Creating a Trauma-Informed Classroom with Two Words

I spent almost all my years teaching in inner city school districts and a couple of years in rural districts.  And while I rarely heard about any of the trauma experienced by the thousands of kids that spent time in my classroom, I didn’t have many of the management issues with students that other teachers had.  It wasn’t because I had the good kids, or because they liked me, it was because without knowing it, I had created a trauma responsive classroom.

Anyone who has applied improv in the classroom knows that very quickly the class becomes a supportive ensemble of learners.  They feel safe, they feel competent and autonomous, they share a collaborative relationship with their peers. This isn’t complex, this isn’t time- or resource-consuming.  It’s short-form improv.  It’s two words.  It’s “Yes, and….”

When many of us started teaching, childhood trauma and its effects on students were rarely mentioned.  If we did hear of a sudden tragic and traumatic event affecting one of our students, like the death of a family member or a fire, a fellow staff member might share the news in hushed tones. There would be a tacit understanding that homework would not be collected and that the student could put his head down in class for that day, or maybe even for a day or two more.

And that was it.  There was no talk about developmental trauma, and certainly no proactive planning to create a classroom environment that would better meet the needs of students who had suffered from trauma in their lives.  But then the ACEs Study was published in 1998 and educators became more aware of just how widespread childhood trauma is and how radically it can impact lives.

The ACEs Study and Its Impact

The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, also known as the ACEs study (Felitti et al., 1998), was a detailed, multi-year study that questioned over 8,500 adults, about whether they had suffered any adverse childhood experiences, and if so, what kind(s), and then correlated those findings with a wide range of measures of adult risk behaviors, health status, and disease throughout life.

Results of the study showed that more than half of the subjects reported having suffered at least one, and 25% reported more than two categories of adverse childhood experiences.  Subjects with multiple categories of ACEs were likely to have multiple health risk factors later in life.

What is Trauma-Informed Care?

The ACEs study made a big impact on people in many fields, including education. Nationwide, schools are adopting trauma-informed care models and practices.  According to a detailed Technical Report authored by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, “A trauma-informed approach in the classroom is rooted in a safe environment. While safety encompasses ensuring the physical well-being of students, it also extends to ensuring that psychological safety is bolstered through creating a predictable classroom environment where every member feels respected, validated, and heard” (Pickens & Tschopp, 2017).

A trauma-informed classroom provides students, who have experienced trauma, a learning environment that will not re-traumatize them and potentially help them heal. In order to establish such an a trauma informed environment, most experts agree that educators should strive to:

• create a safe environment,
• establish trust and boundaries,
• support autonomy and choice,
• create collaborative relationships,
• create opportunities for full classroom participation, and
• promote resilience.

But oftentimes, the trainings stop at intentions—meaning, we learn what trauma is and what people who have suffered trauma need, but that’s where the trainings often stop.  They don’t tell us what to do.  Lots of talk, lots of good intentions, but not much action.

What we really need are approaches to instruction and classroom management that are helpful for trauma-impacted students, whether we know who they are or not.

And one of the easiest-to-use, yet powerful tools to achieve this objective is improv.

What improv is NOT…And What it Is

Before we go any further, let me clear up a few common misconceptions.  Here are a few things that improv is NOT:

• Improv is not stand-up comedy, and it’s not about being funny. It doesn’t consist of jokes or witty comments. Funny may be a result, but it is never the process.
• Improv is not…In theater, drama is created by people fighting for different objectives, thus creating drama. In improv, there is no fighting, blocking, dismissing, or eye rolling—only acceptance.  Improv is about agreement.
• Improv is not about performing, acting, or being extroverted. While some improv games require acting skills, many do not and are quite simple and comfortable to play.

Here’s what improv is.  Improv is a comedic art form in which interactions are framed by its rule of “Yes, and….”

“Yes, and…” works like this: When a player gives an offer, whether it be verbal, physical, or emotional, the other player(s) accepts it and adds to it.  “Yes, I unconditionally and without judgement accept your offer.  And, I value it so much, I will add my own offer to it.”

It might sound like this:

Game example from Yes, And–Shared Memory

• Audience: “In a cave”
• Player A: “Remember that time in the cave?”
• Player B: “Yes, and we were chased by thousands of bats.” 
• Player A: “Yes, and we ran deeper into the cave.”
• Player B: “Yes, and we ran into a family of hibernating bears.”
• Player A: “Yes, and then they woke up….”

How Improv Creates a TIC

How would the regular use of improv games such as the one above lead to a safe learning environment?  Let’s check what happens during improv with our previous list of principles of a trauma informed environment:

Safe environment—In improv, the primary rule of “Yes, and…” ensures that students’ offerings are going to be met with unconditional acceptance. They begin to understand that they will not be rejected. This understanding creates a sense of safety, as well as the development of trust.

Trust and boundaries—“Yes, and…” provides a structured frame for all social interaction. With each structured interaction, a student learns that  what they say is valued and accepted.  They practice making offers that value and accept the offers of others.  With this, trust between students develops. They learn to trust themselves and that what they offer has value.

Autonomy and choice—For students who often don’t have much, if any, power over their lives outside of school (or, indeed, in many of their classes in school), the autonomy and choice built into improv gives them a sense of empowerment.

Collaborative relationships—Dr. Keith Sawyer, author of the Creative Classroom (2019), calls improv  pure collaboration. With the frame of “Yes, and…” guiding social interaction, all players co-create as equals. Players quickly realize that they are responsible and accountable to each other at every moment.   Experiencing collaboration in this manner teaches students that it is possible to have positive collaborative relationship with others.

Full classroom participation—Improv is not a small group “on stage” and everyone else in “the audience.”  Rather, the audience participates equally by giving the game an initial direction through an “offer” that is asked for by the facilitator. Viola Spolin describes the audience as not being passive observers or sitting in judgement of others playing, but are instead engaged in each game. Each game ends with players and audience equally showing gratitude towards each other. As such, regular use of improv can go a long way toward creating a caring classroom community.

Resilience—You can’t learn resilience if you always succeed.  But you can’t learn resilience if you’re constantly beaten down, either.  Many students who have suffered from trauma have been beaten down to the point where they’ve lost their resilience.  In this regard, improv is a much gentler teacher.  Students do fail in improv—they sometimes freeze up.  Sometimes the whole game goes off on an unproductive tangent.  But since improv is a “no judgement zone,” they just pick themselves up and try again. Doing so repeatedly teaches students how to keep going when they encounter difficulty.

It’s also worth mentioning that improv helps ALL students in your classroom—not just the ones who have suffered from trauma.  All students need the social and emotional skills that improv teaches so well.

How to Apply Improv in Your Classroom

To apply improv in your classroom, first give students the opportunity to practice saying, “Yes, and…” out loud, like in the game example of Shared Memory, above.  Games in which the “Yes, and…” rule are explicitly understood and practiced are extremely effective and make improv very accessible.

Once students have practiced one or more “Yes, and…” games, integrate the game structure with curricular content into your classroom practice.

It could sound like this:

• Teacher: “What is one thing you remember from Chapter 8?”
• Player A: “I remember that biomes are made up of both plants and animals.”
• Player B: “Yes, and biomes develop in response to a particular climate.”
• Player A: “Yes, and biome and habitat aren’t the same thing.”
• Player B: “Yes, and biome is a broader term than habitat.
• Player A: “Yes, and there are microbiomes, too.”

By using improv game structures for a variety of purposes—both with curricular content and without—you give your students many opportunities to practice and develop the social and emotional skills that improv promotes.

Conclusion

Trauma-informed care does not need to be complex. In fact, in order for it be successfully implemented in the classroom it needs to be simple. Improv and the practice of “Yes, and…” offers teachers and students a means of creating a supportive and engaging learning environment for all students who have suffered from trauma, as well as those who have not.  Integrate short-form improv into classroom practice and create a trauma informed learning environment with  “Yes, and…”.

Sources

Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., . . . Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245-258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(98)00017-8

Pickens, I. B. & Tschopp, N.  (2017).  Technical assistance bulletin: Trauma informed classrooms.  Reno, NV: National Council of Juvenile and Family ACES STUDY FELLCourt Judges.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2014). A Treatment Improvement Protocol: Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services, Tip 57. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 14-4816