Develop pupils’ understanding of characters in your classroom using our Conscience Alley worksheets, which can also be easily adapted into a drama activity.
Pupils will record information about a dilemma a character is facing and note thoughts, concerns and ideas the character may have about the dilemma and any that they, as the reader, have. After recording the information, a decision could be made about what the character might do next using the ideas noted. This drama based activity can help deepen pupils’ understanding of characters and help them infer thoughts and feelings about dilemmas or events that characters may face
What is Conscience Alley?
Conscience Alley is a great way of exploring dilemmas faced by the protagonist of a story.
When used in drama, a class creates two lines facing each other to form an ‘alley’. One child is chosen to be the protagonist/character and walks down the ‘alley’, with children in the lines telling them their thoughts, concerns and ideas about the dilemma the character is facing. Once the child, in role of the character, has reached the end of the line, they make a decision about how to act next, explaining their reasoning.
The worksheest provided recreate this activity, with pupils noting their ideas about the dilemma the character faces.
What is included in this whole-school resource?
- Conscience Alley worksheet 1
- Conscience Alley worksheet 2
- Teacher notes with guidance on how the resources could be used in the classroom
How can these resources be used?
The resources can be used to explore characters in books that you are reading as a class or to develop a character in drama or before writing. It gives the opportunity to infer characters’ thoughts feelings and actions, developing pupils’ inference skills.
Conscience Alley is one of the many strategies used in Plazoom’s Real Comprehension, a whole school resource to develop reading skills and promote reading for pleasure.