1. A writer’s improv session
Whose Idea is it Anyway?
A writer’s improv session
Anna Wolff
Leo Hopcroft

2. Goals for participants
To describe how a writer's improv activity fits into the Reading Apprenticeship Framework.
To experience what it is like to try on the mind of one writer, articulate their ideas, and attempt to analyze the work of another writer.
To customize an analytical routine so that it can be applied by their own students to source materials used in their own classes.

3. Discussion Questions
What are your experiences with helping student accurately represent the ideas of multiple authors in a synthesis essay?
What strategies do you use with your students to understand an author’s point of view?
Materials
copies of excerpts from Jobs
copies of excerpts from Tokumitsu
Filled in for J and T copies of three different triple-entry journals
Flip chart
Markers
A handful of pens
Introduction to improv
Bridge-in (5 min)
We will learn to conduct a writer's improv session where learners assume the mantle of the authors that they are reading for class and put those authors in direct conversation with each other. Encourage learners to understand and embody the worldview of an author and apply the author's theoretical lens to the work of a different author. Help your learners integrate claims and evidence from source materials into their thinking and writing while still distinguishing those perspectives from each other and from the learners’ own ideas in a social, fun, and challenging way. We use this assignment to help students integrate the ideas from two essays that we have read with their own ideas in an argumentative synthesis essay.
There are some assignments that students need to complete prior to doing the writer’s improv.
Making a class paraphrase of the thesis and main ideas of each article
Completing a triple entry journal that includes ideas from each source essay and the learner
Our experiences with writer’s improv:
Anna-
Leo- I also use writer’s improv in my English 174 classes. In that class, students have read about 12 articles. Students select different articles. I assign improv pairs. We do in class practice (fishbowl) before students to a paired online discussion, then share their biggest insights to the class.

4. In this exercise, you are a student!
Read the excerpts and decide where your allegiance lies: Team Jobs or Team Tokumitsu.
Add points on your triple-entry journal.
Participatory learning 45 min
5 minutes: Read the excerpts and decide:
Roll question: Team Jobs or Team Tokumitsu?
3 min: Fill in the empty “I Say”
Writer’s Improv—In groups of 3,
8 min. Round 1 Trying on Jobs (Anna Demo) Each person assumes the mantle of Jobs in turn. When it is your turn, pick one Tokumitsu point from your TS/TS/IS chart. Read it out loud. Spend 1-2 minutes. Talk out loud as if you were Jobs responding.
8 min. Round 2 Trying on Tokumitsu (Leo Demo) Each person assumes the mantle of Tokumitsu in turn. When it is your turn, pick one Jobs point from your TS/TS/IS chart. Read it out loud. Spend 1-2 minutes. Talk out loud as if you were Tokumitsu responding.
7 min. Round 3 Writers interrogate each other (Demo with a volunteer I Say) One person is Jobs. Another person is Tokumitsu. The third person is themselves (the I Say). This person takes notes carefully so that she can respond with the last word to both Jobs and Tokumitsu. Afterwards, all three work together to add to and clarify the notes.
Computer Lab
Our students go directly from this lesson to drafting their paper in the computer lab.

5. Round 1 of writer’s improv: Trying on Jobs
Each person assumes the mantle of Jobs in turn. Decide who is going first.
When it is your turn, pick one Tokumitsu point from your TS/TS/IS chart. Read it out loud.
Spend 1-2 minutes talking out loud as if you were Jobs responding to the idea from Tokumitsu.

6. Round 2 of writer’s improv: Trying on Tokumitsu
Each person assumes the mantle of Tokumitsu in turn. Decide who is going first.
When it is your turn, pick one Jobs point from your TS/TS/IS chart. Read it out loud.
Spend 1-2 minutes talking out loud as if you were Tokumitsu responding to the idea from Jobs.

7. Round 3 of writer’s improv: Three writers interrogate each other
One person is Jobs. Another person is Tokumitsu. The third person is themselves (the I Say).
Decide who is going to begin the conversation: Jobs or Tokumitsu.
All three authors participate in a conversation. We will give you a 1 minute warning to make sure the I Say gets the last word.
Afterwards, all three work together to add to and clarify the notes on your triple- entry journals

8. Follow up from writer’s improv
What was the interesting or surprising thing that happened during your writer’s improv?
Team Jobs or Team Tokumitsu?
Did you change your mind? Why or why not?
With our students, we immediately move from this conversation to a computer lab where they begin a discovery draft for a synthesis essay using these sources.

9. Reporting out
Groups take 5 minutes to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this activity and how you might use or change this activity for your own class
How does this fit into the Reading Apprenticeship Framework?
Report out to the whole group

12. Thank you! Anna Wolff awolff@whatcom.ctc.edu
Leo Hopcroft