-: Which of the following improvisational acting activities
would best help students learn about character development?
So there's sort of two things to underline in this question;
improvisational, and character development.
So we're looking for an answer
that delivers on both of those things,
and often on the test as we've mentioned before
certain answers will address part of what's asked
for on the question but not everything
that's asked for on the question.
So we're looking for the most encompassing answer
in this particular case.
So A), having students write up a character bio
including where their character works,
their family history, et cetera.
So that sort of lays the foundation of who a character is,
all of those sort of characterizations,
but it doesn't specifically get into character development.
Character development is sort of about sort of
how a character changes and grows throughout a story
based on what they do and what happens in the story.
So that sort of lays a foundation
from which the character could develop,
but doesn't really describe development,
and there's nothing improvisational about this.
So for that reason alone it's definitely out
so we eliminate A).
B), making up a situation in which a student's character
must make a choice then asking them to play out the scene.
So just in drama just as in real life,
character is really defined by the choices we make,
or the choices a character makes.
What you do sort of defines who you are,
what your character is.
So certainly having them make an important choice
and play out the scene shows character development,
and because they're making it up as they go along,
it's definitely improvisational.
So this one clearly satisfies both
of those two requirements.
So B) is the correct answer.
But let's look at C) and D) and why we would eliminate them.
C) says, "Asking students to make a list
"of their 10 favorite movie characters."
This might if you got into more depth
on why they like the character
and sort of tracing the character's evolution over time
and that sort of thing, it might help you
understand character development,
but it doesn't say anything about that in the question,
or in the answer choice.
All it really says is make a list,
and just listing the characters you like
doesn't really teach you much about development.
So be careful not to bring in sort of outside thoughts
and outside information that's not directly
described in the question.
So taking this at face value,
there's really very little character development here,
and again nothing improvisational here.
So there's two reasons to eliminate choice C).
Choice D) says, "Having students pretend
"to feel different emotions and demonstrate
"those feelings visually without speaking."
So this is sort of an attractive wrong answer
because they are sort of making up what they're doing here.
They're showing these emotions.
So there is an improvisational aspect to this one,
but it doesn't teach character development.
So remember character development is about how
a character changes and grows
and the choices that they make,
and just showing an emotion may be a good acting activity
may help the students improve as actors,
but it doesn't teach them much about character
because a character is more than just a single emotion.
So D) doesn't really satisfy
the character development part of it.
So B) is the best answer.