Learning Goals

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to …

  • Understand the importance of focus in collaboration and performance
  • Communicate non-verbally using gestures, body language, and eye contact
  • Practice mindfulness and body awareness.
Materials
  • Blackboard or whiteboard
  • Chalk or whiteboard marker
  • A large open space
  • Paper and writing utensil
  • PDF #7 The Focus Factor Checklist and Observational Notes
  • PDF #8 The Focus Factor Exit Ticket
Terminology

Action

Whole Class > Silent Switch 

  • Have everyone in the class standing in a circle, with one person in the middle (to begin, the teacher can begin in the middle). 
  • The purpose of this game is for the person in the middle to find a spot in the circle. To do this, the spot must be empty. 
  • As the person in the middle is keeping an eye out for an empty spot, everyone else in the circle is looking for a new spot. 
  • To find a new spot, they must silently make eye contact with someone else in the circle, and those two people will switch places. 
  • When people in the circle switch places, the person in the middle will try and take an empty place before the switch is complete. 
  • If the two people switch places before the person in the middle steals a spot, then the person originally in the middle of the circle will stay there. 
  • If they successfully steal a spot, then the person who didn’t make it to the new spot will be in the middle of the circle and try to steal a spot from other players.

Variation: The person in the middle must only "catch" two people mid-switch in order to claim one of their spots.

Action

Whole Class > Body Scan/Breathwork 

Have everyone find their own spot in the room and invite them to lie down. For personal comfort, students may sit instead. You may wish to play calming music for this part of the lesson, or you may choose to facilitate a body scan and breathwork quietly instead. Prompt students to close their eyes, and lead them through taking a few deep breaths. Then, encourage them to pay close attention to their bodies, and lead them through a body awareness meditation. 

Prompt: Let’s take a moment to check in with our bodies and how we’re feeling. As you continue to breathe, begin paying attention to your feet and ankles, and imagine releasing any tension you may be holding. Then, move your way up to your legs and try to relax your muscles. You can also stretch your legs out if that feels good to you. Next, check in with your hips and your lower back. Are you holding any tension in your muscles that you need to release? How is your stomach and upper back feeling? On your next exhale, try to relax your back and shoulders. As you move towards your neck and head, consider gently stretching your neck left and right. Let’s take one final deep breath, and then you can open your eyes.

Whole Class > Counting to Ten 

For this next activity, students can stay where they are sitting or lying down on the floor. The objective of this activity is for the class to count to ten together. To begin, the teacher will start with “one” and then students will continue counting popcorn-style. There is no order to who will say “two”, “three”, etc., but if two students say a number at the same time, then you must start over from one. A tip for facilitating this exercise successfully is to encourage students to count slowly. If students successfully make it to ten, you can continue counting, or end the exercise if you wish. If you don’t make it to ten, take note of the number the class did make it to, and you can do this exercise again in the future with the goal of making it to a higher number.

Small Group > Three-Headed Monster 

Have students sit together in an audience, facing an open space in the room that will serve as the “stage”. In this game, three students will be the performers. They’ll stand onstage side-by-side and answer questions that the audience asks them. However, they must all respond together in unison (choral speaking).

Teacher Note: While the Three-Headed Monster game doesn’t adhere precisely to the definition of choral speaking since they’re improvising, this terminology may be helpful.

They will not know what questions the audience will ask or how to respond beforehand, so they will need to pay close attention to each other and speak slowly to ensure they’re all saying the same words. Ask for three volunteers to be the “monster”, and ask the audience for a prompt. The prompt could be an example of what the three-headed monster does as a job as a way to give the audience a starting place for what kinds of questions they may ask. After the three-headed monster has successfully answered a few questions (3-5 is a good benchmark), give a round of applause and ask for three more volunteers to be the next monster. 

Small Groups > Alphabet Soup 

Before beginning this game, write the alphabet on the blackboard or whiteboard. This is an improv game in which the performers will follow the order of the alphabet. Ask the audience for a scene prompt (a character relationship, a location, a conflict or a problem) that the performers will use to improvise a scene together. Their challenge as actors is that their dialogue must follow the alphabet - the first character to speak must begin their sentence with a word that starts with “A”, the next must begin their sentence with “B”, and so on. The game continues until the group makes it to the end of the alphabet. Sometimes students can get stuck on what letter of the alphabet they’re at, and writing the alphabet on the board helps them find their place to prevent long pauses.

Extension: If your students are quite strong at this game and want an extra challenge, you can have them start at “Z” and work their way backwards through the alphabet. An even tougher challenge is to choose a letter somewhere in the middle and have students work their way forward through the remainder of the alphabet, and then from “A” to make it back to the letter they started with.

Consolidation

Whole Class > Discussion and Exit Ticket 

To consolidate this lesson, you may choose to have a brief discussion with students in addition to having them respond to a few questions as an exit ticket. Write the following questions on the board for students to respond to as their exit ticket. You may make the exit ticket a formative assessment or assign a participation mark.

Questions for Discussion:
  • Why is it important for performers to listen to each other and be focused while onstage?
  • What are some of the things that make it challenging for us to focus and listen carefully to each other in 2025?
  • What did you find fun and/or easy today?
  • What did you find challenging?
Assessment for Learning (AfL)

Use PDF #7 The Focus Factor Checklist and Observational Notes to document students’ engagement and potential barriers to their success.

Assessment as Learning (AaL)

PDF #8 The Focus Factor Exit Ticket