IMPROV
From BIG Improv - Barcelona
To Toastmasters Improv - Bogotá
To GLC Improv - Chía
What’s going on in the image?
Students in 7th grade were playing the ‘Big-Small-Up-Down’ warm up game to activate both hemispheres of the brain by sending two different instructions, one oral and the other one visual. Thus, they could warm up their brain to be more creative in the task they had to get involved: the ‘generating original ideas skilfully’ thinking skill.
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What can you see that makes you say that?
They were engaged actively in that activity, as they were standing up and moving their arms in different directions. Besides, they were also having fun, although you can’t really tell in the pixelated image. As a consequence of that movement, which is considered to be a key factor in learning according to neuroscience studies, the students are going to activate their brains before sitting down in their teams and thinking about generating original ideas to solve their driving question of the first project they did.
What do you think you know about this topic?
I think that improvisation techniques can be applied in any educational context as long as they serve a purpose. I also think that they can be part of a toolbox which can enrich learning because of its characteristics: active participation, collaboration, creativity, movement, dialogue, thinking outside the box, teamwork, etc.
What questions or puzzles do you have?
I wonder if students may perceive it unrelated to their learning progress and, therefore, like they were just playing and… That’s it. I would also like to know the real impact this kind of dynamics can have in the community of learners and in the whole community, families in particular.
What does the topic make you want to explore?
I would love to explore more its possibilities so that these dynamics can be used in class as igniters to boost learning from its essence, as I will show in the following example.
Actors and actresses in the science video about emotions as part of 7th graders 1st project
I still remember that day I had to cover Gisselle, the science teacher, with 7th grade students. Gisselle had given instructions both to me and the students about the work they had to do, preparing their film concerning the project. To my surprise, a few students were working hard on the script of the video and the rest… Well, quite relaxed without doing anything because they had to wait for the script to be ready, and what better way that do that just doing nothing profitable…
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In that moment I saw a great learning opportunity for them. If they were going to be the actors and actresses in those films, they needed to rehearse, right? In that moment that impro workshop which I had took part in a few months back in Barcelona came to my mind. In particular, that session had to do with emotions, exactly what the students needed to practise… So, there we started playing different kind of games:
Warmer:
Practise expressing the basic feelings, the same ones that appear in the film ‘Inside Out’, with your facial expression and your body language.
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Game 1:
Find a partner for each feeling and remember each other. Move around the space, when you hear an emotion called out look for that person and show your shared feeling.
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Game 2:
Performing in pairs. A relationship, a place and an emotion are given to each actor. From there they have to build up on each other's dialogue to create an improvised performance.
We also took the opportunity to give feedback to the actors, and even the rest of students who were part of the audience to learn from those comments.
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Honestly, that improvised class proved to be a well time-saved class, where everybody was engaged in a meaningful way. Personally, I found that was a great opportunity for everyone to take advantage of our time wisely and for an educational purpose.