Choose your doll:

Ask your students to bring dolls from home. They can be a special super-hero, a teddy bear from the past, a doll from the family's ancestry and culture, any kind of doll.

Once students have gathered all the dolls in the classroom, place them on top of a table and pretend they are actors on a stage. Look at them carefully and discuss with the class their appearance and personalities, helping them to see the elements that compose and bring these dolls to life.

Have student each choose one of the dolls - not their own - and remind them that they will be taking a journey with the doll of their choice.

You will soon notice that the students will create personality traits specific to each doll, developing full characters. A private dialogue between the student and the doll will slowly start to emerge, allowing the students to see the first steps into the creation of a character. This will open the door to the fantastic and lead them to the second phase of the journey.

This process may appear to be too "playful" and "childish" to be introduced in a "serious" literature or history class; there is, however, no better way of learning than playing, and our job as teachers is to learn how to play "seriously," teaching our students along the way.