This booklet offers guidelines for theater directors, activities directors, club sponsors, and school administrators to ensure the production of "bias-sensitive" performances that avoid presentation of bias based on gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, or sexual orientation. The booklet: (1) discusses the issue of…

Biographical writing is highly imaginative writing and always has been. The task of the biographer is to weave a riveting story from the fabric of the subject's life. For example, a single pivotal incident in the lives of Percy Bysshe Shelley, the English poet, and Mary Godwin, author of "Frankenstein", at the grave of Mary's mother,…

Campus public relations professionals offer advice for improving the effectiveness of public relations efforts by (1) setting behavioral goals; (2) targeting audiences carefully; (3) focusing appeals by making messages explicit; (4) connecting the public relations message with larger societal issues; and (5) reaching internal as well as external…

Comprehensive and logically sequenced, this guide seeks to helps educators publish on topics such as classroom experience, conference presentations, or research projects. Included in the guide are practical strategies, concrete examples, recommended resources, and advice from experts. The guide focuses on writing and how it is approached and…

Public speaking techniques for enhancing the delivery of professional presentations are offered. Specific suggestions are made for body movements and style of body language, use of voice (breathing, phrasing, projection, volume, transitions, pauses), hand gestures, and controlling the audience through eye contact, attention to individuals,…

This collection of new plays for young actors comes from the repertoire of the Young Conservatory, a professional theater training program for young people ages 8 to 18 at the American Conservatory Theater. Each of the five plays in the collection was developed in this way: an outstanding professional playwright is invited to create a new play…

This book emphasizes the role of critical thinking and reading skills in the development of persuasive writing. The book also introduces several different methods to teach argument (for example, those of Aristotle, Stephen Toulmin, and Carl Rogers) as a way of giving students the freedom to find the systems that work best for them and to find ways…

This resource book seeks to provide the building blocks needed for public speaking while eliminating the fear factor. The book explains how educators can perfect their oratorical capabilities as well as enjoy the security, confidence, and support needed to create and deliver dynamic speeches. Following an Introduction: A Message for Teachers,…

The 21 plays in this international anthology for young people range through the classic, modern, and contemporary periods. Several of the plays are translations from other languages, and all begin with an explanatory introduction and contain basic stage directions. The anthology contains plays by Moliere, August Strindberg, Gertrude Stein,…

In this lesson, grade 6-8 students analyze a variety of poets and their poetry by reading and listening to their work. Students then use information gathered from Internet resources to select a favorite poet and perform one of their poems for the class. During the four 30-minute and five 20-minute sessions, students will: analyze a variety of…

Extending the idea of business cards to the literature classroom, this lesson plan discusses having students make business cards for characters and authors. During two 50-minute lessons, students will: identify appropriate symbols that relate to their authors or characters; interact with classmates to give and receive feedback; and explore how…

By making simple bookmarks, students in grades 6-8 practice summarizing, recognizing symbols, and writing reviews in these two 50-minute class sessions--all while writing for an authentic audience. Student objectives for this lesson are that they will: write summaries and reviews for books they read; identify appropriate symbols that relate to…

As a college alumni organization designs a World Wide Web site for communication, it should consider why it is creating the site; features that will appeal to its audience; the effort it will take to keep information timely; adding to the site's value by offering useful, interesting information not available anywhere else; and touring other sites…

From managing stage fright to keeping the audience hanging on their every word, experienced public speakers have the techniques to make every presentation memorable. This book contains a collection of 25 strategies for public speaking that have already worked for many people. Each "HotTip" (strategy) has been tested and used with…

Presents an exercise that will show acting students how to tell the audience a good story. Discusses how students must assume responsibility for creating the best possible story based on a central object as insignificant as a penny might appear to be. Describes experiences of taking the students through four "rounds" of this exercise. (SC)