Acting Out Types of Conflict in Literature with Middle and High School Students

One of my favorite ways to teach middle and high school students about literary conflict is through an acting game. It provides students with memorable and concrete examples of each type of conflict, allows students to move around and release energy, and leads to a room full of laughter. If you're looking for a dynamic way to teach your students about conflict, here are some simple steps for getting started. 

Print out the conflict acting prompt cards

Download this print-and-go PDF with 16 different conflict cards. The template comes with clear directions for teachers to lead the acting activity. It also includes fun acting scenarios with a list of the number of actors needed for each scene. 

These literary conflict acting prompts include:

• character vs. character conflict 
• character vs. self conflict 
• character vs. society conflict 
• character vs. supernatural conflict 
• character vs. fate conflict
• character vs. nature conflict 
• character vs. technology conflict

Cut out the prompt cards, fold them, and place them in a bowl before class 

Having the cards ready-to-go makes it easy to start the conflict acting activity as soon as students arrive for class. Plus, it keeps students from cheating and getting a preview of the answers. 

Briefly review types of literary conflict to make sure students have clear definitions in mind 

It may help to hang up wall aids that summarize each type of conflict as a way of reinforcing the lesson. 

Ask student volunteers to draw a card and act out a scene

Each prompt card will have a specific number of actors needed to portray the scene, as well as a description of the scenario the actors should create. 

Students in the audience will raise their hands to guess what type of conflict the actors are portraying. If you'd like to gamify the acting activity, you can split students into teams and distribute points to the teams who guess the type of literary conflict correctly. 

Follow up the acting game with other literary conflict activities 

Here are a few of our other favorite resources for teaching literary conflict: 

• Your students will have fun searching for literary conflict terms in this word search puzzle. Students will look for words like nature, tension, supernatural, character, and self. 
• If you're challenging your students to write a fiction short story that includes conflict, this conflict brainstorming template will help spark ideas. 

How do you teach literary conflict? Leave a comment below to share your ideas!