Riding on the coattail of my last posting about assessment in which I discussed Hot Seating, I wanted to share a couple improvisational strategies that I have learned about thus far in my drama studies. Improvising is such a fun way to explore drama and allow students autonomy in their learning and experience. It is great for a good laugh and bringing out the actor in everyone.
One great improvising strategy I just recently learned is called the Alter Ego. In this strategy, one person sits in a chair and is to play the role of a character. This character may be from a book you read or are reading, or popular culture. This character should be trying to make a decision about something. Then two students stand on either side of them and one acts as the "angel" and the other acts as the "devil" on their shoulders. It is the job of the angel and the devil to argue their perspective on the issue to the main character and persuade them to take their side and make a particular decision. Each student feeds off of the other to make their arguments and weigh the options, and in the end the main character should make a decision siding with either the angel or the devil. It is fun to have students switch after and play a different role to see if they can make the outcome change! In our class we did this half way through a story where the main character was making a decision about a problem, and then after the activity we read on to see what the character actually decided to do! This is a great improv activity that you can use in Language Arts or maybe History! It can be a great "break" to energize your group and have them invested in the outcome of the story or the event.
Another improvisational strategy that I personally enjoy is simply referred to as "Group Improv". This strategy is exactly what it sounds like, improvising as a group. I did this activity in my 3rd grade class as a student teacher. The class had to work together to act out a scene that involved all of them. In our example, we acted out a scene of setting up a campsite in the woods. This is a situation that you can use a lot of people at once, and is challenging because the students need to work together to ensure everyone is participating and all the "jobs" are being taken care of. In our classroom, the theme was camping and our students were campers so it worked quite nicely! This is a great strategy to work on inclusion, coordination and teamwork! You may want to build your students up to this activity by having them work in small groups and working your way into bigger and bigger groups to act with.
Thank you for reading!
Miss G.
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