Learners read a story and retell it through role playing. They will read Big Pumpkin, identify the main ideas and important characters, retell the story through dramatic play, and identify their favorite character.

“So I’m going to have a copy of this play put in the cornerstone and the people a thousand years from now’ll know a few simple facts about us.” Our Town is used as the text in a Common Core exemplar that examines the dramatic and...

Learners explore different primates. For this primate lesson, students examine the various primates by engaging in crafts, dramatic play, singing songs, and games. 

Disguises and role playing are the focus of a resource that uses Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and Henry IV, Part I, to demonstrate how we all play many parts in our lives; how we all are “merely players.” The many...

Students write about main characters. For this dramatic writing lesson, students brainstorm character ideas. Students create actions and give the character a voice. Students act out the scene in groups and create a final draft.

Young scholars make homemade puppet characters that have faces that tell it all. In this early childhood dramatic play instructional activity, students create stick puppet characters that encourage language and story development,...

Commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death with a packet of cross-curricular literacy lessons and activities centered around two of the Bard's most popular plays, Macbeth and The Tempest. Class members look for...

Take a journey to India with a read aloud of The Drum: A Folktale from India by Rob Cleveland. Make connections to the story's theme by building and practicing drums, role playing story characters, and practicing skills in phonics, math,...

Pupils create a model of the Mayflower. In this early childhood lesson plan, students engage in dramatic play while reenacting the Pilgrims and the Mayflower. Pupils listen as the instructor reads On the Mayflower by Kate Waters.

What a tragedy! Scholars take a close look at Greek tragedy in the form of plays. After analyzing plays, learners think about a play that relates to their own personal anxiety and recreate or reinterpret a scene from that play.

All's well that ends does not apply to Shakespeare's Hamlet. Scholars read Act 5.2 using the resource, discovering the play's tragic resolution. Pupils complete a Quick Write analyzing how Hamlet's downfall contributes to the play's...

Young scholars are challenged to write a realistic analysis of Tennessee Williams' nonrealistic memory play, The Glass Menagerie. Writers use the evidence gathered on their worksheets to craft an effective thesis and concluding statement...

How can an author's decisions impact a text? Using an insightful resource, scholars begin their study of Hamlet by reading Act 1.1. They explore the language, characters, and setting in small groups. Upon finishing group work, pupils...

Following a ghost's advice may not be in anyone's best interest, but that doesn't stop Hamlet! Using an exciting resource, pupils continue reading Act 1 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which the ghost tries to convince Hamlet to seek revenge...

The first lesson in a three-part unit has high schoolers examine The Glass Menagerie as an example of expressionist theatre. After reading a short article about expressionism, scholars list expressionist techniques in Tennessee...

To make the point that there are many forms of language, each with its own purpose, class members select 10 lines from Doescher's play, translate these lines first into contemporary English and then into "SMS/Tweet." 

Learners read a Japanese Noh play and discuss its structure and traditional characters. They choose a short myth and write a Noh play based on it.

How do novels differ from plays? Explore with your class the text features of fiction and drama by reading The Hidden One: Native American Legend and then performing a reader’s theater script based on the story. Class members create a...

Students analyze the conventions used in Noh plays and write an introduction to a Noh play of their own. In this Noh play lesson, students identify the conventions of the Noh form and analyze the realizations the main character achieves....

Learning about literature can be so much fun; it can also be made more accessible through projects and dramatic play. As they explore theme, character, and setting, the class gets creative and makes a dramatic recreation of a classic...

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...

Ten drama lessons are the perfect addition to your language arts or theater class. With a focus on script elements, plot development, and parts of a dramatic story, the lessons guide young playwrights through the steps of telling a story...

Scholars complete their study of the collective fear in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" by conducting a mock trial to determine how many witches are in the class. Groups then analyze sections of the play for the literary devices used and...

How does Shakespeare develop the main ideas in Hamlet? Using the resource, scholars continue analyzing the famous monologue from the play. They identify a central idea from the passage and write to explain how it relates to other central...