Input Lesson #3: Improvisation and Imagination Why improvise? • • When we improvise we get something from nothing YATCB is based on this principle – production, e.g Obviousness, Sentence Building, PPRR (where the aim is to produce stories and situations; to get something out of the bare minimum of a few people connected with a certain topic), Mode text production, etc When you produce you need to invent and create from simple prompts, so improvisation skills are useful So it matches important YATCB principles: o o o o • • • • • • Your ideas You are engaged Students work together in pairs and groups, not individually No individual “brain > content” time Teacher is a guide No top-down teaching Elicit don’t tell It’s preferable to using a course book in class – we can exercise our imaginations; thinking, not reading somebody else’s work In the classroom the teacher can guide; for reading you don’t need a teacher – you can this at home Reading a book requires far less imagination than producing a text (spoken or written); we learn more by doing Training in positive useful areas, e.g using higher-level words instead of basic words (see C, below) Exercising your imagination helps you to remember more – cf memorable lessons from last year, e.g Abdulrahman is Prime Minister of the Moon [p.32], and so on It helps you to develop your English language skills by practising – with the teacher on hand to guide you You can increase your fluency – the aim here is to keep talking – production and fluency To practise what you know; to speak continuously To be able to describe basic things fluently, e.g what is a table? Increasing speed in improvisation increases fluency and speeds up our lessons, meaning we can more It’s fun! How can we improvise? • • Say yes! Be open – accept – don’t block Take another person’s idea and modify/develop it, not dismiss it Practise often; the more you practise something the easier it becomes and the better you get Activities to try: • • • What am I? (yes/no answers only) Group sentence/story: word by word, then sentence by sentence Let’s… Yes, and then let’s… Good idea, and then let’s… (suggestion-acceptance-suggestion improvisation) Salinsky, Tom, and Frances-White, Deborah The Improv Handbook London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008 Paperback p.59 380 • • • • • • What’s Just Happened? – improvisation game (see cards below and on p.385) Walk into a room in a particular state and we have to guess what’s happened (present perfect focus) – then use Y/N only! Improvise the backstory – what happened? SS ask questions of whoever has just walked into the room Variation: “I’ve just made an important decision to…” (has strong objective) Put together pairs (e.g with opposing objectives) and let them have a conversation (See A, below, for more situations.) won the lottery damaged my car fallen in love been in a fight met a famous person eaten too much passed an important exam heard some bad news bought a new book dropped my phone in the toilet been on TV been turned down for a job seen a UFO lost one hundred Złoty had a tattoo been bitten by a dog had plastic surgery had an argument been to a birthday party watched a really boring film You’ve got a secret: one person goes out; we think of a secret for them; when they return, they have to guess it by asking questions; others give clues Somebody describes a scene (improvising) – the other draws it (then blindfolded) Describe the appearance of something in detail from memory, e.g a place, a room in your house, your car, a person, etc.; then others can ask questions and introduce fictional details, which the person has to accept, e.g “You’ve got a green lamp on the table, haven’t you?” “Er, yes I have!” Variation: describe an everyday activity in great detail, e.g tying your shoelaces, or doing the washing up Tell a funny story while keeping a straight face If you laugh, it’s somebody else’s turn One person improvises and dictates a story, which the others must act out 381 Also try, if time: • • • • • The original Alien Game (see p.261) Identities game – post-it notes on foreheads: who am I? Practise reading a dialogue in different moods, then continue the conversation Dubbing a film (with the sound turned down) with new dialogue Story Arc (see B, below) A: What’s Just Happened? States (on cut-up pieces of paper): I’ve just… Positive : 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Negative: won the lottery fallen in love met a famous person met a famous person from history bought something very expensive bought an exotic pet passed an important exam passed my driving test arrived home after an amazing trip got back from the seaside bought some new clothes seen myself on TV won an important match written a song seen a UFO been playing sport had a tattoo had plastic surgery been jogging been to a birthday party 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 crashed my car been in a fight got back from a war eaten too much heard some bad news been to a funeral dropped my phone down the toilet walked into a lamp post stolen something fallen over in public lost a 100 zł note been sunbathing for too long been bitten by a dog had a row with my partner upset somebody been told I’ve got two months to live watched a really boring film had a loan application rejected been turned down for a job made a fool of myself B: Story Arc 2: Students have to complete each line (in turn) to complete the story arc: - Once upon a time there was… And every day… Until one day… And because of that… (repeat as necessary) Until finally… And ever since then… C: Basic Words vs Higher-Level Words: SS have to match basic and higher-level words in these sets of synonyms (activity for Stage 2.3 Mode and also Mode Sentence Building – Improvements) SS usually tend to reach for basic words in The Improv Handbook p.400 See also: McWaters, V (2010) Using the Story Spine Slideshare.net Retrieved May 7th 2013, from http://www.slideshare.net/vivmcwaters/story-spine 382 production, rather than being more ambitious, and this has to be corrected in the Improvements stage They should try to be more imaginative from the outset = save time and get through more! BASIC: HIGHER-LEVEL: BASIC: HIGHER-LEVEL: house residence woman Mrs Parker dog mutt hello hiya red scarlet car Ford Fiesta bag rucksack phone iPhone shop greengrocer’s restaurant Tawerna Now SS have to write a higher-level (more interesting/specific) word or phrase for each of these basic words: ball mountain chair boat ice-cream 10 383 cup engineer forest spaghetti friend