Role Playing as Formative Assessment

Here are four students presenting a "Quick Skit" about one of the advances of Early Humans- Fire!
Students were given 15 minutes to discuss and come up with a quick skit in which they could not talk but had to mime all the actions. This group presented how early humans may have first come into contact with naturally occurring fire and how they might have cooperated to create and control fire from their experiences.

This activity allows all students to be successful in presenting their ideas. They were engaged in the activity and it also allowed them to get in "character" and role play. Students love to pretend and act out various situations and I believe that them being able to consider a historical event from the point of view of someone actually going through it, is very powerful. They had to consider the importance of fire and what it allowed early humans to accomplish in order to complete this activity.