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Improv is a fantastic method to engage your students; this 3 lesson mini unit is a great way to introduce improvisation. This unit focuses on learning the rules of Improv, trying games to build improvisation skills, and developing conflict and story line.Through the three lesson series, students will use journals, participate in class discussions, learn six different improv games, and perform for their peers. Assessment tools include both informal assessment as well as a formal quiz that’s included in the unit.

Students sharpen their listening and reaction skills through improv games, exercises, and scenes. They will learn five specific guidelines to apply to their improvisation: accept the offer, bring information to the scene, make active choices, make your partner look good, and don’t force the humor.

Students sharpen their listening and reaction skills through improv games, exercises, and scenes. They will learn five specific guidelines to apply to their improvisation: accept the offer, bring information to the scene, make active choices, make your partner look good, and don’t force the humour. There are so many different ways to approach a unit on improvisation. Keep in mind that you will have students who are really excited about this unit and some students who dread it. It’s best to start with low-risk games and exercises and then build up to higher-risk ones. Low-risk games in this situation mean partnered interactions that aren’t shared with the whole class.

Taking risks, learning to see failure as a gift, finding courage when we don't feel it, and having the awareness that what we say has an impact are social and emotional skills students will take beyond the classroom. These are skills that can be built through improv exercises. The exercises in this unit are designed to create a safe environment in which students can go beyond their old patterns to take risks, embrace failure, and be more confident and aware of the effects of their word choices. Improv gives you the opportunity to draw attention to these important concepts and to talk about them.

Understanding basic improvisation skills will help musical theatre performers understand that musical theatre is more than just singing and dancing. It’s about using all the tools (voice, body, and mind) an actor has at their disposal to create a character. This unit focuses more on the improv aspect rather than the musical theatre aspects - in fact students need no prior musical theatre knowledge. Annie Dragoo, creator of the unit, uses this material as her first unit in her musical theatre class. It’s a great introduction and will get your students in the right frame of mind to approach musical theatre. The lessons explore a variety of improv skills such as vocal responses, movement, character study, sensory awareness and culminate in an improv scene and unit essay.

10 questions to use when evaluating improv performances.

These tips will help you answer the question: What should you look for and what do you say afterward in an improv scene?

Improvising in pairs is an excellent training ground to improve listening and cooperation skills, and to practice exploring character and conflict. Students will read and respond to a Duet Improv introduction sheet, then apply their knowledge through pairs Improv exercises and reflect on the experience.

Characters have a lot of value in empowering your students’ improv. In this lesson, students will start to explore character in improv with the warm up game “Character Walkabout” and the improv game “Hitchhiker.”

In this unit, students will learn, practice and apply three important rules of improv: accepting and building on offers, quick thinking, and strong offers. For each step, they will work with the Improvisation Rubric by both giving and receiving feedback. Students will also start to practice techniques to improve their vocal clarity. The unit culminates in a performance assessment in which students will play an improv game in front of an audience.

This resource is designed to assist you in making your improvisation work as inclusive as possible. It includes questions to ask yourself, improv guidelines discussion, character names and pronouns, and additional discussion points. Use this guide to help create inclusive, safe spaces for all within an improvisation framework.

In this final lesson for this unit, students will participate in the improv game Hitchhiker as part of a peer and teacher assessment on the Improvisation Rubric.

This is a three lesson plan unit on introducing Improvisation. Part One: Introduction to Improv Students will understand what improvisation is and how to use the following rules: Trust Yourself and Accept all Offers. Part Two: Characterization & One Focus Students explore Characterization and One Focus by participating in activities and playing Ding, Emotional Waiter and Party Quirks. Part Three: Conflict and Tell a Complete Story Students will understand what conflict is and how to create it. Students will also understand how to use conflict to tell an improvised story with a beginning, middle and end. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the rules of improvisation through their final performance in Freeze as well as a written quiz.

Students explore how to trust themselves and work with others in improvisation through activities as well as playing games - Story Game, What are you doing?, and Press Conference.

This resource has a list and description of six different warm-up games, great for improv groups or any theatre class.

Students will demonstrate ability to respond vocally by participating in various improvisation activities.

Improvisation is a great tool for storytelling and getting important concepts across to all students including struggling readers and writers. In this lesson, you’ll use the improv game “Scene Redux” to help strengthen the students’ understanding of main idea and detail as it relates to storytelling.

Newcomers to improvisation often struggle with quick verbal responses. They get caught up with self-editing, self-judgement, and self-censorship and feel they’re failing at the exercise if they’re not fast enough. The gibberish tool allows students to practice the act of response with intention without the pressure of real words. It gives them confidence to participate in an improvised scene. Students will create a gibberish language as a group. Focus on making gibberish a language. “Yes, it sounds silly, but treat gibberish as a language.” The words don’t matter. How you say them does. Students will move to small group conversations, and finally improv scenes. Includes a list of scenarios, reflection, and assessment rubric.

Students will demonstrate ability to develop a character by participating in various improvisation exercises.

In this seventh lesson, students will practice their skills for the Lesson 8 test using a tongue twister (from Gilbert and Sullivan) as well as the improv game. Students will self-assess, and give/receive peer feedback.