As teachers we need our students to write and write enough so we can either assess content knowledge or teach writing, however many of our students either occasionally “get stuck,” or are consistently reluctant to write. Compounding that situation, we usually have no idea what the cause of a student’s reluctance is. It may be social emotional or it may be a deficit in literacy skills, or both. No matter the cause, collaborative improv games can help students increase the length of their individual writing.
“Improv and Ink: Increasing Individual Writing Fluency with Collaborative Improv,” published in The International Journal of Education and the Arts, presents two classroom studies that explored the effectiveness of this sequence of collaborative improv games to increase writing fluency.
Research
Two research studies were conducted focusing on whether or not writing fluency was impacted from a scaffolded sequence of improv games and improv-writing activities. The studies found that whether the students participated in classes over six days or six weeks, regular education students showed a 50% increase in the length of their writing, and special needs and “at risk” students showed a 100-300% increase.
With 90% of the time in collaborative groups and 70% of that time engaged in oral games, students progressed rapidly through a series of essential literacy skills that impact the ability to write, while nurturing the development of important social-emotional skills that also affect a students’ individual writing.
Students were able to independently transfer skills gained during collaborative games and individual story writing to topic-driven journal writing without any practice or coaching.
Study 1
Study 1 involved an experimental group and a comparison group at an inner-city high school. It occurred during a 6-week summer program for a total of 570 minutes of instruction and practice. Results indicated that the experimental group demonstrated a 101% increase in word usage and a 131% increase in sentence usage over the comparison group. The experimental group also showed a clear increase of almost 50% points of sentence usage over word usage.
Study 2
Study 2 compared the growth demonstrated by two classes for four months prior to being exposed to the game sequence and then immediately thereafter. Taking place in a suburban high school during the regular school year, students practiced the sequence over the course of eight class periods for a total of 180 minutes of instruction and practice.
- After only eight days of participation in the improv game sequence, the 9th grade class, consisting of regular education students, demonstrated a 34% increase in word usage and a 51% increase in sentence usage was demonstrated.
- After only eight days of participation in the improv sequence, the tenth grade class, consisting of students with IEP’s or identified as “at risk,” demonstrated a 55% increase in word usage and a 112% increase in sentence usage was recorded.
Instructional Time
In this non-intuitive approach, students spend about 70% of instructional time dedicated to oral collaborative games, 20% of the time for collaborative writing activities and only about 10% of instruction time for individual writing.
How Improv Does It
Collaborative improv story-telling and story writing games are capable of rapidly taking students through a series of essential literacy skills, usually experienced on the emergent level, that may address deficits impacting a student’s writing. Improv also nurtures the development of social-emotional skills that are essential to writing. The effectiveness of improv lies in the structure of improv games, its foundational rule of “Yes, and,” and the sequencing of the games.
1. The Structure
The structure of improv embodies instructional strategies and approaches that successfully engage as well as reengage students.
- With its collaborative, social and learner-centered structure, and its fast-paced and visual environment, improv is capable of engaging the current generations of students (Berk &Trieber, 2009).
- Improv creates an intrinsically motivating as well as trauma informed learning environment by providing for the development the five basic human needs as defined by Glasser: survival, power/competence, autonomy belonging/connectedness, and fun.
- The honoring of students of different learning styles and intelligences through a multi-model approach further supports improv’s ability to engage and motivate learners.
- Improv motivates and reengage students often described as unegaged, marginalized, and at-risk (McKnight & Smith, 2009).
- Improv story-telling games employ additional structures that guide players to create well structured and coherent narratives (Sawyer, 2002).
2. The Rule: “Yes, and…”
- Improv’s rule of “Yes, and…” provides skill development and fluency. Students learn to listen to a preceding idea and build upon it, not to deny it or make fun of it. They begin to trust their ability and their peers’ ability to contribute. They discover a level of trust, acceptance, and confidence in their own ideas when writing that they may not have felt before. Research by Lee, Enciso and the Austin Theater Alliance show that students experience a significant increase in the self-efficacy for writing.
- This ability of improv has found recent validation in brain research out of John Hopkins. Both theatrical and musical improvisational structures follow the “Yes, and…” frame in which one party accepts another’s offer and incrementally builds upon it before passing it back or along to another. In a study involving improvising musicians, the part of the brain that controls self-editing is turned off and the part of the brain associated with self-expression is active (Lopez-Gonzalez & Limb, 2012).
3. The Sequence
Using a sequence of Yes, And style games and improv’s story telling games, students rapidly transitioned from collaborative speech to collaborative writing and finally to individual writing. This progression facilitated the following:
- Development of Inner Speech– “Yes, and…” serves as an internal prompt helping student develop a fluency of thought, speech and finally writing. “Yes, and…” is practiced first as an external prompt and then internalize in later games. This internalization of speech is consistent with Vygotsky’s (1978) ideas of inner speech, in which external speech, or “self-talk” is gradually internalized.
- Practice of Oral language– The improv games allow students to experience the transition from a physical awareness of audience to a sense of audience when writing. The development of oral, expressive, language in social interactions is essential to writing and is supported and practiced in the games. Britton, Burgess, Martin, McLeod, and Rosen, (1975) believe expressive language “…may be the first step in the development of writing abilities” (as cited in Wagner, 1998 p.120).
- Transition to Writing– The sequence of games that use improv’s narrative story games played orally and in writing provide students the opportunity to practice transitioning from oral collaborative speech to individual writing. The transition from oral speech to writing is more complex than just writing speech down on paper (Wagner, 1998). Moffit (quoted in Wagner, 1998) explains, “The most critical adjustment one makes [in learning to write] is to relinquish collaborative discourse, with its reciprocal prompting and cognitive cooperation, and to go it alone” (p. 118). The transition from oral collaborative improv games to written collaborative improv games and then finally to individual writing respects the complexity of this process.
More Information
A scaffolded sequence of improv games can help struggling writers to rapidly develop both the confidence and the skills necessary to get their thoughts down on paper. Consider adding improv as an effective classroom writing tool. To learn more, read recent research, and pick up a copy of Improv ‘n Ink: Overcoming “I Don’t Know What To Write!“
Reference List
Berk, Ronald. A. & Rosalind H. Trieber. “Whose Classroom is It Anyway? Improvisation As a Teaching Tool.” Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 20.3(2009): 29-60. Print.
Britton, James., Burgess, T., Martin, N., McLeod, A., and Rosen., H. “The Development of Writing Activities,” Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, (1975): 11-18. Print.
DeMichele, Mary. “Improv and Ink: Increasing Individual Writing Fluency with CollaborativeImprov.” International Journal of Education and the Arts, 16.10 (2015a): Web. 19 June 2015.
Glasser, William. Choice theory: A new psychology of personal freedom. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1998. Print.
Krache, Donna. “Nation’s Report Card: Writing Test Shows Gender Gap.” Web bog post. Schools of Thought. CNN, Sept. 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Lee, Bridget Kiger, Patricia Enciso andAustin Theatre Alliance, The Big Glamorous Monster (or Lady Gaga’s Adventures at Sea): Improving Student Writing Through Dramatic Approaches Journal of Literacy Research Volume: 49 issue: 2, page(s): 157-180 https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X17699856
Lopez-Gonzalez, Monica. & Charles Limb. Musical Creativity and the Brain. Cerebrum. The Dana Foundation. 22 Feb. 2012. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
McKnight, K. S. and K. Smith (2009). Remembering to laugh and
explore: Improvisational activities for literacy teaching in urban classrooms. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 10(12). Retrieved [date] from http://www.ijea.org/v10n12/.
Moffett, James. Teaching the Universe of Discourse. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983. Print.
Podlozny, Ann. “Strengthening Verbal Skills Through the Use of Classroom Drama: A Clear Link.” Journal of Aesthetic Education. 34.3/4(2000): 239-275. Print.
Sawyer, R. Keith. “Improvisation and Narrative.” Narrative Inquiry, 12.2(2002): 319-349. Print.
Vygotsky, Lev S. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978. Print.
Wagner, J. Betty, J. Educational Drama and Language Arts: What Research Shows. Portsmouth, MA: Heinemann, 1998.
