This activity is great for getting students off their feet and talking to every other students in the class – with a clear purpose!
The idea is that every student is given a role card. You will want to differentiate these, matching the complexity of the character’s scenario with the students’ ability to grasp the key ideas. Having read their character card, students have to work out if their experience of life in the 1920s was TYPICAL or not. In this way it helps prepare them for the GCSE exam question, Did everyone benefit equally from life in the USA in the 1920s?
Step 1
Distribute the cards. Everyone has to introduce themselves to everyone else, so it is worth them completing a simple grid to record who they spoke to, what job they did, very briefly what their experience was and then a mark out of 10 with 1 being very unhappy and 10 being very happy. Please don’t let students write too much or it slows the pace of the lesson.
Step 2
When most have completed the task (don’t worry if all haven’t) we move the activity to students sharing what they found. Give them 5 minutes
