Scott Rust's MOOC course submission for the Final Assignment as an Aux for the 2023/2024 academic year in Aranjuez, Madrid, Spain, at Santiago Rusiñol bilingual secondary school

1. IMPROV!
Theater as a Teaching Tool
*An English class for Spanish Students in Secondary 4th Year*
Presentation created by Scott Rust

2. What is Improv?
Improvisation = to do or perform
something in the instant rather
than having planned or prepared it
beforehand.

3. Common “Rules” of Improv Scenes
• “Yes, And”
• Don’t negate what came before
in the scene.
• Lean into it.
• Be generous, not selfish.
• Make bold choices!

4. Why is it Important?
Improv helps with:
• facing fears
• building confidence
• thinking on your feet
• problem solving
• developing empathy
• creative thinking
• using your imagination, And even more!

5. (Example Game!) Questions?
Rules: You have to ask questions.
• You cannot repeat the same
question. (Repetition)
• You cannot ask any rhetorical
questions. (Rhetoric)
• You cannot take too long to ask.
(Hesitation)
• You cannot ask questions that
do not follow the flow of the
conversation. (Non-Sequitor)
• Questions only! (Statement)
• No synonyms or non-
responses. (Synonym/Grunt)

7. One Word at a Time Story
• Players take turns in a group.
• On your turn, you say 1 word.
• Play continues until the story is
completed.

8. Last Letter, First Letter
Really, this one is simple.
Every sentence has to start with the last letter of
the previous.
Since each sentence should be different, you
may come up with any number of possibilities.
<--See what I did there?

9. Fortunately! ... Unfortunately!
• In a group, players take turns telling a
story, beginning each turn with the
opposite turn of luck.
• Good luck begins: “Fortunately...”
• Bad luck: Unfortunately...”

10. Lost in Translation (aka, Bad Interpreter)
One person speaks only in
gibberish. No real words.
The other person then ¨Translates¨
the gibberish for the rest of us.

11. CHANGE!
• Performers are doing a scene
• Someone else says ¨CHANGE¨
• The performer must change
the thing that they just said to
be something else instead.

12. FREEZE!!!
Performers are doing a scene, like in
the game Change.
Then, Someone says ¨FREEZE!¨
Everyone stops moving, and then the
one who said “FREEZE!” steps in to
start a new scene, taking the same
position of the person they replace.

13. End of Lesson
Sources:
Movie clip- Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are Dead (1990)
Prompt Generator-
https://teambuilding.com/blog/improv
-prompts

14. From here on is not part of the
“Improv Lesson”
Just to make a clear marker of
delineation between “This is what I
showed to students” and “This is for
the MOOC course Final project”
Right, now that that’s covered:
Onward!

15. Nitty Gritty Details (not part of the lesson proper,
do not show to students.)
SWBAT: practice speaking and
learn some new games. They will
also perform a short scene in
collaboration with the LA, Teacher,
or fellow classmates.
Materials: Prompt generator, this
powerpoint, the movie clip.
Timing: Initial presentation (slides 1 to 6)
takes around 10 minutes. Recommend
playing the video twice, if time allows.
Then allow 5 to 7 minutes for each game so
that they get time to practice and play, but
not so long that they get bored with any one
game. More on this in a moment.

16. Teacher’s Role
• If the teacher has theatrical experience, they can take the lead on
demonstrating.
• If teacher is inexperienced, they can assist the LA and show each game to the
students, then taking over for the control and monitoring of the prompts, and
can help to ensure that none of the scenes get out of hand.
• Teacher can also work with LA to create prompts ahead of time or generate any
complementary assignments and homework that would go with this lesson.

17. LA Role
• As the LA, this lesson is heavy on the interactivity. The kids might be shy or awkward,
or resistant to get up and do anything in front of the class. The LA must be
enthusiastic, eager, and help to show the students how it is done.
• LA should be familiar with all games listed, and prepare to play at least 1 round of
each as one of the participants.
• After demonstrating the games with the teacher or a volunteer from the class,
monitor the scenes as the students play the games and correct errors as needed,
being sure to remember to encourage participation and focus on fluency moreso
than accuracy for this lesson.

18. Working Together
• In my classes when Teacher and I used this lesson, we were the first participants to play
the game, demonstrating to the class, then until you get to the game “Change!” we
walked around the room, monitoring the students as they played in pairs or small
groups, so that everyone got practice, without the pressure of playing in front of the
whole class.
• Once the games of Change and/or Freeze are reached, teacher mainly maintained
monitoring and generating prompts as needed, while LA participated as one of the
actors or focused on helping the scenes flow and students to find correct vocabulary
words when they were looking for what to say in a scene.

19. Explaning some Things to Say when Presenting (pt.1)
During Rules of Improv:
• “Yes, And” means that you are supposed to agree, and add something. Make
sure that students understand that improv works best when the premise is
accepted, not argued.
• “Don’t negate what came before in the scene.” This means that for instance if
someone says they are on a pirateship, don’t act like they’re crazy and you work
at a grocery store. Be on the pirate ship with them and keep going from there. It
doesn’t work if folks don’t follow what was already said in the same scene.

20. Explaning some Things to Say when Presenting (pt.2)
• “Lean into it.” means that even if the scene seems crazy or ridiculous or impossible, it will
work better if you embrace it and go along with it instead of fighting against it. All 3 of
these rules stem from/reinforce “Yes, and!”
• “Be generous, not selfish.” Improv works when you focus on the scene and your scene
partner. Don’t think about yourself. Here be sure to point to the second picture and
highlight things like “Listen” and “Work as a team”.
• “Make bold choices!“ means that you can make the scene be anything, so take a big
swing. It doesn’t have to be grocery shopping or family dinner every time. It can be a
pirate ship or a spaceship or the zombie apocalypse. Just embrace the possibilities and
then go for it. “Embrace failure and success” etc. etc. Then go on to the reasons for why.

21. Adapting for Other Levels
• The games of Change and
Freeze are usually played only
in big groups or as a whole
classroom.
• The others listed are all doable
either as a whole class or in
small groups at their desks.
• The more auditory learners will get
more from listening to others play,
which is good for the kinesthetic
learners, and the visual learners can
either read and reread the rules or
watch an extra example video or two to
help get them ready.

22. Adapting (continued)
• Different prompts can be given for
different ages
• Last Letter can be changed to Last
Word (same concept) if it is
decided to be too difficult or too
easy.
• Different games can be substituted
as needed, depending on the
focus.
• If being done with intercultural
students, it can be important to
remember that not all prompts are
right for all contexts.
• Remember that the most
important thing is that they have
fun and get good practice,
whatever their level.

23. Alternative Video Example

24. Alternative Video Source Credit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=9E2Tn4VwmQc&ab_channel=De
epBlueInk
Animation created by DeepBlueInk
on youtube.com
Make Some Noise is owned by Dropout.tv
and I am not affiliated with either the
youtube creator nor the Dropout team.
(Please don’t sue me, y’all, I just really love
improv theater and this is a good example to
show to students that has no cursing. and
isn’t an inapporpriate for school prompt.)

25. Other Aspects of Being an Aux at my School
On Tuesday and Thursday, we do a language workshop during the break for lunch. It is
voluntary and students sign-up for one of the 6 available slots. It gives them a good
opportunity to work with us on speaking, both to us as Auxes and their fellow students.
We as Aux-es work with the students, answering their questions, prompting
them with questions of our own, getting to learn about them and letting them
get more specific and specialized attention that is impossible in a full classroom
setting, so that’s been a big help and it really benefits the students who choose
to come and join us for that time.

26. Conclusion
I don’t know how much use this particular class plan may be for anyone else, because I did
draw a lot from my own knowledge and background to put it together, but I do know that it
was beneficial to my students when I presented it to them in class. They loved the games
and learned them incredibly quickly, because the rules are incredibly simple and
straightforward for most Improv activities. I hope that if you get the chance to try it out,
you’ll have even better results. It is incredibly freeing to just embrace the imaginative
possibilities, and I think my students really appreciated getting to try this new thing, and
didn’t even realize how much practice they were getting speaking English with me and each
other.