This is a step-by-step guide for having students create a basic idea for their own movie and then write and perform a "movie trailer" to promote their movie.

This article shares key steps in how to negotiate writing Readers Theatre scripts with English learners or any small group of students. The author aims to help promote language and literacy development and encourage critical thinking and engagement through the powerful modality of Readers Theatre.

This article describes five improvisational theater games for building "teams" in the classroom and on the sports field. Particular attention is given to understanding how teams must challenge the hyper-individuality of modern culture. Improvisational theater games for team building are designed to help participants find a balance…

When the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) describes best, first instruction, it is assumed that instruction is occurring in a traditional environment: teachers and students gathered together in a classroom, working in small groups, large groups, and individually, and that there are no safety risks posed by having people in close proximity of…

Art educators are concerned with exposing their students to contemporary art making practices. They aim to create fresh lessons that expand their understandings of art in today's world while highlighting the importance of imagination. With a personal interest in performance and street art (art forms that have gained popularity in recent years),…

Research documents that the arts boost learning, build confidence, and motivate students to participate in class. How do we keep the performing arts alive in this era of increased accountability and decreased funding? Rekha S. Rajan sets the stage for a creative and practical solution with detailed, concrete examples of how to integrate the…

If teachers want to create positive change in the lives of their students, then they must first be able to create positive change in their own lives. This book describes a powerful professional development approach that merges the scholarship of critical pedagogy with the Theatre of the Oppressed. Participants "act up" in order to explore…

Improve students' writing skills and boost their assessment scores while adding arts education, creativity, and fun to your writing curriculum. With this vibrant resource, improving writing skills goes hand-in-hand with improving test scores. Students learn how to use acting and visualization as prewriting activities to help them connect writing…

Discusses a class activity designed to demythologize Shakespeare, to show that he aimed his craft at drawing a crowd to the theater. Discusses an eight-step process by which students draw the Globe Theater. Addresses how design elements reflect Shakespeare's time. (RS)

Readers theatre is a presentation by two or more participants who read from scripts and interpret a literary work in such a way that the audience imaginatively senses characterization, setting, and action. This book offers 50, two-page reproducible scripts to entice the preschool and kindergarten group into beginning to read. These patterned…

Describes an effective technique the author uses in college productions to combat staleness in rehearsals and to help actors make new discoveries about their roles. (PD)

Tells how actors can be taught stage dialects. Covers pre-rehearsal procedures, auditions, initial dialect sessions, and rehearsal procedures. Includes a bibliography of standard texts and recorded materials. (PD)

Test scores across the country show American students are far more able to read narrative than nonfiction text. Some research speculates this is due to a great lack in the background knowledge of many children. Librarians are beginning to realize that a unique fit for the school librarian is as a provider of background knowledge materials for…

This guide presents a technique for actors for getting into character spontaneously. Certain sections of the book address the actor, others address the director, and some make no distinction. The actor-director relationship is addressed as complex and critical to this acting approach. Suggestions are given for using this approach with children.…

Unlike traditional Readers Theatre, which is typically limited to literature-based scripts, Curriculum-Based Readers Theatre (CBRT) allows teachers and students to create scripts based on any topic, any work of literature, any textbook, or almost any collection of facts. It can be easily incorporated into the existing curriculum, and because this…