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Dancing Flamingos
Students, through the media of dance and drama, discover how an animal's behavior helps them to survive in the environment. They practice performing or mimicking how a flamingo's acts and positions itself when being observed. The...
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All the World's a Stage
Enhance your teaching of plays with strategies for pre-teaching, engagement, and culminating projects.
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Creating and Using a Checklist of Performance Techniques to Critique and Find the "Message" in Mass Media Performances
Middle schoolers analyze and critique theater events by evaluating and constructing meanings from improvised and scripted scenes and from theater, film, television, and electronic media productions.
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Understanding Stage Design: Using Visual Elements to Provide Information to an Audience
Pupils study about theatrical design by developing environments for improvised and scripted scenes. They develop focused ideas for an environment using visual elements.
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The Body Talks
Young historians examine the gestures of human subjects represented in Mannerist, Baroque and Renaissance paintings. After they play charades and attempt to match dialogue with body language, learners create a drawing that includes...
Folger Shakespeare Library
Pre-Reading Hamlet with "Hamlet: An Insider’s Guide"
Prove that Gertrude did kill Ophelia from practicing the word inflections activities with these pre-reading strategies for Hamlet. Thespians practice the line, “Is that your sandwich?” as they stress and accent different words, and...
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Learning Through Musical Theater
You don't have to be Richard Rodgers or Oscar Hammerstein to do produce a musical in your classroom.
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What Are Ecosystems?
Third graders recognize and examine ecosystems. They observe and describe habitats within ecosystems and observe and identify organisms with similar needs that compete for resources.
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So Foul and Fair a Play
Students watch various interpretations of Shakespeare's Macbeth in film. In groups, they examine the setting, characters, music and sequence. They compare and contrast the various films and discuss the differences. They write an essay on...
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The Portrayal of the Witches
Eleventh graders discover the importance of the fortune teller in Shakespeare's Macbeth. After watching two interpretations of the play, they examine and compare the portrayal of the character. They create their own modern adaptation of...
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Lady Macbeth's Cure
Pupils role-play the position of Lady Macbeth's nurse. They are to create a project or service that can cure her sleepwalking. They create their own commerical to sell their product.
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Clown or Comedian
Students discover how to compare and contrast the differences between a clown and a comedian. They use dictionaries to expand their vocabulary.
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Programs for Shakespeare's Plays
Students design theater programs which show their understanding of William Shakespeare's plays. They design original art to include in the programs.
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Is there a stone in my soup?
Young scholars observe teacher's inappropriate classroom procedures such as tattling, pushing, or interrupting. In this showing respectful behaviors lesson, students respond to scenarios created by the teacher and address what the...
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Miss Tizzy
Students experience ways language and visuals bring characters to life in a story, experience age-appropriate songs, cooking experiences, and art, learn the days of the week in a new learning experience, and engage in hands-on learning...
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Travel Agencies
High schoolers explore the job responsibilities of a travel agent. In this career lesson, students discuss and role-play specific details of what a travel agent must do at the beginning of the day prior to opening.
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Winter Through the Arts
Students read the book The Snowy Day and discover various winter themes. In this winter lesson, students develop movements to express the feeling of a snowstorm. Students also construct winter-themed art pieces.
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Who's Who in Roman History
Students, in groups, produce a classroom documentary about important historical figures from the Roman Empire. They create posters to be part of a classroom timeline showing when each of these people lived and their impact on the empire.
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Reality Check
Students evaluate different types of reality television programming in "focus groups" and then submit their opinions on this type of programming to a television network.
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Dramatic Dilemmas
In this activity, students will develop skits that deal with the following aspects of decision making: projecting possible long term impacts of a decision and taking risks.
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I Wonder What the Manduca Life Cycle Looks Like
Students create their own insect, build a model of it and explain its life cycle.
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"Romeo and Juliet" English Lesson Plans
English lesson plans focusing on "Romeo and Juliet" can be a great way to introduce students to Shakespeare's plays.
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Commas
Fifth graders discuss when a comma is necessary in a sentence. In this language arts lesson, 5th graders understand that commas are used as a pause and help the reader understand ideas better. Students find an example of each example...
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A Comparison of the Play and Movie "Inherit the Wind"
Students read the play "Inherit the Wind" about the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. In groups, they choose their favorite scene and create a diorama dipicting the scene as they see it. They watch a recording of the play and compare it to their...