FATEMA ALMAZROOEI (Homework #1)

/Ɛ/: Ohh! I’m dead! I haven’t read the assignment yet! What shall I do?! I feel threatened! I regret skipping the work. I’m really upset about my behavior.

/Ɔ/ Oh God! It’s loud. Let’s walk and talk outside. Oh ya can you check for the clock so we can go back on time. By the way when is your last shot? I know it is kindda odd to ask you, you know.

/ou/ Oh no. I didn’t take notes, so can I borrow what you wrote. I am afraid I’ll get a zero!

Heeheh,  the experience of acting up a made up scenario with different people was worth it, and in THE FIRST PROMPT with tired and frustrated expression, I got what I expected her to reply like she was trying to boost  my spirit up through giving me hope and believing in me. However, I failed to continue the conversation because I was blocked by the solution, even though I tried the skills.While for the same prompt and with different emotion which was angry, I got the response that I wanted like calming me down and giving me advice. The improvisation really worked, and I can feel the change of my expression, but I failed to keep the conversation up. ):

FOR THE SECOND PROMPT, my expression was excited. Unfortunately, the conversation was regular not that seems to be that excited but the good side that the conversation was going on. In contrast, the other emotion that I was tired my friend was wondering what's wrong with me why I am asking her like that, it is another failure but a good experience.

FOR THE FINAL PROMPT. For the first emotion when I was sad my friend reacted to me with sadness and willingly she wanted to give me but she was confused because she does not share any class with me, that was impressing, but  I still could not keep the conversation going. However, when I did it with my other friend where I was happy she was happily to give me and I carry on with her the conversation.

OMRAN ALRAWAHI (Homework #1)

/i/ First sentence: 
I am so happy right now!! I received a key for a suite and a lot of money for my birthday.

Happy/ bragging


/I/ second sentence:  
Children usually give these women a pretty hard time. It is interesting to examine them and build a system to teach them English.

Formal/ excited

E-sound in “yes” Third sentence:
Many of my friends took the death of their loved ones heavily. I always say to them to get in bed and sleep to ease the pain.

Sad/ Normal

Video coming

After I memorized the first sentence, I tried to think of a subject to implement it. Subject one was sitting in Tin Drum restaurant. He is a friend of mine who didn’t know what I am doing. I came to him and told him that today is my birthday. I did the first sentence with the happy emotion and my friend was happy for me. I was glad that it went smoothly and got the response I expected. We started talking about our gifts on birthday. Apparently his father bought him a car in his birthday. I already knew that he came from a wealth family. So telling him I got a suite and money for my birthday was believable for him, but not for me.

When I finished with the first subject, after about 10 minutes, another friend came. At first I was hesitated to talk to him with the bragging emotion, but I told in my mind that I will explain it to him after I finish the conversation. I approached him and started bragging that I got a suite and money for my birthday. My friend started looking at me shocked that I will act like that. I felt that I was conceited and hated it. He told me to stop bragging because I will enviable myself. I felt bad, but after I finished I explained to him what I was doing and he started laughing.

After lunch, I went to the Atlantic Station with a friend of mine. I told him to accompany me to hang out, but what I was really doing is trying to find some children with women to start my second sentence. Luckily, I found a family with children and women. I stopped and told my friend the sentence with a formal emotion. He was confused at first but I tried to explain it to him like I was a lecturer. He didn’t know why I was saying that but he kept saying why do you care, why are we talking about this, and how did you know that they gave the women a hard time. I was trying my best to answer him but I couldn’t help myself to stop laughing to myself.

I tried to do the second sentence while excited and the subject didn’t know what I am doing but I failed. So I told my friend what I am doing and started the conversation. My friend felt awkward and I was trying to hold my laughter, but at least I did the sentence and spoke for a minute.

I wanted to do the last sentence with someone other than my friends. In the Wal-Mart, I approached a guy who was alone. I introduced myself to him and after asking him about himself and what he does, I opened the conversation about death. I told him that my uncle died last week which is a lie. I was acting like I was sad and he tried to comfort me. Then I told him the third sentence and added to it a question which is “what do you think? Do you think that sleeping will help me?” He agreed with me and told me that sleeping releases the stress and refrain thinking about the predicament. After that he told me that he really need to go and left. I was extremely embarrassed and felt bad lying to him but he was nice.

Finally, I did the last emotion which is acting normal with a group of friends. I started the discussion of what make the person feel better when someone dies. I told them the sentence and gave them my opinion. There were many interesting opinions like eating chocolate or cry as load as possible. I felt very confident when I spoke to them and happy that I was able to speak fluently with them.

IMPROV HOMEWORK #1: SHOWING INTENTION WHILE PRACTICING DIFFICULT VOWEL SOUNDS

 (c) Ruth Schowalter and Lesly Fredman

TESTING THE WATERS

(Being Intentional, Using Improv Rules, and Articulating Vowel Trouble Spots)

Description:

STEP 1 (VOWEL): Identify three vowel sounds that you have the greatest difficulty saying.

Example:   VOWEL#1: the sound /i/ in the word “please”

                VOWEL#2: the sound /ow/ in the word “soap”

                VOWEL#3: the sound /a/ in the word “hot”

STEP 2 (PROMPT): Write the “prompts” for three different improv scenes. Each prompt should highlight or showcase one of the specific difficult vowel sounds you identified above.  Be sure to underline the vowel sound you are practicing.

Example:

                       

PROMPT#1: For the vowel sound /i/:

                             I’m so weak right now! I really need to sleep more than three hours during the week.

PROMPT#2: For the vowel sound /ow/:

                             Oh…so you want to know where I’m going to go blow all my dough?

PROMPT#3: For the vowel sound /a/:

                             Gosh! We’ve had a lot of nonstop hot days. I need to shop for flipflops!

STEP 3 (EMOTION): For each prompt, choose two distinctly different emotions.

#1: frustrated  ßà optimistic and happy

#2: suspicious ß à business like

#3: excited ß à weak

STEP 4 (CHOOSING “ACTORS” FOR YOUR SCENES): Choose six different people to use your improv prompts with. RYou can approach doing this assignment with a variety of people:

·         CLASSMATE or FRIEND (who knows you are doing a homework assignment)

·         LANGUAGE INSTITUTE STUDENT, TEACHER, or STAFF (who doesn’t know you are doing a homework assignment)

·         A NATIVE SPEAKER (who you don’t know very well)

STEP 5 (TESTING THE WATERS WITH YOUR IMPROV SKILLS):

Know your intention with each scene. What is the emotion you want to communicate? If you want to show that you are frustrated, how will you use your voice, face, limbs, and trunk? How will you adjust your behavior to communicate a different emotion like happiness using the same prompt?

Also, think about what you want from the other person. Do you want him/her to be sympathetic, give you advice, do something for you…?

Keep the scene going until you have had a chance to see where it goes. You will be able to keep the scene going by following the rules of improv:

1.    Say yes to my partner

2.    Accept what my partner gives me and respond

3.    Make my partner look good

4.    Respond from the thoughts and feelings I have while listening

5.    I will use the good idea I have and wait or search for the great idea

6.    I will be willing to take risks and fail

7.    I will have fun

STEP 6 (REFLECT, REPORT, RECORD):

After each improv scene, reflect on what happened. Write down some notes considering the following: What did you experience? What surprised you? Were you able to extend the scene by using the rules of the improv? What did you do to communicate your intention?

Then, for your homework grade do two things: 1) Type your notes and post them on our class blog. 2) Video record yourself delivering your 3 prompts, expressing each prompt with two emotions. In the video recording be sure to demonstrate your change in intention by using your voice, face, limbs and trunk differently.

Remember! Always make your partner look good!

MOHAMED ALASHAR (Homework #1)

Prompt 1: I bought the new PS3 game “Ninja Gaiden 3” last week. But I have never even opened it yet.

-       I tried this prompt on a native English speaker at GameStop with the emotion of shame or sadness about it. He replied to me casually by asking me “Why?” without showing that much of a concern and that did not surprise me because I would do the same thing if I were in his place. As we were debating about the game I was able to extend the scene by using a lot of “yes, but” in my responses because I was trying to accept his point of view of the game while trying to show some disagreement to his opinion without saying that I disagree. I noticed that I used a lot of hand movements and facial expressions to express my intention.

-       I tried this prompt on one of my friends who did not know about the homework and who is a gaming geek to some extents after I left GameStop while waiting for the bus with the emotion of satisfaction. He was surprised and confused of my intention and emotion because he believes that I should not be happy about buying a game without playing it immediately. His reaction did not surprise me because I knew he would react in that way. During this scene, I failed to extend it by using the rules of improv after he asked me “Are you stupid?” in a funny way and I was telling my self “Should I say yes or no?!!” , so I answered no to continue the conversation. I used a lot of hand movements and facial expressions to express my intention.

Prompt 2: The weather sure is great today for a dip in the pool.

-       I tried this prompt on one of my roommates who did not know about the homework with the emotion of tenderness. He agreed with me but he did not want go to the pool when I suggested that we go because he was busy with his assignments and studies. I was not surprised by his answer because I was in the same situation as he was in.  I was able to extend the scene by agreeing with him and changing the topic of our conversation after every few responses because it was during our daily discussions after school. I used a lot of head movements and a relaxed facial to communicate my intention.

-       I tried this prompt on one of my friends who did not know about the homework with the emotion of nervousness. My friend was puzzled because of my anxiety, so he was worried if I had a problem that he can help me with. I failed to extend the scene because I burst out laughing because I could not keep up the nervous act and ended up telling him that I was doing my homework. I was avoiding eye contact and using a choppy voice and speech to express my intention while acting.

Prompt 3:  I will go to the gym for 12 hours. Would you like to join me?

-       I tried this prompt on one of my friends who did not know about the homework with the emotion of excitement. My friend was willing to join me because my enthusiasm made him accept my idea without focusing on the details. I expected that he would accept my idea because we challenge ourselves every weekend by adding two hours of training to our program every week, so we will reach twelve hours this week. I used a loud voice and solid body movements to express my intentions.

-       I tried this prompt on one of my classmates who knew about the homework with the emotion of anger. He refused my suggestion, but in a polite indirect way. He said, “It is okay, but I don’t think I can stay that long”. The rules of improvisation helped to extend the conversation because we were accepting each other’s ideas while keeping the intention in mind. I used scary glares and loud aggressive voice, and a stiff stance as someone who was ready to fight to express my intention.

HANA YU (Homework #1)

/i/   I need to release myself from my greed in our relationship indeed.

Upset/ weak

/ou/  I cannot control my soul like falling into manhole.

Curious/ depressed

/ei/   Hey! Can you say to the DJ to play music on my birthday party?

Expectancy/urgent



Video coming...

REFLECTION

Thank you for giving me a chance this interesting experience. I experienced a variety of responses from each situation. First, I found an interesting thing when I showed a different feeling with my face, voice and gesture. For example, If I frowned at them to show my uncomfortable feeling, they little bit frown following me. Second, when I showed them optimistic attitude, they showed a response like participating in my situation together. It means that I could share what I feel and what I need. I can make them sympathetic for me with my voice, face and gesture. In addition, I was able to extend the scene by using the rules of IMPROV as I learn in this class. There is a good example to prove it during doing this task. One of my friends looks very busy, and actually he was busy indeed. Although I knew it, I tried to do this task to him. When I started to open my mouth first, he answered very short and simple because he got to go. I used the skills form the IMPROV guide, so I made him to stay more and talking with me. I realized that I can express other meaning and other feeling with using variety voices, faces and gestures, besides, I can extend to communication with the rules of IMPROV. This is an unlimited power to communicate.