Post Role Play Interview

Name: Josh Porter

How did this role play help to better understand the context of Bleak House?

This role play allowed form many opportunities to expose the context of Bleak house through quotes, action of scenes, and the use of illustrations. The students could use the maps  and combine that knowledge with the scenes recreated to come into contact with the Victorian Streets.

How involved were the members of your group during the planning processes of this activity?

All of my group members were fully involved with the creation of this role play and I could not have been more happy with their performance.

Why do you think this activity was able to help the class come to contact with the Victorians?

This activity was a good way for the class to notice what the Victorians looked like and how they acted in the presence of other Victorians. 

What would you change about his role play experience and why?

I would have allowed a team to actually win the game for a sense of completion and split the group into smaller groups.

What did the role play experience alter about your previous beliefs about the context of Bleak House?

This role play altered my thoughts about Victorian prostitution as I thought it would have been more of a private manner rather than an open park.

Overall were you happy with the way the role play worked out? Explain? 

I was happy with the role play and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the class interact in a fun manner towards the context of the book.

Name: Dawn Kelly

How did this role play help to better understand the context of Bleak House? 

This role play helped to better understand the context of Bleak House by fully understanding the characters, the setting, and how those settings, in particular the streets, affect the interactions among the characters. The streets are important in many scenes in Bleak House.

How involved were the members of your group during the planning processes of this activity?

All group members were involved in this process. Each member made important contributions and took leadership of different components of the game.

Why do you think this activity was able to help the class come to contact with the Victorians? 

This activity was able to help the class come into contact with the Victorians because it was interactive and was constructed so that all members of the class had to be engaged and participate. It was a fun, creative way to understand the Victorians like the characters from Bleak House and allow them to have better insight into what the streets of London were like.

What would you change about his role play experience and why?

  If I could make any changes I would incorporate the streets even more into each category of the game so the class could know more about the streets through each part of the game.

What did the role play experience alter about your previous beliefs about the context of Bleak House? 

The role play altered my thoughts about how influential the streets were to the culture of the Victorian Era. I could see more clearly how the streets were an impact on the people of England.

Overall were you happy with the way the role play worked out? Explain? 

  Yes, because I think it was a creative way for the class to be involved and learn about our topic. The variety of categories kept the game fun, interesting, and informative.

Name: Michael Uhl

How did this role play help to better understand the context of Bleak House?

This play helped me to feel more at home with the characters. While having to improvise what the character would do or say in the scene. 

How involved were the members of your group during the planning processes of this activity?

My group members were very active and cooperative in the making to the board game. We all worked together very well and I feel that we put a great new spin on the way one could think of “The Streets” in Victorian England.

Why do you think this activity was able to help the class come to contact with the Victorians?

We were able to do so by making them familiar with certain locations. Also, putting funny situations that could have happened in Bleak House into the game.

What would you change about his role play experience and why?

I feel that we did everything relatively well. We could have prepared a little bit better and made sure we were all on the same page.

What did the role play experience alter about your previous beliefs about the context of Bleak House?

It made me feel that Bleak House had some things about the street that could still be relevant toiday.

Overall were you happy with the way the role play worked out? Explain? 

I was more than happy with the role play. I feel we all worked together quite well and we worked efficiently and had some fun while doing it.

Name: Brittney Cato

How did this role play help to better understand the context of Bleak House?

It allowed me to evaluate each character and really understand their motives and personalities. By interpreting what certain characters would do or say in situations not found in the actual text.

How involved were the members of your group during the planning processes of this activity?

Every group member played a critical role in the planning the presentation and group activity. We took turns bouncing ideas off of one another until we came to our final project. Each person was enthusiastic and contributed great ideas and information to the project.

Why do you think this activity was able to help the class come to contact with the Victorians?

It asked the class to really consider and reflect on what they knew about the characters, and from that asked them to use their knowledge in role play and trivia.

What would you change about his role play experience and why?

I would have added more role play from our group to enhance the class’s experience of really understanding the characters out of the context of the novel. Also, I would have added more clues to our acting.

Overall were you happy with the way the role play worked out? Explain?

Yes, I was very happy with the outcome of our presentation and role play! Given our acting experience, I think our understanding of the text pulled us through and really allowed the class and our group as well to further enjoy and understand Bleak House.

Josh Porter