Note: Paid subscribers can download all the role play collecations at the end of the post.
When you’re working with a new tool, there’s a tension between improving your workflow and doing something new. Just improve the workflow and you’re dogged by a nagging feeling that you could be doing something new, that you should be experimenting more. Do something new and you take on the anxiety of going down rabbit holes — in between the discoveries and the learning opportunities.
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been on the second road, circling one question: could I build a properly useful library of role plays? Not a scattering of one-offs, but a varied, reusable set.
Here’s what climbed out of the rabbit hole — four sets:
Grammar Role Plays includes a variety of scenarios, from a lost tourist (past simple) to a career-changer weighing up “going to” and “will”. Each comes paired: one sheet where you answer, one where you ask.
Soft Skills Role Plays put students inside real-world scenarios — giving feedback, negotiating hybrid days, calming an upset customer — with two roles to swap between.
Celebrity Interviews hand students the mic as action stars, award-winning singers and celebrity chefs — room for free, imaginative, versatile self-expression.
Famous People & Experts Interviews put students in the shoes of astronauts, surgeons, aid workers and esports champions — a chance to try on careers that might genuinely interest them.
That’s around 85 scenarios in all. The rabbit hole is exhausting and stressful but, it turns out, can also be quite rewarding.
The full set — all four binders and answer keys — is ready to download at the end of the post for paid subscribers. Below are some samples.
