Film imitates life; that's what they say. Using performance theory to tie the lesson together, learners attempt to understand memory and daily rituals as seen in art, film, and life. They read two chapters from the book, watch the...

Scholars work collaboratively to compose a found poem from one of their favorite stories. With a finished product in hand, class members form a circle and perform their work for an audience by taking turns reciting one line till the poem...

Calling all performers! Scholars present a modern-day theme of adversity by performing their narratives for the class. As individuals watch their peers, they take notes on each performance using an Audience Note Sheet.

Kids get artistic as they explore the impact of art materials, sculpture, and performance. They discuss the work of Janine Antoni and then create a performance piece that reflects social or global issues they feel strongly about. The end...

“All the world’s a stage…” What do Leonardo DiCaprio, Heath Ledger, and Kenneth Branagh have in common? They have all starred in modern adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. After viewing a series clips from modern Shakespeare videos,...

Here’s a cross-curricular program music activity that uses Peer Gynt to engage class members. Groups take one section of “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” choreograph their section of the tune to represent the story as they imagine it,...

As part of a study of Spoken Word Poetry, class members watch a series of performance videos and note where poets get their ideas and the performance techniques used by the poets. Pupils then draft and share their poems.

Scholars submit their final performance task, a letter to a publisher about an athlete's legacy. As a culminating activity, they share their work with classmates in small groups. 

What's the best way to learn the elements of the periodic table? The inventions of Thomas Edison? Patience? To prepare for the performance task assessment on how people learn, class members share ideas about ways to learn in a variety of...

Now that your class has read all of Esperanza Rising, take the time to tackle big metaphors and themes. Pupils will participate in an activity called Chalk Talk, in which they circulate around the room in small groups and add...

Behind every successful debate is a list of clearly stated criteria. Let your debaters know exactly how their performance will be evaluated with this packet that details the content, preparation, structure, and grading policy that will...

Show your school spirit! Class members use instruments or sing along and employ what they have learned in the two previous lessons to perform their school's songs.

Let's get graphic. Serving as the final performance task of the unit, scholars complete their graphic novelettes and design covers based on their sketches. Finally, they present their hard work to classmates. 

"Words, words, words." Despite Hamlet's opinion, words can be significant. In this inquiry lesson, middle schoolers learn how the words in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, in the view of many, lead to the American Civil War. To...

Fifth graders analyze William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, paying close attention to character development, plot, and dialogue. With daily reading and thoughtful discussion, scholars take pen to paper to respond to journal...

Over the course of six lessons, scholars try their hand at composing and dancing after a thorough examination of the famous ballet, The Nutcracker, by Tchaikovsky. Participants watch and discuss the performance of two dances, create...

Bring the sounds of the deep South vocal blues to the classroom with a Smithsonian Folkways lesson. In preparation, scholars listen to and count the 12 bar blues patterns in several works and identify the I, II, IV, and V chords as well...

Should athletes carb load before an event or consume carbohydrates during the competition? Scholars discuss how to set up a hypothesis and experiment to answer a question relating carbohydrates and athletic performance. Then, they read...

Scholars read their poems to their research teams as their final performance task. The teams listen and give feedback on the flow between the two poems. Writers then take the feedback from their teams and revise their poems before...

Scholars unpack the word confession as they prepare to write confessionals based on characters from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Next, they read their narratives to a small group of peers as part of a final performance task.

This word or that, this picture or that. Individuals dive into the lives of The Little Rock Nine and the connotation used in the book A Mighty Long Way as they begin the performance task. The task scenario establishes literature lovers...

Let's take a stroll! Scholars go on a gallery walk to view the visual representations for the performance task created by the class. They then view a variety of books about environment and sustainability and conduct book talks on the...

Students explore two works of art of performance art. In this performance art instructional activity, students analyze performance art in the examples of Yves Klein and Joseph Beuys. Students complete image based discussion activities....

Music aficionados classify pop music into by musical genres or styles. They evaluate the positive and negatives of collaborative performances, view segments of VH1's "Save the Music" concert, and discuss the difficulties of...