Hotseating
Jeffrey Wilhelm

 

Title of assigned reading ____________________________________________________________

In groups of 3-4 students, choose a character from this story that one of you will become for the Hotseating. Or your teacher may assign you to be a character. It is important that the group agree on the following information about the character so that any one of you could go to the Hotseat and answer questions from the class. If the required information is not in the story, you will have to infer or make an educated guess about it.

Name of character _______________________________________________________

Your age and physical appearance:

Your house, city/area, favorite place:

Your passions, "soap box" topics, deepest desires -- (these may not be mentioned in the text):

Your main goal:

Your biggest obstacles and problems:

Your biggest influences:

Your greatest strengths:

Your greatest weaknesses:

What one or two words best describe you -- give examples from the text that demonstrate these traits:

 

Members of your group not being Hotseated will get to ask the first two questions. What will they be? And how will your character respond? How do you know that these responses are good ones?
Question 1:

Question 2:

 

What other questions might the audience ask? What will they want to know? How will your character respond and why will s/he respond that way? Rehearse a few with your group.

 

Variations on Hotseating

Each student-in-role could have their "deep thoughts," "alter ego," or "conscience" stand behind them to reveal their inner thoughts and feelings that the Hotseated character would not reveal in public. In this way, the Hotseated student says what the character would say, but the alter ego says what the character might be thinking and feeling behind the persona or "mask."

Do the Hotseating in the context of an interview, press conference, trial, debate, or talk show.

After the Hotseating, review with your group what went well and what answers you would change now that you have had time to think about it. One of the great things about drama is that it's like a tape recorder -- you can always "rewind" and redo things, you can erase, or you can fast forward into the future. Too bad real life isn't like that!

 

Jeffrey Wilhelm. Action Strategies for Readers. Scholastic, fall 2001.