Overcoming Obstacles
Understanding Nonverbal Communication
People communicate in all sorts of ways. As part of a study of nonverbal communication, teams of three must complete a puzzle without speaking to one another. After debriefing the activity and analyzing the messages nonverbal cues...
Curated OER
Pantomime Exercise
Learners of any age can learn to communicate using gestures and their bodies. They create a pantomime of a specific activity without using any words. This resource includes a link to an Off-Broadway Workshop for kids.
Overcoming Obstacles
Understanding Nonverbal Messages
The Overcoming Obstacles course for middle schoolers continues with a unit module on communication. In the first instructional activity, participants engage in a series of activities that help them recognize nonverbal clues and the...
Curated OER
Drama: The New Friends
Reader's Theater is a great way to build fluency, intonation, and dramatic flare. The class reads the theater piece, "The New Friends" paying attention to how they express emotion and feeling as they read. They discuss the use of plot,...
Curated OER
Communication – The Total Impact of Your Message
Students explore the facets of verbal and nonverbal communication. In this conflict resolution lesson, students discover multicultural communication dynamics as they discuss the implications of gesture and tone. Students practice verbal...
Curated OER
Portraiture
Students analyze portraiture for their symbolic aspects. In this portraiture analysis instructional activity, students explore the conventions of portraiture such as costume, gesture, expression, pose, and background. Students analyze...
Curated OER
Talk to Me
Students investigate communication techniques using variations in the tone of the voice, facial expressions, and gestures. The image of Helen Keller which appears on the reverse side of the Alabama quarter forms the basis of the...
Curated OER
Crayola® Model Magic® Colored Courtly Characters
Young scholars create a "Noh"-style mask, based on Japanese Noh theatre masks. They experiment with different colors of modeling clay and explore ways to show facial character.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Person to Person: English Language Development Lessons (Theme 4)
Help language learners understand words and cultural concepts. The second installment in a series of three language development lessons designed to accompany Theme 4: Person to Person helps bridge the gap for language learners by...
Curated OER
Integrated Social Studies and Drama Lesson
Learners study the Civil War. They conduct research in order to find out more information about the Battle of Corydon. Using this information, they create accurate props and sets for a play about this battle. They perform the play in...
Curated OER
Oral traditions: Facilitating education through verbal traditions
Bring oral traditions into the classroom to engage learning and facilitate best practices. From story telling to listening skills, this article provides reasons and rational behind oral traditions as a tool for education.
Curated OER
Tone and Mood
How are mood and tone similar? Different? Help your readers understand the difference between the two with this helpful guide. On the first page, they read the definition for both tone and mood and identify words that are describe each....
Curated OER
Silent Movies: A Year 7 Scheme of Work
Even an outline can give you enough information to execute an awsome project. The tasks for each of the seven weeks of this project are defined, as well as the objective and specific content facilitated through the project. Learners will...
Curated OER
Alexander And The Wind-Up Mouse
Use drama techniques to recreate the story, Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse by Leo Lionni. They engage in problem-solving as they identify the roles they will fufill in their groups for the performance. This is a motivating way to...
PBS
Robot Body Language
Don't be so emotional! Scholars take part in an activity where they consider how future robots will be able to show emotions. They place paper bags over their heads, act out emotions through body movements, and have others guess the...
Curated OER
SPEECHES TO INTRODUCE
Pupils create multimedia speeches of introduction which focus on women and Hispanics. They introduce their famous person and, using a video camera, video tape their speeches.
Curated OER
Life Box
Learners display themselves using a small box decorated inside and out. They describe themselves on the outside of the box and describe how others see them on the inside. They share the boxes in an oral presentations.
Curated OER
Reliving History through Slave Narratives
Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...
Curated OER
"The Midwife's Apprentice"
Here is an inventive, and educationally rich way to conduct a literature study of the book, The Midwife's Apprentice. After the book has been read, learners get into three groups. One group is assigned the task of being the writers....
York Catholic
Elements of Drama
Introduce young actors to the key elements of performance with this handout that defines key staging terms and activities.
Curated OER
Portrait Drawing Using a Model - Activity 1
Students create a realistic portrait using a live model and charcoal in this introductory art lesson on portrait drawing. A video and resource links are included to aid in instructional strategies.
Curated OER
Follow The Leader
Students participate in various games to practice life skills. In groups, students practice their powers of observation as they determine who is the chosen leader. Afterwards, they discuss the characteristics that make a leader.
Art Institute of Chicago
Act It Out
Examine two works of art and use these pieces as inspiration for dialogues. The whole class discusses Renoir's Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise and Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge. Then, in groups of either three or ten, pupils...
Curated OER
Independent - To Be Or Not To Be
Students examine national symbols of freedom and speech strategies. They study the constitution, forefathers, and the Declaration of Independence.