The Second City Guide to Improv in the Classroom

Most people know The Second City as an innovative school for improvisation that has turned out leading talents such as Alan Arkin, Bill Murray, Stephen Colbert, and Tina Fey. This groundbreaking company has also trained thousands of educators and students through its Improvisation for Creative Pedagogy program, which uses improv exercises to teach a wide variety of content areas, and boost skills that are crucial for student learning: listening, teamwork, communication, idea-generation, vocabulary, and more.

About This Book v About The Authors vi Acknowledgments xiii Chapter ONE: It Begins with Play 1 Montessori’s Connection Between Play and Learning 2 Spolin’s Connection Between Play and Learning 2 What Has Happened to Play? 4 Why Improvisation Works in the Classroom 5 The Second City Connection 6 Overview of the Book 7 Chapter TWO: Improvisation as a Pedagogical Tool for Engaged Learning 11 Connections Between Improvisation and Authentic, Engaging Teaching and Learning Experiences 12 Teaching and Learning Experiences 15 Improvisation for Engaged Teaching and Learning in the Diverse and Inclusive Classroom 17 The Brain Connection 19 Building a Community for Engaged Teaching and Learning 22 Chapter THREE: Literacy Learning and Improvisation 27 Potential Impact on Literacy Skill Development 28 Improvisation and Reading Links 28 Improvisation and Writing Links 33 Improvisation Links to Speaking and Listening 36 Some Concluding Thoughts 38 Chapter FOUR: Explanation of Improvisation Exercises 41 Getting Started 41 Time for Improvisation 42 Classroom Management 44 Sidecoaching and Reflection 46 Improvisation Games 48 Ad Game 48 Alphabet 50 Beginning, Middle, End 53 Bippity, Bippity, Bop 56 Bus Trip 58 Conducted Story 61 Deck of Cards 63 Dr. Know-It-All 64 Gibberish 67 Give and Take 70 Half-Life 73 Mirror 74 Object Work 76 One-Word Story 79 Panel of Experts 82 Parts of a Whole 84 Pass the Clap 87 Slide Show 89 Space Walk 91 String of Pearls 94 Take That Back 98 Throwing Light 100 Who Started the Motion? 102 Zip Zap Zop 103 Chapter FIVE: Skills and Teaching 105 Lesson: Lights, Camera Re-Action! 106 Alphabet Book 111 Story Generation Using Beginning, Middle, and End 114 Conducting an American Revolution Review 118 Speaking in Songs 121 Becoming Characters 129 Math Gibberish Translator 131 Building a Relationship 133 Geometric Object Work 136 One-Word Story, a Many-Word Story 139 Physicalizing Cell Structure 142 “Ten Days in a Madhouse” Human Slide Show 144 Geometry Walk 151 Painting Visualization 154 String of Ideas 157 Tableau Activity for Analytic Geometry 160 Picture Book Tableau 165 In-Class Field Trip—Using Tableaux to Explore the Role of Perception in Communication 167 Throwing Math Light 170 Chapter SIX: Engaging Students in Learning 173 Authentic and Engaged Learning 174 The Literacy Connection 175 Some Final Thoughts 175 Index 177