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.
Table of Contents:
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
About the Author :
THE AUTHORS
KATHERINE S. McKNIGHT, Ph.D., associate professor at National-Louis University and an onsite consultant for the National Council of Teachers of English, is coauthor of Teaching Writingin the Inclusive Classroom
MARY SCRUGGS, is an actress, director, playwright, and educator. She is currently the head of writing and education programs for The Second City Training Center in Chicago.
