Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Creating Narrative
Plot, setting, characters, and conflict are common to both drama and narrative stories. Kids create narrated tableaus that show their understanding of the plot, setting, and conflict of a story they've recently read. The lesson...
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Mythology: Reader's Theater
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...
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Sondheim: Voice of Cultural Change
Young scholars explore Stephen Sondheim's contributions to musical theatre in the context of the dramatic cultural shift that occurred in American life in the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
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Persuasive Writing -- Commercial Style
Students create persuasive TV commercials for common products. They develop a list of products, write the script for a commercial, and act-out and videotape the commercial to present to the class.
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Revolutionary News Network
Seventh graders study events leading to, during and resulting from the American Revolution. They review elements of a political cartoon. They create and dramatize a scene from a Revolutionary War novel.
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 11
Class members take center stage as groups perform scenes from Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope. Actors are encouraged to add stage directions to the script, as well as create costumes and props to...
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Readers Theater
Students perform a reader's theater based on the Civil War. In this dramatic arts history lesson, students review the purpose of reader's theater and are given a script to read. The script can be based on an important Civil War figure....
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Nature’s Fury—Myths and Drama
Fifth graders explore the elements of theatre. In this dramatic performances lesson, 5th graders discuss the structural elements of theatre and dramatize "The Origins of the Season," an explanation myth.
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It's All in the Translation
Students compare and contrast translations of Greek literature. In this dramatic literature lesson, students read and perform passages from four different translations of Euripides's Hecuba. Students discuss how the translations impacted...
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Cryptid Zoo
Students explore cryptids. In this story writing and technology lesson plan, students define "cryptid," write a short script, and draw an illustration for an imaginary animal character. Students read their script aloud into a microphone...
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"The Golden Ball"-Drama Lesson
Learners read "The Golden Ball" and discuss plot and story elements. In this drama lesson plan, students review script vs. story writing and presentation. Learners take turns reading parts of the play and discuss, make paper crowns and...
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The Magic Opera
Introduce your young learners to opera by dressing up as Mozart and recounting some of the fascinating details of his life and music. After exploring the Metropolitan Opera's site for kids, the class listens to a reading of Kyra...
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Reader's Theater
Conduct a Reader's Theater. Third, fourth, and fifth graders rewrite books with a baseball theme to a Reader's Theater format. They form groups of four or five, practice reading the script, and then perform it for an audience.
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Sexual harassment
Students research sexual harassment. In this sexual harassment lesson, students discuss and research sexual harassment. They write a script for a scenario dramatizing the incident, how to respond and or prevent the incident.
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Creating Stage Designs that Reflect
High schoolers identify and research cultural, historical, and symbolic clues in dramatic texts. They demonstrate knowledge of research sources.
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Understanding Stage Design: Using Visual Elements to Provide Information to an Audience
Students 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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MACBETH and the Themes of Ambition,
Young scholars describe and compare characters and situations in dramas from and about cultures and historical periods, illustrate in improvised or scripted scenes, and discuss how theater reflects a culture.
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Creating and Using a Checklist of Performance Techniques to Critique and Find the "Message" in Mass Media Performances
Students 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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Famous Death Lines
High schoolers examine Shakespeare's language. They select and explore death scenes from plays that they're familiar with and practice delivering famous death lines to one another. They should attempt to recreate the emotions that they...
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Using Visual Art to Create Scenes
Students review scene structure and the elements beginning, middle and end. They view a piece of art to stimulate an idea for a improvised scene. Students work in small groups, create and then perform their scenes for the rest of the...
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Pyramus and Thisbe, Page to Stage
Students read and interpret a script. Then they use higher order thinking skills to transfer information to long term memory. They use the information and interpretations in order to have a model to create dramatic scripts.
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Marian Anderson: From Page to Stage
Students become immersed in a compelling anecdote of the civil rights movement through the experience of constructing dramatic scripts. An added goal is to equip students, through this "hands-on" experience, to critique dramatic...
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Exploring A Streetcar Named Desire
Students investigate the dramatic elements of a Streetcar Named Desire. In this drama lesson, students explore the theme of the Tennessee Williams play as they read the play and watch performances of some of the acts. Students then write...
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A Single Lucid Moment
Students examine a case study of contrasting values between cultures. They read and discuss a story of a family of Peace Corps volunteers in Papua New Guinea, write a response to the story, and write a script for a dramatization of the...