60-Second Strategy: The ‘What Are You Doing?’ Game

While classroom activities that incorporate movement and play can be found at the elementary level, by middle and high school they become much less common. But even though older students are often more shy or resistant at first, when they are given the opportunity to move their bodies, connect with each other, and get a little silly, it can build trust and lower the affective filter so they’ll be ready to learn together. Middle school students in particular often struggle with self-consciousness, which can impact their willingness to participate in class, speak up and ask questions, or take academic risks. At Arts and Letters United 305 in Brooklyn, New York, movement and theater teacher Todd A. Rollé, in collaboration with Child’s Play NY—an arts organization that helps schools use theater as a powerful tool for education—uses an improvisation game for classroom community and to get kids to let down their guard. 

The “What Are You Doing?” activity can be useful early in the school year when students are still getting to know each other. At the beginning of a class period, Rollé starts by asking students to circle up. One student starts pantomiming an action, and the classmate to the left asks, “What are you doing?” The student who is pantomiming replies with an action—any action except the one they are actually performing. Then the student who had asked must act out the action that was just named aloud. The game continues around the circle until everyone has had a turn. “Kids start to encourage each other and draw each other out,” says Rollé. “When you can provide opportunities for them to be in a safe space and risk being silly, they grow more confident in who they are.”

For more theater games that support learning, check out the many articles that Child’s Play NY founder Jocelyn Greene has written for Edutopia.