After reading Christine's post and chatting about her 4th grade class experimenting with improv, I "stole" one of their games to see how my middle school students would react.
I asked my ensemble members to begin walking around the room and explained that I would call out a different scenario, or place that they would be walking in. It was their job to act or react accordingly. As the students were walking I began to call out some of these ideas:
"You're in quicksand"
"You are walking on hot sand on the beach"
"You are walking on a skating rink and forgot your ice skates"
What I found was that my middle schoolers not only reacted to the scenarios that I gave them, but they expanded upon it. For example, when I called out "You are walking on hot sand on the beach," one of my 7th graders began hopping around the room calling for his family. When I asked him why he did that he said, "Well when I go play on the beach I very often can't find my family's umbrella afterwards so I have to shout for them." He was making connections to his own life experiences and acting them out in the scenario.
My students also began to perform as an ensemble or in pairs as I called out different scenarios. For example, when I called out "You are walking on a skating rink and forgot your ice skates," two 6th graders began to balance on each other and help pull each other around the "rink." When I questioned why they reacted this way, both students explained that if they were losing their balance they should help each other, or would want a friend to lean on. Another student in the same scenario began to only walk around the perimeter of the room. When I inquired why this 7th grader chose this action they explained that when they lose their balance ice skating they try and hold on to the wall to help them get around. I really feel that their problem solving skills were able to really shine through!
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