Lesson Planning

This Book Is Not About Drama explores issues around storytelling, silent speech, writing and imagination and shows teachers how to use role play and discussion to build language experiences that are meaningful for learners. This authoritative resource is full of simple strategies that begin with the simple and evolve in to more complex opportunities, including creating rituals, exploring the storyteller''''s voice, demonstrating read-aloud, celebrating role-playing, and more. Classroom glimpses illustrate the power that students can bring to their learning as they share within groups and find ways to involve their audience.

Most people know The Second City as an innovative school for improvisation that has turned out leading talents such as Alan Arkin, Bill Murray, Stephen Colbert, and Tina Fey. This groundbreaking company has also trained thousands of educators and students through its Improvisation for Creative Pedagogy program, which uses improv exercises to teach a wide variety of content areas, and boost skills that are crucial for student learning: listening, teamwork, communication, idea-generation, vocabulary, and more.

Contrary to the trend to do away with arts education as an unnecessary expense in schools trying to boost student test scores, this book promotes and explains the value of integrated arts instruction in furthering the accomplishment of curricular objectives and fostering student achievement. Accomplished library media specialist and arts instructor Kristin Fontichiaro discusses how drama, shadow puppetry, and podcasting can be used as tools to meet curriculum objectives in the K-8 media center. By concentrating on the process of creating a piece of drama or puppetry or a podcast, as opposed to the goal of performance, and by infusing the arts with curriculum objectives in story or research, these techniques can intensify a child's learning and provide context for classroom curriculum objectives. A discussion of the affective and academic benefits of this process-based work as well as sample lessons are included. Photographs and examples of student work illustrate the oechniques. Grades K-8.

Following the first collection of story drama structures, Into the Story 2: More Stories! More Drama! presents a well-argued approach to the value of children's picture books as a way to look at contemporary issues of social justice while building connections that promote a literacy that is multi-dimensional. Story drama structures offer teachers opportunities for the rich conversations and deep reflections that foster habits of mind critical for life in the twenty-first century. This new volume, piloted internationally over the last decade, will become an invaluable resource for uncovering curricula in ways that are fresh and innovative for students and teachers of all levels.

Drama Lessons offers an exciting and varied range of tried and tested lessons, carefully planned and easy-to-follow, tailor-made for the busy primary teacher. Non-drama-specialists will find the book especially helpful, while specialists will welcome a lesson collection for their own or colleagues' use. For each lesson plan, essential resources and timing information are given, along with helpful suggestions for differentiation and follow-up activities. The lessons cover most curriculum areas, including English (especially Speaking and Listening), History, Science and Numeracy. For teachers, here - for the first time - is a book which just contains lesson plans to pick up and teach. Drama Lessons will also give student teachers a flying start in their school placements.

Covering the Curriculum with Stories is an exciting and unique resource, presenting a set of six delightful, cross-curricular play-based projects that deliver outstanding learning experiences. Designed for children aged 3-7, these projects will make major contributions to your pupils' literacy and literary skills, teach a whole repertoire of thinking skills and deliver many features of the Foundation and KS1 Curricula in an integrated, cross-curricular way. Each project: is based on an original story uses dramatic and kinaesthetic techniques capitalises on children's natural instinct to play lays down important conceptual foundations for later learning promotes emotional intelligence, learning-to-learn and citizenship.

Encouraging both teacher and student imagination and expression, the seventh edition of this classic text helps future teachers integrate drama into elementary school classrooms and introduces students to a variety of genres and strategies, including mime, play structure, improvisation, and using drama the special education curriculum. Unlike other texts, McCaslin focuses on drama as an art form as well as a teaching tool. The seventh edition features broader coverage of middle school, high school, and adult learners.

Drama: Learning Connections in Primary Schools takes a problem-based approach to integrating drama with other creative arts, and provides pre-service teachers with classroom-tested activities for teaching drama to children in primary, upper primary and middle-school years. The book combines astrong research foundation with 'stories from the field' to examine the learning connections that can be made with drama, and develops strategies for incorporating the use of drama across the curriculum. Written for both pre-service teachers and experienced teachers working within English and creative arts curricula, the book encourages a view of drama as a learning tool rather than just an art form. With its focus on evaluation and assessment within a practice framework, students learn how todevelop an integrated drama programme, which is an invaluable basis for developing teaching and learning programmes in general.

Educator and activist Paula Ressler knows from experience that students who are marginalized because of sexual orientation, gender, or appearance spend much of their time in high school just trying to survive. The consequences of ignoring these issues can be devastating. In this book she demonstrates how the drama workshop can be a powerful tool to facilitate discussion about topics that have long been suppressed in traditional educational venues and mired in taboo and confusion. She offers an approach to teaching and learning in which participants acquire new knowledge based on experience, not simply transmission. The book follows Dr. Ressler's practice since 1988, describing the innovative drama work she has done in various educational settings to address lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) issues. Her practice has integrated educational drama theory; feminist, multicultural, and liberatory theory and pedagogy; and progressive learning and language arts theory. Her particular strength is providing practical, effective, and stimulating strategies for incorporating drama across the curriculum, from English, social studies, art, music, and dance, to physical education, health, and guidance groups. Teachers need no drama background or extensive knowledge about sexual orientation and gender identity to use this book. Each chapter provides an introduction to the type of drama presented - from simple role plays through complex and extended pieces - along with educational objectives, rationales, resources, and materials needed. Read Ressler and see how transformative drama can be - both academically challenging and personally rewarding for all participants, whether they are teaching or learning about sexual orientation and gender diversity.

Useful and resourceful, this book is ideal for trainees, NQTs and experienced teachers alike. It contains 100 inspirational ideas on teaching drama in the classroom - the author has successfully tried and tested each one. Ideas range from developing pupils' story telling to bringing literature alive.