Playing an Improv Game for Character Analysis

By acting out a character’s emotions, students can practice literary analysis, build empathy, and sharpen their recall of story detail.

In teacher Katie Giordano’s classroom, 4th graders can’t wait to play Love It / Hate It, a popular improv game for character analysis that helps students with perspective-taking and persuasive writing. Giordano teaches at a public pre-K–8 school called Arts and Letters United 305 in Brooklyn, where theater and improvisation activities have a role to play in every classroom. In collaboration with a local arts organization, Child’s Play NY, teachers there have learned to use these games to bring more joy, connection, and movement into their lessons, which serves to deepen the students’ understanding of core content—while they practice executive function skills and build classroom community.

For more theater games that support learning, check out the articles that Child’s Play NY founder Jocelyn Greene has written for Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/profile/jocelyn-greene/ or visit this channel: https://www.youtube.com/@childsplayinaction

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