The world is a stage, and so is your classroom! Hone the skills of the next generation of Tony® award winners with a set of exercises, reference pages, writing prompts, and excerpts from famous plays.

Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates. 

And that's a wrap! This final activity in a series about cinematography and film/video puts class members in full production mode. With over 20 activities, young cinematographers can film, edit, create movies, and organize news clips.

Take two! Middle school and high school students learn what it takes to film and produce videos. Use these activities to challenge young cinematographers to learn the parts of a camera, filming techniques, and practice using the...

It's time to make a movie! Kids follow 15 steps to take their movie ideas from concept to script, following clear examples. The resource includes creative ways to guide learners into developing a few words and concepts into fully...

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, assessment...

To conclude a study of script writing, young dramatists are instructed to create their own one-act play. Designed to be performed in 10 minutes or less, the scripts are to include stage directions, scene and character descriptions, as...

Immerse your class in a good story with an extensive resource featuring reader's theater techniques. The worksheets are designed for both teacher and student, and carefully explain how to organize, write, and perform stories in a...

Who knows? You may inspire the next George Lucas or Steven Spielberg with a script writing presentation that provides some basic tips. Young film makers begin by reading scripts for movies they know, scripts for movies they don't know,...

This may be a lot to ask of a high schooler, but then again, who knows? Pupils work in groups to explore, write, and then perform an original opera. They view versions of The Magic Flute and La Traviata, then compose a plot, characters,...

Marketing, lighting, setting the stage, and a script. It sounds like we're going to be putting on a show! Your enthusiastic young actors research pop culture in all its facets, then set to work to write a polished script and perform an...

Here are two great lessons that work together and are inspired by the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods. Young writers and actors will retell the story of "The Frog Prince" through games, improvisational script writing, and song....

Examine the features that make a good children's television show and create a pitch for a new show based on these criteria. Writers then evaluate a currently broadcast show based on criteria discussed in class. The richly detailed plan...

Here is an authentic assessment task for Shakespeare's Macbeth. Young literature scholars prepare, perform, and record a news broadcast about the major events in the play. For example, groups may choose to report on the death of Lady...

Sensory details show the story instead of telling it. Emerging writers discuss ways to convey sensory details. They practice adding sensory details in a graphic organizer before adding details to their own scripts.

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past..." Use this Great Gatsby novel study lesson plan to reinforce literary analysis in your class. Working in groups, young readers write a script for a chosen...

Need a musical lesson for your drama or performing arts class? VH1 has put together a really neat lesson, in which learners use biographical information about Alicia Keys to write and perform a one-act musical related to her life. This...

High schoolers examine the New York Times review of the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and explore the elements of scriptwriting. They read the article about the film adaptation screenplay and examine a sample...

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...

A ten-day lesson is described in a short outline. It may be short but the idea is wonderful. Learners engage in textual analysis as they analyze and research various accounts of historical events common to the Civil Rights or Vietnam...

Explore script writing based on prose in a cross-curricular literacy instructional activity. After listening to the folktale The Drum, middle schoolers identify and describe specific story elements such as characters and events. They...

Have your class conduct research to learn all they can about simple machines. They use the web, take notes from a video, write a script, then make a film describing various simple machines found in real life. These videos are then...

Comparing the more modern film Ten Things I Hate About You to The Taming of the Shrew leads to an understanding of how Shakespearean plots can be applied to modern-day situations and characters. As a culminating activity, groups select a...

Develop novice script-writers. Small groups sift through a sample script, noting any script-writing conventions to share with the whole class. Using these conventions and plot structures, these groups compose a script for a 10 minute...