|---|
| A drama or oracy starter | Four speakers, 30 seconds, class scores | 10 minutes |
| Warming up character writing | Speak in role first, then write in that voice | 30 minutes |
| Getting inside a topic | Generate characters from the unit you are teaching | 20 minutes |
| Group work at tables | Print the cards, fours, one speaker at a time | 20 minutes |
Do I need an account?
No. The setup screen and the worked example are both open, so you can see 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 Emotion Acting for silent drama, Just a Minute for fluency, or Hot Seating for questioning a character in role. 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.