Using Improv to Build Group Work Skills

Picture this: You move through the classroom to the hum of animated voices, checking in on the small group work you’ve assigned. Students are engaged in productive discussions, making connections and bringing academic material to life. You sense a palpable creative momentum in the students’ back-and-forth. There’s not an iPad in sight.

This is no fantasy. I could be describing any of the scores of classrooms that I’ve had the privilege to work in over the last decade, helping teachers incorporate theater games into their curriculum in order to support student learning.

There was Ms. Buckley’s third-grade class, where students retold parts of Jane Goodall’s biography using a Slideshow game, and Ms. Sharpe’s fourth-grade class, where students made scenes for their Fable unit using the game Genre. In Mr. Lin’s fifth-grade class, students played Hey, Guess What? to review what they knew about ancient civilizations, and Ms. Giordano’s fourth graders played Love It/Hate It to reinforce the characters in their English language arts (ELA) book. Just to name a few.

While these classrooms, projects, and learning outcomes differed, there was a single common thread that contributed to the success of the work: The students had all learned and followed the rules of improv, which require rigorous listening, spontaneity, and creativity.

When applied and practiced over time, these rules allow learners to access their imaginations and find momentum and synergy in each other’s ideas. But whether or not theater games like these become part of your classroom, the improvisers’ playbook can help your students in any collaborative project.

But First, What is Improvisation?

Simply put, improvisation is the technique of creating a scene without having a script. While improvisors usually have some information on which to build, they likely get it right on the spot from a live audience, from a coach, or by pulling it from a hat. They are creating something unique, together and spontaneously. Therein lies the magic of this art form.

These rules are deceptively simple. They are the techniques originated by Viola Spolin, who famously developed theater games based on her work at Hull House, which served immigrant children in Chicago. While every actor training program has its own spin on improv, the fundamentals remain the same.

‘Yes, and…,’ the Cardinal Rule of Improv

“Yes, and…” is a classic rule in the improv world for a reason. All it means is that you take what your partner gives you, accept it, and build from there. It engenders a supportive mindset where every idea is not only welcome but useful for the storytelling. “Yes, and…” is not about blindly agreeing, but rather about acknowledging that someone else’s idea is a meaningful springboard for the next one.

In the classroom, this two-word phrase can become a kind of mantra for group work. Students experience in real time how their ideas are made stronger through collaboration, and they practice flexible thinking, turn-taking, and active listening as they apply the “Yes, and…” rule.

How to practice “Yes, and…”

You can use “Yes, and...” as a whole class to practice narrative writing and public speaking skills. To do this, have one student say a sentence to start a story. From there, every other student has to add on by saying “Yes, and...” until everyone has contributed. In this way, students build collaboratively, while you as the teacher can provide guidance when needed to ensure that the story maintains a strong structure.

As students share their contributions, they are strengthening their capacity to acknowledge their peers’ ideas and build agreement in a playful way. You can use content from your classroom as a springboard for the story and even encourage students to incorporate vocabulary from your unit. At its core, this simple game is a validation of a communal, artistic process.

A starting sentence for this in an ELA creative writing unit might be: “The year is 2056, and in this future, cars will fly.” Another student builds on with “Yes, and every rooftop grows food,” with the next student saying, “Yes, and all the streets are moving sidewalks.” So, instead of staring at a blank page, students are generating ideas as a collective, and they could take any one of these and evolve it on their own.

Once a “Yes, and…” mentality is established in your class, you can work in more complex elements of story structure. For example, in the game “Somebody Wanted But So Then,” students similarly build a story together but use key narrative transition words to start their sentences. The “Yes, and…” is implied in this case, since you’ve laid the foundation with students who have become experts at active listening and collaboration.

Another way to use “Yes, and…” as a game is to put students into pairs and have them talk about a shared experience. This can be a great option if you have some shy students who may want to practice their speaking skills with one partner as opposed to the entire class. Once you pair students up, each student can only say one sentence at a time, starting, of course, with “Yes, and...”

Students take turns giving voice to their ideas or building the narrative of a shared experience like their latest field trip or a school assembly. You can also use this to review a chapter or to encourage students to share what they learned in a unit of study.

Finally, you can use “Yes, and…” to help students build their persuasive speaking skills. Start by putting students into small groups and giving them a debatable topic like “Should students have remote school on snow days?” or “Should zoos exist?” Each group decides what side of the debate to be on and speaks their points one sentence at a time, starting their sentence with that agreement (“Yes, and…”), which snowballs enthusiasm and creative thought.

However you decide to bring “Yes, and…” into the classroom, you’ll be helping students build the critical soft skills they need for success, both in the classroom and in their lives outside of it. Students learn to listen closely, collaborate effectively, and think flexibly, all while having fun together.