Curated OER
Using Drama to Examine Communities: Walking in Others' Shoes
Encourage your readers to make connections between texts with this resource. After compiling notes for each text read (you choose the texts), groups craft skits in which major characters from each text meet. There is a rubric for the...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literary Text: Pygmalion and Galatea
Is it crazy to fall in love with your own work, or is that the purest love of all? Compare two renditions of the classic Greek myth Pygmalion and Galatea with a literary analysis exercise. After students compare the similarities and...
Curated OER
Sophocles' Oedipus the King
Introduce your class to the Greek tragedy with a study of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Learners examine the features of a Greek tragedy, Sophocles’ achievements and contributions, and the universal themes that make the drama an...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
When We Are A Story
Drama and story elements go hand-in-hand. Have the class dive into a dramatic play to show character intention, conflict resolution, main events, and the dialogue in a Hawaiian folk tale. They read the story, then group-up to...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 11
Class members take center stage as groups perform scenes from Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope. Actors are encouraged to add stage directions to the script, as well as create costumes and props to...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Creating Narrative
Plot, setting, characters, and conflict are common to both drama and narrative stories. Kids create narrated tableaus that show their understanding of the plot, setting, and conflict of a story they've recently read. The lesson plan...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Finding the Main Idea
You can mix almost any subject with an arts curriculum. Find out how to use drama to find the main idea of a literary text. You'll read a story, and then learners will make tableaus showing what happened, or what they think will happen...
New York City Department of Education
Theater Units for Lower and Upper Elementary Levels
Introduce middle schoolers to playwriting and the elements of drama with a six-session storytelling unit that encourages kids to expand their acting and writing skills. The 12-page packet includes overviews of the lessons,...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Characters from a Box
Character analysis is a skill we use when we read literary works or want to write a good story. Learners will use drama to practice character analysis while focusing on the details that make characters act the way they do. They'll each...
Curated OER
Lots of Lessons from Aesop
Aesop’s Fables offer young learners an opportunity to study figurative language. After reviewing theme, simile, alliteration, and metaphor, model for your pupils how to identify examples of these devices in the fable. Class members then...
New York City Department of Education
What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue: How Did Jazz Influence Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
How did jazz influence Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man? Class members read some of Ellison's non-fiction writings about blues and jazz, listen to records, watch videos, and engage in student-centered discussions. They then produce podcasts...
Curated OER
Ready, Set, Action!
Fifth graders explore sequential dramatization through children's literature. For this drama lesson, 5th graders act out and record scenes using digital and video cameras. Students create a digital poster using pictures from their...
Curated OER
Six Trait Writing with Twain and Doyle
Students explore the traits of writing in this six lessons unit. Poems, fiction, and drama are evaluated to identify writing strategies. Utilization of vocabulary and writing rubrics help students judge the effectiveness of their own...
Curated OER
Create A Genre Crossword Puzzle
In this create a genre crossword puzzle worksheet, 8th graders make a puzzle on the grid provided, using 21 terms, then create clues for each term using a definition or an example; grading rubric included.
Curated OER
Create a Playbill!
Students examine the variety of elements for a written play and create a playbill. They read about and define literary elements on a worksheet, and participate in a dramatic reading. Each student then creates and publishes a playbill.
Curated OER
Dateline: 442 BC Antigone
Learners create and videotape a newscast about the events that take place in the play, Antigone. They perform scenes describing the main events, the main characters and their conflicts.
Curated OER
Impacting Indiana
Fourth graders become familiar with the culture and history of Indiana. For this James Whitcomb Riley lesson, 4th graders read poetry which includes the dialect of Indiana. Students analyze the poem. Groups memorize and...
Curated OER
Baseball Statistics
Students read "Casey at the Bat" and then use individual player statistics (found through internet research)to determine if their players could be considered baseball "heroes". They must justify their choices for "hero" by creating...
Curated OER
In the Poet's Shoes: Performing Poetry and Building Meaning
Young scholars explore poetry by completing a webquest in which they hear poets reading their own work. Later, they examine the dramatic impact of reading poetry out loud. Finally, they practice reading poetry aloud and performing.
Curated OER
Now You're Speaking My Language; Deciphering the Symbols of Early Civilizations
Young scholars explore early attempts at written language. In this early civilizations lesson, students investigate first attempts at written communication. Among the civilizations covered are Mayan, Greek, and Egyptian.
Curated OER
Press Release
Seventh graders write and publish a press release. In this news writing lesson, 7th graders analyze press releases from various online sources. Students write a press release about a major event in their school.
Curated OER
Who am I ?
Ninth graders select a mythical figure. They use the internet, school library or classroom resources to research their selection. Students construct an Inspiration concept web to organize their presentation and then tie in their...