Improvisational Activity through Story reading

(30 mins)

1- Warm up activity: Expression of emotions through theatrical acts using literary quotes

2- Story reading: The Birds and the Bun by Enid Blyton from The Greedy Rabbit and other
stories

3- Retell the story using the Yes and exercise

4- Group discussion

5- Writing an interview with one of the characters from the story

6- Q&A and wrapping it up

Introduction:

One of the most important pillars of proper education is pupil interaction and communication
with each other and the teacher. It is through interaction that learners learn while having a blast
at it. We have seen many teachers include games, songs and other entertaining activities that
learners seems to love. According to Schewe (2013), drama pedagogy has been intensely added
to the curriculum. However according to Bettina Matthias (2009), improvisational theatre in an
educational context has not been given a lot of attention. Through this short workshop, we
would like to show how many positive outcomes can come out of improvisational practices
based on a story reading.

What is improvisation?

According to Neva Boyd who founded the Recreational Training School at the Hull House in
Chicago which taught a one-year educational program in group games, gymnastics, dancing,
dramatic arts, play theory, and social problems, playing is an improve game with the ability to
create a situation imaginatively and to play a role in its tremendous experience, a sort of vacation
from ones self and routine of everyday living.

Improvisational theatre stresses on spontaneity, intuition, storytelling, nonverbal communication,

acceptance and attentive listening.

Why improvising in the classroom?

Learning through discovery, social interaction and collaboration

It engages multiple intelligences

It emphasizes on collaborative learning

We have different techniques in which improvisational activities can help students learn. For
example, by telling a story where each student adds one word at a time or a dialogue, this
enhances the students verbal abilities as well as using previously learned vocab. Narrative
exercises and games can help students acquire concrete knowledge and skills such as learning
new words, expanding vocabulary, practicing grammar, phonetics etc

In this following activity what are the outcomes of it?

This activity combines the power of improvisation and story reading which will help students
retell a story in their second language and in doing so; it will develop their language skills and
help them think a bit deeper.

Yes and activity

It is from Viola Spolins book Improvisation for Theatres

Why this activity?

With building up exercises, students can practice grammatical structures, review the plot, and
builds storytelling skills.