Jen Oleniczak did not set out to become an improv evangelist. She wanted to be an actor. She found the pursuit of that career to be far too stressful, however. So she went back to school, got a degree in art history, and became a museum educator. Oleniczak then made the life- and career-altering discovery that teaching, in fact, is a lot like improv.
In an art appreciation class, for example, Oleniczak would ask, "What do you notice? What do you see?" No matter the response, Oleniczak would reply with a "yes, and …" statement: "Yes, you see a lamp and I see a table. What else do you see?" In this way, Oleniczak affirmed her students' observations while moving the conversation forward—which is exactly what she did as an improviser.
Oleniczak was soon inspired to found The Engaging Educator, which offers "improv intensives"—classes that allow teachers to experience how improv can enhance their communication and social skills. She hopes that teachers will then use improv in their classrooms to allow students to better develop those skills.
Learning to Listen
Improv training begins with helping participants develop a "yes, and …" mind-set. The goal in improvisation is to build on a scene, so participants must accept the premise and add to it. It is impossible to advance the scene if you don't pay attention to the person talking before you, Oleniczak states.
Kathleen Boyle feared her students would never learn to pay attention to one another. The 7th and 8th grade teacher at PS 206 in East Harlem, N.Y., decided to try improv to help her students use their abundant stores of energy in more productive ways. Boyle wanted to build a sense of community in her classroom so that students would stop interrupting one another and become more respectful.
Teaching listening is hard, adds David Stuart Jr., a high school teacher in Cedar Springs, Mich. This is likely because "in reality, most of us—adults included—are just waiting for our turn to talk." Stuart has found that requiring students to paraphrase is effective. When his students are engaged in a classroom discussion or debate, they must summarize or rephrase another student's key point before contributing their own thoughts. Improv, he observes, "is actually another way of paraphrasing."
Listening—and speaking—skills have been identified as essential for college and career readiness in the Common Core State Standards for Language Arts. Stuart, who has written extensively about how to integrate those standards into lesson plans, notes that the speaking and listening standards "usually get ignored, but they are critical." How can students build on others' ideas if they aren't taught how? Stuart asks.
Boyle started with simple improv games. She noticed that, although they were competitive, her students "wanted to support each other" and champion each other's ideas. To do so, the students themselves concluded that they needed to hear those ideas. Then, as students became more trusting of one another, they decided Boyle could be trusted, too. As a result, Boyle says she is a calmer teacher now. School, especially middle school, can be "a high-stress environment," she notes. Improv is fun and "allows us to shake off the day a bit."
Getting Along and Gaining Confidence
In addition to honing the ability to listen, the "yes, and …" exercise helps students become more flexible thinkers. "Students become more open to finding ways to mesh ideas," says Katy Chase, cofounder of Studio LOL, which offers improv classes and camps for K–12 students in Studio City, Calif. "We talk a lot about the idea of balancing the give and take," she says. Students learn to compromise and collaborate when they practice following the lead set by another.
If cooperation is enhanced through improv, so, too, is confidence. There are so many ways to be successful in a scene, says Ryan Chase, who also cofounded Studio LOL. "Everyone can be 'right' in their own way—by showing bravery when trying a brand-new exercise, for example, or by doing an activity in a unique way." Most students leave class feeling that they contributed something of value to the group, he says, "and that gives them confidence."
Hannah Jack, a 9th grade English teacher, has witnessed the poise that students attained as they became more comfortable taking such risks. Students in her afterschool performing arts club at the Stephen T. Mather Building Arts and Craftsmanship High School in New York, N.Y., "did not feel confident with some of the games" when she introduced them to improv. "There was a lot of 'umming' as they tried to think of clever things to say."
As Jack and others will tell you, overreaching in improv is taboo; it will stop a scene cold. So Jack told her students to relax and simply react. With practice, her students eventually "embraced the craziness" and trusted their peers to support them. They began repeating what they heard before responding, and they learned to just let go. Sometimes, their retorts moved the game along; sometimes they didn't, and that, says Jack, is another positive outcome. "We have learned to celebrate one another. Even if a scene doesn't work, we just keep trying until it does."
"Improv is all about failing and getting back up," says Oleniczak. If her students can laugh off mistakes, then she knows she's done something right.
Figure
Figure
Figure
Improv in Every Classroom
Although once relegated to drama classes or afternoon clubs, more teachers are beginning to see the benefits of improv-inspired exercises in core academic classes. When her students were studying the American Revolution, for example, Boyle used improv to assess student learning, asking some students to take on the role of Thomas Jefferson and other historical figures. From the various performances, Boyle knew which of her students "missed a lesson" and would benefit from extra tutoring.
For his part, Jim Winter is happy to demonstrate how teachers can adapt improv activities to reinforce content in any subject area. Winter is the founder of Wavelength, a professional development company that gives teachers a chance to practice using improvisational structures so that they can then implement them confidently with students. In a version of Pass the Ball, which Winter often demonstrates at his workshops, students sit in a circle. When one student has the ball (imaginary or otherwise), he has to share something he learned from the class lesson. The student then passes the ball to another, who then must provide a different fact, and so on. In the Person on the Street exercise, a student who plays a television news reporter must interview other students. Teachers can ensure that the reporter asks questions that are directly related to the subject being studied.
These kinds of activities are as fun as they are useful in helping students process and recall information, improv enthusiasts state. "Emotion drives learning," says Winter, and if that emotion is humor, then students are primed to focus on the task at hand. "Even bad jokes—the groaners—get us in the right place to learn."
Oleniczak agrees. Students should delight in learning, she asserts, and improv can help them do that as they build critical communication and social skills. Teachers benefit as much as students do, Oleniczak adds, pointing to her own experience as evidence. "As a teacher, I'm constantly assessing the group and adjusting my lesson to best fit the group. I've learned focus, attention, and acute listening skills as an improviser," she explains.
Figure
EARNING YOUR IMPROV CHOPS
Learning to use improv in the classroom is "a lot like training for a marathon," says The Engaging Educator's Jen Oleniczak. "You do not go to the gym once and then run 13 miles." The following tried-and-true exercises provide a solid foundation on which to build your improv repertoire.
This exercise is the basis upon which all improv games are built, says Oleniczak. "'Yes, and …' is about listening and affirming individual thought in a group." The game also hones responding skills: teachers and students alike learn to respond in ways that build on the contributions of others in order to keep the game going.
The game may be played in pairs or with the whole group in a circle.
Tell students that they are going to make up a story by extending a conversation in which every sentence (except the first one) starts with the words "Yes, and …"
Remind students that, because they don't know what the person immediately before them is going to say, they cannot plan ahead. Instead, they must pay close attention to what is being said.
Start with a sentence: I went to the grocery store today …
Student #1: Yes, and I bought an apple …
Student #2: Yes, and it was a shiny, red apple …
Student #3: Yes, and I noticed it had a worm in it …
Student #4: Yes, and I had already taken a big bite …
Student #5: Yes, and I saw that only half of the worm was left …
Encourage students to keep the conversation going for as long as possible. Remind them that their job is to accept what is said and build on it.
Teacher Kathleen Boyle uses this exercise to assess her students' affective needs:
Have students walk around the classroom, in no particular order.
Call one student's name and ask her to act out how she feels.
Have the other students mimic the action until the next student is called.
Boyle states that students' actions run the gamut from running around to sitting down and pretending to sleep. "It tells you a lot about where a person's energy level and physical needs are," she says. Another plus: Students who rarely have control will experience what it's like to be in charge. "Everyone gets to be the leader at some point before they get bored with the game."
This exercise can be used to help build students' understanding of commonly used idioms. According to Studio LOL's Katy Chase, students' focus skills "get a workout" by transitioning from being on stage to being an audience member.
Divide the class into two groups: actors and audience members.
Whisper a cliché, such as "it's raining cats and dogs," or "don't cry over spilled milk," to the acting group to act out silently.
Have the audience guess the cliché.
