Urban Improv for the Classrooms 4th Grade Teacher Curriculum

• NCJ Number: 226221
• Author(s): Maria Zucker Ph.D.; Elizabeth Brogan Villaflor; Jonathan Holden; Ronald Jones; Joseph Spinazzola Ph.D.
• Date Published: 2006
• Length: 60 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2005-JL-FX-0157; 97-MU-FX-K012
• Agencies: OJJDP-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Curriculum
• Award: Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence

Annotation

This manual presents a teacher curriculum based on Urban Improv (UI), a school-based interactive and educational program that uses structured drama improvisation to teach decisionmaking, conflict resolution, problem solving, cooperation, leadership, and values clarification, while providing students the opportunity to deal creatively with major issues in their lives.

Abstract

The teacher curriculum covers 9 weeks, with 1 week for each theme introduced in the standard UI protocol. The curriculum consists of three parts. Part I addresses the nine UI content themes through read-aloud activities and games. Part II incorporates into the classroom behavior management and positive reinforcement strategies based on UI. Part III describes the mechanisms that will be used for monitoring the implementation of the curriculum and evaluating its effectiveness. The theme of week 1 is “friendship,” with the objectives being to learn the characteristics of healthy friendships, what it means to be friendly, and respecting differences in friendships. The theme of week 2 is “self-esteem,” with the objectives being to learn the meaning of “self-esteem,” who or what makes the students feel good/bad about themselves, how feeling good about one’s self improves proficiency in all activities, and how helping others to feel good about themselves improves one’s own self-esteem. The theme of week 3 is “imagination;” it teaches the nature of imagination; how it helps a person; and how it makes activities fun, helps solve problems, and promotes new ideas. The theme of week 4 is “fear,” which focuses on fear as a natural feeling, different kinds of fear, and how to keep fear from dominating feelings. The theme of week 5 is “peer pressure,” which defines peer pressure and addresses why it happens and how to identify positive/negative peer pressure. The themes for weeks 6, 7, 8, and 9 are “violence/conflict resolution,” “fairness,” “family,” and “adventure.”