Offers some comments on the Educational Theatre Association's survey on the status of theater in U.S. high schools in the same issue of this journal. Discusses finding the key factors responsible for good school theater. (PRA)

Suggests a framework of six steps that can be used as a starting point to improve a secondary theater program to meet mandated standards: define motivation, study the standards, analyze the present program, create a planning team, determine student goals, and revise the curriculum. (PA)

Created to assist teachers and administrators in updating drama programs and to provide a foundation for establishing new educational theatre programs, this guide provides practical procedures for developing language and communication abilities, social awareness, and problem solving skills through the theatre arts. The introductory sections of the…

Describes a step-by-step guide to assembling a costume wardrobe. Explains how to organize a student costume crew; how to gather information for sizing, period, and storage needs; where to buy inexpensive costume pieces; and how to organize a database. Concludes that creating a core costume wardrobe can be as much a curricular area of study as any…

Presents strategies for implementing a viable career education component as an integral part of the secondary theater education program. Includes suggested readings and reference materials, and general goals aimed at offering a program with practical value for students. (JMF)

Presents multiple perspectives on an innovative teacher education partnership. Considers meaningful roles professional theatres can play in theatre teacher education programs. Discerns that teachers in the formative stages of their careers are in an ideal position to accept and practice the innovative approach to teaching and learning presented.…

Notes that assessment and evaluation models, even portfolios, measure impact over fairly short periods of time. Discusses how transformative moments happen out of educators' line of vision and sometimes long after these students have left the classrooms and rehearsal halls. Discusses instances when teens isolated the content of the play they were…

Summarizes the creation and results of the 1997 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Arts Assessment Report Card. Discusses the creation and the many improvements made to the NAEP Assessment, particularly the Arts Assessment. Discusses the impact of the assessment. (SC)

In order to develop a guide for teaching a course on playwriting, a study reviewed related literature and conducted a survey of information and opinions from practicing playwrights. Members of the Playwrights' Union of Canada, 145 playwrights, completed a survey of ten open-ended questions describing the processes of the playwright's art,…

Considers the pedagogy of teaching theater to college students who will be secondary school drama teachers, including available instructional materials and lack of methods courses. Calls for creation of a complete pedagogy for secondary school theater. (PA)

Recommends that high school social studies teachers exploit student interest in contemporary musicians to teach techniques of biographical construction. Maintains that innovative classroom practices involving non-traditional subject matter can foster intellectual growth and historical understanding. (Author/DB)

Notes that "drama has been seen by many to be one of the best means of helping students to know themselves more fully," and discusses the place of drama in the schools, what drama does for people, drama as a literary genre, readers' theater, mime, role playing, simulation, creative dramatics and plays for an audience. (Author/JM)

These guidelines for grades K-12 are designed to aid the curriculum planner in writing programs, courses, and units of instruction for aesthetic education in the schools. They provide (1) a foundation for curriculum development, which presents a concept of aesthetic experience and identifies the general goal of aesthetic education, (2) an…

This document describes the philosophy and courses of the curricular and co-curricular speech-debate-theatre program at Henry Sibley Senior High School in Mendota Heights, Minnesota. The document begins with a brief introduction and background on the school and community, including socioeconomic, cultural, and demographic information, and…

This report of an experimental program, developed at the Jeffersontown High School in Louisville, Kentucky, describes 26 nongraded elective English courses which are divided into five ability-level phases. Phase 1 and 2 courses (for less advanced students) deal with such areas as developmental reading, vocational English, oral communication,…