Assign students a take-home, people-watching activity as a way to practice quietly observing behavior. Over the weekend, students should observe their friends and family along with strangers in parks, stores and restaurants or wherever they go. While observing people, students can evaluate facial expressions and body language to interpret the emotions and interactions of each person. They can then write a summary of their observations and re-enact the observed behaviors for classmates.
Students can observe and demonstrate emotions while working together on a class game. After choosing an emotion from a bag, the students will stand still in front of the class with their arms down and feet apart at shoulder width in a position known as "actor's neutral." As the teacher counts out 10 beats, the students should slowly move their faces and bodies with each beat in a way that expresses the chosen emotion. Fellow students can guess the emotion based on the movements. The performer will practice using thoughtful movements while the class carefully observes.
Providing students with a variety of classic and current film clips will allow them to observe acting techniques. Categorize scenes from movies into sections based on the lesson they might provide for students. When studying the proper way to cry for a role, show clips of actors successfully demonstrating this skill. By viewing these scenes as lessons, students will observe the work of highly skilled actors and collect references for their own acting challenges.
By omitting speaking from performances, mimes force audiences to closely observe their physical movements and facial expressions. Assign students with familiar activities to mime for the class, such as washing dishes, bowling and ice skating. Students can then partner up to silently perform scenarios such as breakups, getting married, and winning the lottery. The class will closely observe the mime performances to decipher the nature of each activity.