by Mel Paradis.
| Mel Paradis is a GT teacher and coordinator for three elementary schools in Wyoming and also a member of an improv comedy troupe! I was thrilled when she offered to write a post about how she uses improvisation in the classroom to engage students, enhance their thinking skills, reinforce content, and so much more. Her extensive experience and success in using improv with students led her to write a book: Teaching Improv: The Essential Handbook. After learning more, I couldn’t wait to share this with you. |
This morning I read an article from the journal Psychology Today about the loss of storytelling in our culture and its effects on learning. The author purports that our current educational system, with its emphasis on standardized testing, has removed the art of storytelling which is essential to learning. The article is anchored by a story of his family road trips and the improv game “One Word Story.”
“One Word Story” is a quintessential improv game where a group tells a story with each member of the group only able to add one word. For those unfamiliar with improv, it is the art of acting without a script. If you’ve seen the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway, you have witnessed short-form improv performed by actors who have mastered the craft. It requires participants to trust and relate to their scene partners, make associations, be flexible and go with the flow, listen, and be in the present moment. The combination of these skills is what allows for good storytelling. It just so happens that these skills are the basis for social-emotional learning as well. There is a good reason why strong social-emotional learning and storytelling go hand in hand and why they are essential to learning. Emotional connection and storytelling are the two ways that our brains make sense of the world around us and enter information into long-term memory.
At their most basic level, improv games can be used as a fun brain break or a reward for completing a class goal. While I have used the games in this manner, improv is at its best when it is used intentionally to deepen students’ understanding of content. Games like “One Word Story” can be used to practice content vocabulary. Write 5-10 content words on the board, sit your class in a circle, and tell them that you will create a story that has never been told. Ask students to share the elements of a good story (a main character, setting, problem – which should get a little worse, the solution to the problem, and a conclusion for the character). Explain the rules of the game. Each student gets to add one word to the story. The story needs to have all elements of a good story and it needs to make sense. Sometimes this means adding the word “the” or “and.” All vocabulary words must be used properly at some point in the story. To be frank, the story often gets ridiculous, but kids love it and they usually remember the vocabulary because the story is so silly.
The video below shows high schoolers playing the game “String of Pearls,” included in the slide deck with the rule Tell a Story. An excellent improv game to use with any age student, “String of Pearls” can be used to summarize a story, historical event, or scientific process; as a way to practice content vocabulary as described in “One Word Story;” or as an exercise in perspective taking, telling a story/historical event from a non-main-character/supporting person’s perspective. After one group of seven students tells their story, bring another group of seven students up to try and tell the same story in a different way.
For more ways to incorporate improv into your teaching, check out this slide deck made for an Improv in Instruction workshop I led a few years back. If improv is something you would like to dive into deeper, you can check out the book I wrote: Teaching Improv: The Essential Handbook published by Beat by Beat Press. The book includes 16 scripted lesson plans for teaching the skills needed to facilitate short-form improv with adolescents, along with rubrics, homework assignments, lists of suggestions for scenes, and a large index of improv game descriptions. The PDF version is also available on the publisher’s website.
In addition to her years of teaching, Mel Paradis has performed and facilitated improv with groups ranging from preschoolers to adults. Since 2011, she has been a member of Jackson Hole’s improv comedy troupe, The Laff Staff. She is currently working on a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a certificate in Mind, Brain, and Teaching through Johns Hopkins University. You can track her down on Facebook at melparadisimprov (though she doesn’t post often) and on X @ParadisMel.
Let us know if you try improv in your classroom either in the comments below or by sharing in our Big Ideas Facebook Group. For those of you who use Crypt-O-Words, I would love for someone to try incorporating Mel’s improv games as an alternative to the vocabulary charades and skits!