Involving students in improvisations or helping them to perform for peers and parents will include several goals.

1. The first goal should be to help the students concentrate on their characters in the scene. To do so they need to see and hear what the other characters are doing. There are several things we can do to help them:
   1. Make certain that the audience listens and watches the scene attentively, not laughing at inappropriate moments, making comments, or doing some other activity
   2. Help the actors have enough information to succeed. Review the characters, setting and situation. Have the students pause for a moment before entering the scene to image, 'see and hear,' their characters, the setting, and what their characters want at the moment.
   3. Step into a role in the scene so that your concentration will demand that the students stay in role and respond appropriately
   4. End the scene when the students have been stretched to find new dialogue and action, but before they break character because they're running out of ideas
   5. Critique the scene positively by having the audience tell the student actors when they were believable.
2. The second goal should be to help the students hear and see what is happening in the scene.
   1. Explain that they are creating the scene with the other actors, based on what they say and do.
   2. In role, model a scene in which your character doesn't build on what the other actor(s) is saying and doing.   Discuss what didn't work and why.
   3. In role, model a scene in which your character listens and responds to the other actors so that the scene advances the story.   Discuss what was happening to make the scene tell the story.
   4. Critique student scenes positively by discussing and rewarding the actors when they create dialogue and action that communicates their characters' personality and the story.
3. The third goal, especially when the students are performing for an audience, is to make certain that their action is seen and their dialogue heard.
   1. Movement
      1. Discuss with the class that the action needs to be seen; it cannot be hidden with backs turned to the audience; nor should the pantomime be fast and imprecise
      2. Model situations when the action cannot be seen and when it is in open view, slow and precise enough to be seen and understood. After the scene, through questioning, help the students reward action that was visible, believable, and that advanced the story, e.g. 'What did you see the characters do? What helped tell the story? What did you believe?'
      3. Ask the actors, 'If you were to do the scene again, what might you do differently?'
      4. Perhaps redo the scene with no dialogue, just the action, to see how much can be communicated by action alone 
   2. Volume can be a problem for many students. Most have 'outside' voices, but they are trained to speak quietly in the classroom. So, what to do?
      1. Discuss the need for different volumes in different settings: on the playground, on the telephone, in the classroom while working in small groups, in the classroom when answering questions, while performing in a play
      2. Model a mini scene with volume too low and with appropriate volume
      3. Try a volume exercise. Pair the students. Have the students stand facing their partner. Have them number off, 1 or 2. Give them a phrase to say ('I'm happy to see you, here, today.' Or 'I've got a new puppy and he's gray with white spots,' or whatever you think of.) Tell number 1s to say the phrase so their partner can hear it. Have number 2s repeat the phrase. Have each student backup one pace and repeat the process. Continue the process until the students are across the room from each other, but are now speaking in voices loud enough to be heard across the room. Have the students talk about the experience. Have them describe what they needed to do to be heard across the room.
      4. Do the vocal warm-ups at the web site. This will help with diction that is also an important factor in being heard and understood. http://artswork.asu.edu/arts/students/tb/05_01_warmups.htm#vocal
      5. When the students critique the scenes, use questions to guide them to reward appropriate volume.
4. The fourth goal, if the drama is to be videotaped, is to work to achieve goals 2 and 3, but in front of a camera. The students will need to be aware of the direction of the camera(s) lens and not cover important action. The volume can generally be more intimate, but volume is a real problem because the inexpensive camcorder has a much better lens mechanism than microphone. Students generally need to be encouraged to speak up!
5. The final, and most important goal is to make certain the students discover the meaning of the drama they are creating.
   1. Discuss character motivation, what the characters want and why, especially in relationship to the circumstances presented in the story
   2. Discuss what the characters do in the scene. Discuss why they do it, what caused their actions, what was the effect of their actions.
   3. Compare and contrast the events and character actions in the scene with current events and their lives