Preparation
Before class, prepare a set of index cards, each with a different "social
role" written on it. These should be mostly social roles that exist
cross culturally--such as priest or farmer--but may also include a few
that are specific to a culture--pharaoh, for example. My cards include
the following roles: Farmer, Gatherer, Hunter, Caregiver, Shaman,
Priest, King, Slave, Laborer, Child, Teacher, Student, Parent, Scribe,
Artist, Thinker. Many others are possible. Note that in most
societies a person might occupy several roles--for instance, parent, teacher
and caregiver, or child, student and laborer. If the lesson is intended
to support a specific Social Studies curriculum, I make sure the prominent
social roles of that society are represented, and that I am aware of those
roles which will be especially difficult to conceptualize. (For example,
ancient Egypt had slaves, kings, teachers, priests, farmers, scribes, etc.,
and these are roles that are easy to think about in relation to ancient
Egypt, but roles like Shaman are less likely to make sense to students
in terms of ancient Egypt, and roles like caregivers, parents, children
and students will be challenging because most textbooks, including the
one my students use, seem mostly unaware of the obvious fact that such
people must have existed in Egypt. I don't necessarily take those
cards out of the deck, but I try to be aware of the extra challenges they
present.
Pre-Game Discussion
I begin the lesson by discussing the concept of social roles with my
students. We talk about the ways that cultures have evolved a division
of labor, and about the increasing specialization of roles as cultures
mature. Just in the three or four centuries since Europeans first
began to settle in what is now the United States, our culture has moved
from on in which most everyone personally did most of the work related
to individual survival--hunted, farmed, built homes, educated their children,
etc.--to one in which most people have an extremely specific task in the
larger fabric of society, and wouldn't have the first idea how to perform
someone else's role. In addition to specialization, societies also
tend to develop classes and disparities in wealth and position. We
discuss the phenomenon generally and as it relates specifically to the
cultures the students are currently studying. Then I lead the discussion
toward the commonalties between social roles in different cultures.
Many very different cultures have had Shamans, whether they were called
by that name or not, and even though on the surface these holy men and
women may have been quite different, it is easy to see that all occupied
or occupy a similar place in their respective worlds. The same can
be said about kings, whether called King, Emperor, Pharaoh, whatever.
Do we not have a subgroup in our own culture that can be compared to the
serfs in Medieval Europe? Or to the folks who built the Pyramids?
Since I usually do this lesson with Fifth Graders, the discussion can get
pretty involved, and I try not to rush it.
Playing the
Game
The rules of the game are pretty simple once the prep work has been
done. The group sits in a circle. One volunteer goes to the
center of the circle and glances at the top card in the deck. (The
honest truth is that I often manipulate the deck so that I control who
gets what card--that way I can keep everyone challenged without frustrating
anyone unduly.) Once the student has seen which "social role" he
is to occupy, he begins to pantomime an activity that we might expect such
a person to engage in. (For example, if the card said "Teacher" the
student might pantomime writing on a blackboard, or lecturing an unruly
child.) The rest of the group is trying to guess the social role,
but they do not call out their guesses. Rather, as they think they
know the social role, other students join the first one in the circle,
to pantomime a different activity that illustrates the same social
role. (If one student pantomimes writing on the board, the next might
pantomime reading aloud to the class.) More students join the circle,
until most of the class is on its feet. Then the leader stops the
play and asks someone (not the one who started it all) what he thinks the
social role is. Often this student will have been doing the wrong
role, but usually by going around the room you can find some who had it
right. I am always careful not to make it seem like the first student's
failure if no one got it, but I also have to guard against the tendency
in some students to try to make it difficult. The goal, I tell my
students, is for everyone to get it right. But it's a team effort.
We repeat the game with new social roles as time allows.
Post-Game
Processing
This game leads naturally into quite a bit of discussion. We
talk about what made certain social roles easier to guess than others.
If there were any rounds of the game that went spectacularly badly--no
one guessed the right answer, or almost everyone guessed the same wrong
answer--we discuss what happened. I often find that this is a great
opportunity to talk about rumor and stereotyping. What frequently
happens is that one of the first people to join the initiator in the circle
guesses wrong, and begins to pantomime an activity appropriate to a different
social role. Subsequent participants are influenced by this guess,
and so more and more people start off on this wrong tack. I try to
get the students to see the parallel between this and what happens in their
own school society (for example) when a rumor is started. The person
who starts the rumor may not mean any harm--he may just be incorrect, but
pretty soon the rumor takes on a life of its own and even if the original
person realizes his mistake, it is too late. I try to let the discussion
go where it wants to go.
Matt Buchanan