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,...

Plays are meant to be performed! After reading the entire play, invite your learners to choose a scene from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead that relates to earlier class discussion about characters, motifs, and themes to interpret...

As their final act in a 10-lesson theater arts unit, set designers present their models to the class and explain how their choices of line, color, and texture support the theme they wish to convey.

The 16 lessons in Teaching Musical Theatre: The Essential Handbook are designed to help actors enrolled in a theatre arts class develop the skills they need to be successful in musical theatre. Check out this sample lesson to see if you...

Third graders analyze the importance of characters in fiction writing and performances.  In this theatre lesson plan, 3rd graders identify the important characteristics of a fictional character and how to portray a character through...

High schoolers read texts, view film and video and conduct research in an analysis and comparison of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and the Kabuki piece "Chushingura". They focus their analysis on the theme of revenge.

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...

The students listen to the story "The Cinder-Eyed Cats." The students then chose individual parts to play in a theater like production. The students move like their character, be it a fish, an octopus, a lobster, a cat, etc. Water music...

Second graders use acting to help them in a prewriting activity to develop a story. In this prewriting lesson plan, 2nd graders form a character map and brainstorm ideas for their story.

Through a careful reading and examination of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, scholars take part in grand conversations about the novel's contents, slavery, and the impact the book had on it. Furthermore,...

Let's play! Pupils create titles for their readers theater scripts and act them out in a fun game of charades. Next, as part of their end of unit assessment, they write final copies of their individual scripts.

Teach young children that with a little perseverance and the help of a good friend, anything is possible. This two-part lesson series based on the book Giraffe's Can't Dance starts with a shared reading about Gerald and...

Is this any way to treat a Greek Myth? By all means, turn the tale of Orpheus into a reader's theatre exercise.

Groups create a set for a play or story they select, build a model, and share their stage with the class. The team explains the rationale for their choices and the mood they feel their staging creates.

Students practice fluency. For this reader's theater lesson, students practice their fluency by rehearsing a script with their group. Once the group is ready, they create a background and props and are videotaped performing their script.

Build reading fluency and classroom community with a Reader’s Theater activity. Class groups select a myth, or if part of a myth writing unit, select a group member’s myth, craft a script, and perform for the class. Directions for...

Class members work on Pygmalion section seven text-dependent questions. They then act out part of the play in a reader's theater and finish the lesson by revisiting their  Eliza Character Trackers, adding any new information they...

Anita's iconic rooftop ode to American life in West Side Story is the focus of a lesson on immigration. As class members listen to "America," they follow along with printed lyrics, and discuss whether they agree with Anita's...

Introduce young actors to the meanings of basic drama literary, technical and performance elements with this colorful presentation.

Have you ever been stuck between a rock and a hard place? That is where Widge, a character of The Shakespeare Stealer, finds himself. Readers find out how Widge handles his situation by answering comprehension questions, completing...

Middle schoolers explore philanthropy in literature. In this cross curriculum literacy and character development lesson, students read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and note charitable acts described in the story. Middle schoolers...

Just as the title says, this quiz covers the second half of William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, specifically Acts IV and V. Multiple-choice questions focus on the events and characters.

Students research and analyze the Federal Reserve System. They participate in a reader's theater, acting out the roles typical of a courtroom drama as they determine whether the defendant, Monty Terry, is guilty or innocent of...

Young analysts write a comparative essay, but about what? They compose a paper based on several critical discussion about reality and illusion, and how both are blurred in art. They analyze several theatre pieces that exemplify Brechtian...